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Renovating A Creation

Continuing along the general concept of comparing the creation of a novel to the construction of a house, I did some deliberate renovations, knocking our a few walls and even having to sacrifice some of my favorite corners.

I have always been cognizant that the flow of Book 1 early on was disjointed and halting. It meandered through some pretty terse transitions both in grammar construction and the presentation of plot. It was presented that way for a reason and some people that read it even got it. However it usually takes a reader two times through it to understand what is going on. In these fast-food and fast news times a writer does not have the luxury of counting on a reader's patience. I am keeping the full length second edition, however and it might be issued at some point as a full authorized version of the story. For now I am much more concerned with making the book work as a book and yet staying try to the story that it has to tell.

I added back in a short portion of some material that I originally deleted from Chapter 9 (when the Huge Book was structured in chapters) the end of which is at the conclusion of Book 1. The publisher never saw the material that was presented for Book 1 with this construction. At the time there was good reason for it. The story was undeveloped and the material did almost nothing for the flow of the book at that time.

That material sat around in a computer file that collected everything that I had written into the series that was subsequently cut out. When I got to about half way through Book 6 in its composition, I went through all the deleted material in search of important things that I had cut from other books in order to promote plot flow or whatever. A good deal of that material needed to be worked into the series and it was revised, polished and reinserted in revisions and edits to other books. Still a chunk of it became part of Book 6.

The almost modular format of the series permits this sort of adaptation for the original. It is ironical that the portion of the original manuscript for Book 1 that had bee omitted and included in Book 6, had been revised to include the addition of two 'new' characters that are not otherwise mentioned in the series until Book 2. They are however characters from the prequel to the series, and were included in the notes from which Specter of Dammerwald was written. In the preferred sequence in which I think this series will be read in the future, the prequel will come first, then Book 1 and so on until Book 9 that is Book 3 of the second series.

(Hint: When the reader finishes Book 9, he or she will want to take the last few paragraphs and read them again as if they were inserted just before the opening paragraphs of Book 1. It was a coincidence that I played with and made it purposeful in reinforcing one of the underlying themes of the series. Sometimes you get lucky as a writer.)

One of the reasons why I omitted that scene from the original was that it was under developed and although I knew even then that the Wolf character needed to be freed, I had not figured out quite yet how Andy would accomplish it without continuing as a part of that subplot which he clearly did not do because of all else that happened in the series. Sometimes a writer needs to work a plot out to the very end to understand how things and characters interrelate.

I am pleased that it works as well as it does. It was a missing link and creates a compelling enough reason to read the revised, second edition of Book 1. Besides providing for a better tie in to the Wolf subplot of the remainder of the series, it also ties Elana who is mentioned in association with the Old Bachelor to the fantasy tale played out in the 'Wolf stuff' in Books 2 through 6. Further it is this one section that creates the basis of need for a Book 7 thru 9. So it is a pretty important hitch pin to have been so readily omitted from the first edition.

I especially like the introduction of Mang into th end of Book 1. It works to connect things. While the reader knows a good deal about Andy and his emotional rollercoaster ride throughout Book 1, Mang knows nothing about the human. This one simple addition breathes new life into a book first published 3 years ago. The second edition not only corrects the typos and somewhat more serious errors, few as they were, but it also makes the second edition a worthwhile read for anyone wanting to continue reading my work.

I have sent both versions of the second edition to the publisher. He can determine which he prefers, I suppose. If the past is indicative of the immediate future we will be in revision with this thing for some time anyway. For now I am pretty stoked about the improvement to the book and now feel that it is the strongest book of the series... and will continue to be until I revise the other ones.


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posted by Unknown @ 11:52 PM