Suck it up

I've always found writing the first three chapters relatively easy, but in going back to edit, they invariably suck. Majorly. Like a vacuum. Like a drain.

Yet, they are the most important part of the book. If no-one's interested in the first three chapters, they're not going to read on. For an agent or editor, the first page has to catch their attention or you are doomed; doomed, I say!

For my work, the ideas are sound and seemed brilliant at the time of writing; it's the execution that is sadly lacking: the passive sentences, unnecessary words, plot faults, paucity of description, info dumps... It all comes back to bite me. Hard.

It is during this editing stage that I wonder why I ever thought I could write; that everything is shit and should be given a proper burial.

I've almost done the first three chapters of Teardrops of War - tomorrow I'll read through it, again. In the meantime, I'm going through the first three of Demon's Gate, a book I wrote a good ten years ago. It is suffering from the same thing, though interestingly, not as much. The worst of it is a two and a half page geo-political info dump that started on page three! It's gone now. Not buried, but cut out and pasted in the accompanying 'outtakes' file. It's a good enough explanation, it has to be put in somewhere, but not as a whole.

I've learned since this book not to do info dumps. I'll find other things I've learned not do as I progress. Both books are interesting to me for varying reasons: one is full of blood, guts, survival and the search for a loved one; the other, mystery, emotional angst, survival and the consequences of war.

I know within myself they're good books, it's getting past the first three chapters that's proving difficult. Once they're fixed, however, I know the prose will run much smoother.

And while fighting my way through bad grammar, bashing passive sentences and tickling descriptions into submission, two quotes spring to mind to keep me going. I don't remember who said this one, but: "When I'm writing, I just skip over the boring bits to keep it interesting." and, of course, Holly Lisle's, "never give up your dream."