Current Project: Lost City of Jade (working title, which keeps changing) ProposalStatus: Polishing
Yay! Today is Friday of spring break!! Most people celebrate the start of spring break. I celebrate the end. When you combine conference days off at the end of last week, my kids have now been home for 10 days. Chaos is running rampant here, I'm trying to finish a book proposal, the dog is barking, the laundry is piling up, and mommy's quickly going nuts. It's not a particularly happy place to be. On top of all that, my inlaws, sister-in-law and niece are visiting. It's great to see them, but four extra people, plus my three Gremlins is making for a busy house. Tonight my hubby's brother and his family are arriving so add five more. Eeek!
Yesterday I escaped for a few hours and hit a local coffee house to write. It felt soooooooo good to get out and get words on paper. I managed to finish chapter three in the proposal and now I'm left with simply polishing, adding the second half of the synopsis and making sure it all makes sense. My brain is spinning. To say crafting this proposal has been like pulling teeth is an understatement. I'm constantly amazed that some books are so easy to write and some are so hard. Why is that?
I really like where this book/new series could go. There are many similarities between this and STOLEN FURY. High action, hot romance, and lots of adventure. More, I think than FURY, and that has me really excited. I'm crossing fingers my agent is going to like it. But as I was working yesterday, I got to thinking about how long it's taken me to get these three chapters done. Basically, about three months...which is longer than normal for me. If I were to sit and write the rest of this book, I could easily get it finished in that amount of time. Why is that? 50 pgs vs. 350 pgs. Makes no sense. And yet, when I analyze it, it does make a strange sort of sense, at least for me.
I am a perfectionist. I will be the first to admit it. It's very hard for me to delegate to others because I know I can do a good (better) job if I just do whatever the job is myself. In my writing, that means I don't dare start a book unless the opening WORKS. And by works, I mean, REALLY works. I spend more time on the first three chapters of a book than I do anywhere else. Because if the pacing, action, motivations and characters aren't right, the rest of the book won't be right either.
A few years ago I wrote an RS that I still love. I didn't shop it because I knew something was wrong with it. Something about the opening left me with a 'meh' feeling, but my CP loved it so I pushed through. Bad idea. The rest of the book is very good, the romance is deep, the characters are wonderful, but the opening is still slow, the inciting incident is still not compelling enough, and now that the entire book is finished - and bloomed from that wrong opening - I don't know how to fix it without changing the entire book. And obviously, I'm not ready to do that now. (I may not ever be ready to do that.) My point is, my need for perfection at this point in the book is what MAKES a book for me, so I'm not rushing myself or forcing the story to go somewhere it doesn't need to go. Luckily, this proposal is not on deadline, so I have the luxury of taking my time. My timelines won't always be like this, but for now, this is a good learning experience for me.
How about you? Are you a perfectionist when it comes to the opening of a book? How do you know if it works or doesn't? Do you push through and come back, or does your book build from the opening forward? I'm always curious about the writer's process, so I'd love to hear yours.
And if you're not a writer, but a reader...have you ever read a book with a slow opening that simply bloomed into a fabulous novel? How many pages/chapters are you willing to give an author for a book to take off before you put it down?
14 comments:
Boy does this post resonate with me! I've been thinking about just this topic lately, because I've been changing things up with respect to how I write. I'm still discovering my writing process, but I have to say that one of the things I've struggled with is the line between wanting to get the beginning *right* and overworking it as an unconscious way of procrastinating.
It's funny, but the change I've made was made possible (for me) by the software I started using (and which is what prompted my blog post about writing software). What I'm finding lately that works for me is to allow myself to do incremental updates. I try to keep moving forward with the story, even if things aren't perfect. But I'm also allowing myself to go back and make changes when I realize that something isn't right and I understand what it is that isn't working. Those changes tend to ripple through the story, so I still make forward progress while also editing and improving what I've already written.
I realize this isn't the most efficient way to write, but at this point it doesn't matter. It seems to be working and that's all I care about. Later, when I've actually completed a book or two, I'll have more confidence that I understand up front what works and what doesn't (at least I hope that's what happens).
As a reader, I've read a lot of books that have slow openings. Some have ultimately been worth it, some haven't. I find I'm a little less patient these days than I used to be in this regard, though I do try to give each book a fair shot before setting it aside. Sometimes it isn't the book, but where I happen to be in my life, and so if I set a book aside that I still think has promise, I'll come back to it another time and try again.
