The Next Project

It took me awhile to dig up the printed copies of the next three novels I'll be revising.  Once I did, I had a stack of some 2.5 thousand sheets of paper.  Damn.  And after spending days thinking of if and how I should reshape the opening, I found the first forty pages already rewritten.  It still isn't where I want it, but it's closer.

There is such a huge difference between the first book and the third.  Though the first has been revised and edited the most, it's the most clunky in plot and prose.  The second is not as clunky, but filled with too much exposition masquerading as worldbuilding.  In the third one, I can begin to see parts I'd actually show someone else, and less overall mess.  There are still plot problems galore, but the writing and the choices are a bit smoother than the first.

These are the vast majority of my first million words.  The first novel came close, three times, to selling.  Now I'm glad it didn't.  It's messy.  The series is messy.  I was still finding my voice, discovering why I wanted to tell certain stories, and finding the best way to tell the story in a way the reader would enjoy.  The stories haven't changed, but I think my awareness of reader expectation and boundaries has developed.  I am grateful I had the chance to work those things out in privacy.  :-)

So the plan is to finish reading the series, then tackle that partially rewritten opening.  Then we shall see whether the novel unfolds well...