After last week’s sad mourning over the loss of my first sentence I can now update you all to let you know that I have actually killed off the whole of the first chapter. It has been rewritten and is a lot better. Phew.
Where has this flurry of deleting and rewriting come from, you ask? Why, from those clever, clever speakers at the Winchester Writers Festival, of course!
Writing, after all, is in the rewriting.
Please don’t be put off by my blasé attitude here. I have spent the past two weeks leaping between euphoria at the positive feedback I received and a pit of dread and self loathing at the prospect of rewriting and making it better. It is a daunting task.
What was more daunting was the fact that a rather clever agent advised me to not write anything for a few weeks. A FEW WEEKS? Instead, I was to reassess my characters and refine my plot to help with pacing issues. I discovered something about myself in these few weeks (well, two weeks actually. I couldn’t hold back any longer.) I learned that I hate not writing. Whereas the background work I have been doing has been very helpful (I’m already reaping the benefits of Simon Hall’s excellent characterisation advice) I have been dreading getting behind the keyboard again, worried that I just won’t be able to do it, that I’m not good enough after all.
The good news is that I am really pleased with the new first chapter I have written. I am also aware, however, that one of the reasons I am really happy is that no one else had read it yet!
Hands up, who wants to go first?
Rebecca Tinnelly 