As you know, Eli, I am currently struggling big time with a beginning. It's not just whose POV or where in the story to jump in or how to get the hero/heroine together before page 200. It's all that and more. The backstory to my books anymore are complicated and it often is a struggle to pick the moment to begin.
When I read books for the Rita contest I used to be amazed at how you could tell when the first three chapters of a book ended -- the writing changed. So many of us sell on three chapters and those three chapters tend to get groomed and groomed and groomed. There's sometimes a whole symphony in the first three chapters, pacing is usually tight. And then the manuscript sells and the writing and pacing tends to change. Interesting.
I've said this before -- for me writing a book without a solid beginning is like building a structure on a shaky foundation. If it doesn't start right, how can it continue right, if the foundation is lower in one corner, the walls will be out of kilter.
And Debbie, you say the way you are working now isn't the most efficient? LOL, it's exactly how I work. Forward and back, little problems pegged for future perusal if they are unimportant to the end product, bigger problems taken care of at once (frankly, almost everything taken care of at is it occurs). I believe it's close to the way Eli writes, in fact, it's about the way everyone I know writes. I've known one woman who wrote from beginning to end without ever going back. She wrote sticky notes with ideas as they came to her but she really never went back. I would have to shoot myself if I wrote that way. It sounds awful to me. An organization nightmare. A final edit debacle. I am getting a cold sweat thinking about it.
Congratulations on getting the proposal close to out the door.
Oh, man, I'd love to say I'm a perfectionist about my first 3 chapters, and I try damn hard to make them perfect, but alas, they're not. And Debbie, I do the same thing. Back and forth, back and forth. I sometimes even work on a split screen so I have a scroll bar for earlier chapters, then a scroll bar for more current chapters.
The problem with my first 3 chapters, because I write fantasy and paranormal, is the intense focus on my world building and premise. What happens is I front-load way too much information. I clutter the beginning pages with a lot of concepts that I intend to build on as the story progresses. I need to ease off, and it's often hard for me to do because I want to make sure the reader "gets it." LOL! In other words, I tend to get in my own way. *snort*
LOL, Eli! I can so much relate to your full house. Talk about conflicting priorities. It's nice that you're not on a deadline other than your own--which may push you more than a deadline from your publisher.
Is this a new proposal different from your paranormal series? I like the title, and will be curious to see what it ends up to be.
I have perfectionist tendencies, but they usually kick in later in a book or other project. I know I'm going to rewrite the beginning several or many times, so I don't nitpick it right away. And, as Deborah said, nitpicking the opening can be a wonderful way to procrastinate, so I don't allow myself to do that so much any more.
I usually just toss everything that comes to me into a folder or a box--something to keep everything together. These are the random thoughts, scenes, photos that look like the characters or set a tone for the book--all those initial creative thoughts that you've probably already gone through. I may even write a rough draft of some pieces of the book.
And I usually have an opening line. But as Alice pointed out with my blogs, I have to be careful that my opening line isn't a teaser that the rest of the book doesn't live up to.
After I have lots of pieces and have a pretty solid feel for the story, I usually do a detailed outline. That's where those easel pages that cover the walls and lots of colored sticky notes comes in.
I also write in layers. Once through to get the main story down, then several more times through the book to smooth in the ideas that come to me as I'm writing.
And I usually do another detailed plotting session about three-quarters through the story to make sure all the elements of the story are tied up.
With my process, I prefer to write the entire story rather than the first three chapters and synopsis. Because even with a detailed plot, there are surprises that come up that are too perfect to leave out.
I know this isn't very realistic if you need to sell the proposal before you finish the book. However, right now, that's generally the way I do it. However, the process for each book is different. :)
As a reader, I've discovered if the beginning is slow or doesn't draw me in right away, the rest of the book is usually the same way. However, if it's a book from an author I've read previously and liked their books, I'll skim through the book to see if anything draws me in. If nothing catches my eye, I won't read it simply because my reading time is very limited right now.
Can't wait to hear what your agent thinks of the proposal!
Must be my genre... Once I get the characters and the opening scene set in my head I start and don't look back, other than to reread the chapter I wrote the day before to perfect and pull me back in the story, I keep moving forward. But my stories don't have red herrings and dead bodies or alien/other world beings lurking about. Just cowboys, outlaws, and Indian here or there and the main characters learning about one another.
I did write my free read this week and after a CP looked at it, cut the first four pages, which I generally never drastically change my beginnings, but it was running too long and I had to get to the conflict and attraction, I only had 2500 words!
