August 2010 Archives

I'm grinning ear to ear as I reread my revised prologue. It works so much better now. The problem with the previous prologue was that there was no mystery to drive the reader forward. Instead, there was exposition that didn't offer any conflict. All I did was waste a lot of ink describing a doomsday machine that would be important to the story. While I knew the machine was important, the reader wouldn't care about it because I didn't give them a reason to care.

The new prologue starts with a character running away with a part of the doomsday device. There are hints to the destructive power of the machine, but they come out in a confrontation between two adversaries rather than as long-winded exposition. Now there is a reason to care about the machine and, as a reader, I want to know more about it. I think this prologue will hook readers faster.

I have to remind myself that the start of a novel should be like a carnival barker enticing people to go into a house of horrors. Don't show everything that's in the funhouse. Just show enough to make the reader want to go inside.

I think I figured out why my prologue wasn't working. There's a complicated back story to the novel which involves characters we won't see in the main story. While the amount of detail I went into is great for shaping the back story and the incidental characters, I don't need to show my work. I fell in love with the back story so much that I forgot that it was background.

Now, I'm going through the novel and simplifying the back story and trimming away the exposition. That will hopefully allow me focus more on the present day action and main characters rather than on the past events. I think I'll call this the Star Wars prequel axiom. Back story for the writer; main story for the audience.

Well, not really, but I've noticed I spend more time on Facebook than I do checking on my blog, so I've started a Marty Chan fan page. On that site, I'll be posting updates about my books for kids and share some tidbits about my writing (or not writing) process. If you like following the kids' fiction stuff, please find my Facebook fan page (Marty Chan) and follow me there.

I'll still blog here from time to time, but my topics may vary. Have a wonderful west of the summer.

When I work on a play or a novel, I feel like one of those awful party guests who just goes on and on about the most mundane and random of topics. "Oh you'll never guess what happened to me when I went to the store. I found the best pair of shoes and then when I went to pay for them, I found a stick of gum in my wallet, and it made me think of the day I met Brad Pitt's stunt double... blah, blah, blah." Now I know why I need to revise. Back to it.

Apologies for not posting any entries, but I was enjoying sunny and mosquito-free Vancouver. When I came back last week, I launched myself into what was essentially a page-one rewrite of Bad Hair Day (the third book in the Barnabas Bigfoot series). I had originally thought I was just going to clean up the draft for the editor, but when I looked over the manuscript, I hated it. There were too many unanswered questions and flat plot threads. Rather than try to string together bits that fundamentally weren't working, I opted to start over. Thank goodness I did. The resulting revision is much clearer and has a definite and logical progression. The characters show different sides to themselves and I actually felt like the climax had me on the edge of my seat. I showed my wife the draft and she said it was easily the best of the three books.

The process wasn't easy. I forced myself to write a minimum of 5,000 words per day, starting on Monday. By Saturday afternoon, I limped to the end. To be honest, I think the draft is in pretty good shape as story goes. Now I have to do some polishing. I know, I know. I'll have to do more to it once the editor gets a hold of it, but I'd rather hand in what I believe is my best work and improve on that rather than hand in something shoddy and have to waste the editor's time doing something I should have already known to do.

Tomorrow, I'm cycling through the draft. I should also remember to jot notes for the fourth book in the series before I lose momentum.