I'm less than excited, however, to say that I've got a lot of work to do in the coming weeks before the conference.
At the top of the list of priorities is my novel. While I do have a completed version of it (and I should since I had been sending out queries) I've decided that it needs more work in a couple of areas. In fact, I stopped querying after listening to The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing in the car to work on the revisions.
What needs to be done isn't a huge deal, but it does need to get done a little quicker than I planned because the conference will include meetings with agents or editors, as well as critique groups.
So with that said, here is my novel revision to do list:
1. Remove the first two chapters, (about sixteen pages.) Where does the story begin? In last paragraph of the second chapter. So why in the devil do I have two chapters of set-up? I've already cut a thousand words or so out of the beginning, but I really need to open the novel with the event that makes the story take place. The first chapters serve to put the protagonist in the position where the story begins and also introduce most of the major players. I'm working out the details, but I have managed to rewrite the third chapter as the first and introduce everything else later, so progress is being made.
2. More clearly define the conflict. When I wrote the first draft of this novel, I was still pretty inexperienced. While I have cleaned it up a lot, I've never really been able to answer the simple question of what is the major conflict. I've solved that problem in my head and now need to make sure it's apparent in the writing.
3. Properly resolve the conflict. Now that I have my conflict, I need to make sure that it is actually resolved in a realistic way by the actions of the main character. When I wrote the first draft years ago, the main conflict was just one of the subplots. It evolved with each revision, and now most of the story revolves around it.
4. Fix the title. I like the title, but I need to admit to myself that it doesn't work. It's a line used by the main character half-way through the novel and it doesn't tell anyone (agent, editor, publisher, reader) what the book is actually about.
That should be all for my novel. There are a couple of other minor things I need to do, but these are the most important fixes that need to be addressed before the conference. I'll be back tomorrow to talk about how I plan to fix these problems.
Image by Jennie
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