It is interesting how each writer works. I'm with Eli, I like hearing each person's style.
Well at least I'm in *very* good company (regarding my writing method)! LOL :->
Debbie, I'm glad the software is helping you. I think all writers figure out their process by trial and error. I know I did. And my process is still evolving. But that opening still has to be right for me or I'm not able to make the rest of the book work.
After I finished FURY and my agent was shopping it, I started writing Shane's book. It was supposed to be book 2 in the trilogy. But I couldn't get it to work. I couldn't get that opening right, and I knew if the opening wasn't working, the rest of the book wouldn't either. I shelved it and wrote STOLEN HEAT instead. Then, when I sold, I went back and wrote Shane's book. That book is STOLEN SEDUCTION (book 3). And the time and distance and brand new opening made all the difference. Since then I've learned not to push a story that isn't working. When I struggle, there's a reason. The result is nothing but frustration (and eye brow pulling) on my part.
I love this, Alice...
writing a book without a solid beginning is like building a structure on a shaky foundation. If it doesn't start right, how can it continue right, if the foundation is lower in one corner, the walls will be out of kilter.
SO true!! And the same for me.
And yes, I write like Alice (and you, Debbie!). Forward and back, forward and back. By the time I'm done with a ms, there's very little polishing left to do. My first draft is very clean. I give it one, maybe two more read throughs, fix any dangling threads, etc., but for the most part, if something's not working, I know it while I'm writing. You are in GOOD company. ;)
Karen, the world-building is definitely an issue when writing paranormal or sci-fi. I really had to watch how much I was dumping in the first three chapters of my paranormal, MARKED. Luckily, the opening takes place on earth, so that made things easier for me. Book 2 - DECEIVED - opens in Argolea, my alternate world, so I'm going to have to be careful how much info I'm dumping setting things up. I'll let you know how that goes when I'm 3 chapters in. LOL
Hey Genene. :)
My proposal is not on any deadline, you're right. Just my own. I've been telling my agent for two months I'm sending it to her, so it's about time I get down to that. I AM on deadline for my paranormal, but I'm only a few pages into it at this point. It's not due until 12/1 though, so I'm not close to crunch on it (yet!) I'm very excited to dive into it though...one more reason to finish up this proposal and get it out the door!
I do the same thing at the 3/4 point. I ALWAYS stall out, have to stop, regather and figure out what's happening to who and when. It's my breather time to pull all those threads together. I NEVER think a book will work at that point, but I have not once had one go wrong from there on. It's amazing how things work themselves out.
You're right, it's very interesting how different writers work, Paty. I'm glad you never struggle with your openings. That would be a nice turn of events for me. ;)
As a reader, I hate slow openings. I will stick with a slow opening if it's one of my favorite authors. Lisa Kleypas's Mine Till Midnight has a slow opening, but the second half of the book is so worth it. It's also the first book of a series, so it has a lot of world building to do, so I was more willing to wait for the action to pick up. And she didn't let me down once it did. That said, if I don't know the author, a slow opening gets the book set aside, and I generally won't come back to that author. Which is a shame because their later books might be fabulous or the second half of the book might rock, but I'm usually having Post Slow Opening Syndrome and can't get past the bad memories of my eyelids needing support beams to make it past the first three chapters. There's so many books out there that I just want to move on to something that DOES work for me--although like Debbie says, it also has something to do with where I am in my life. Right now, I'm at a point where I have less patience for slow stories.
Openings trip me up too. Often, I know how I want to open, so Chapter 1 is fun, but Chapter 2 and 3 . . .That's where you start laying bricks to carry Alice's metaphor forward. It's hard labor. I think Chapter 2 and 3 are where the story is really made. You need a fabulous hook in Chapter 1, but you've got to follow through with that. A problem I struggle with is loosing momentum during the second half of Chapter 2. Working on this.
I think Chapter 2 and 3 are where the story is really made. You need a fabulous hook in Chapter 1, but you've got to follow through with that.
This totally hits the nail on the head, Bethany. And I struggle with this too. Making sure the excitement of chapter one follows through to chapter two and three. For me, often chapter one is where you have the inciting incident that starts the story. Chpt 2-3 is where the other main character is introduced and the two eventually meet.
I'm a perfectionist all the way through. It gets ugly. And slow. And ugly. The inside of my head probably sounds a lot like the inside of your house :) It's so nice to know I'm not alone!
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