What's with the bike picture? What has this to do with writing? Well, you may ask. Please indulge me...It is a bank holiday weekend- big YAY!
For those American readers out there, this means that on Monday I do not have to go to work. In essence, I get an extended weekend -which is absolute bliss, especially as I really want to re-read my teen novel and tinker with and tweak it.
Fresh eyes- some months after last working on it- have thrown up some revelations and I've decided to really apply myself to honing the novel to a wonderfully finished piece. I think the story is strong, judging by the number of agents who have requested to see samples and the full manuscript, from my query emails and letters, but I think I need to work on the voice and energy of the piece. The bike link is coming- bear with me!
When I first started the novel, quite some time ago now, I wrote it in a very immediate way in several voices. It started with a flash back - action scene- and then there was a bit of back story by one voice and then it moved to another. In total there were five voices of varying ages, but I was advised that because I was aiming at the YA, teen market I ought to put the novel into the one teen voice and to add a clearer picture of setting and not have a flash back so soon. Interesting stuff, hey? Well, I'm the sort of person who tries to get back up onto the bike when I've fallen and give it another go (bike link).
I believe in refining my art, so I did as advised... but I think in doing this, I lost some of the immediacy from the book. And this is something I want to try and regain. It's so difficult to get things exactly as you want them, especially when you sometimes get conflicting or contrasting opinions from people. I think some readers enjoy setting and description where others like action and sometimes it feels like I'm going round in circles (bike link), but I'm determined to get my old show not tell right. I'm going to try to get back to what it is I want the book to be. I am going to recycle (bike link) some old bits and add some new!
Whether I can do this in one bank holiday weekend, I doubt, but I can certainly get started. I'm also hoping to go cycling (very clear bike link)- a pursuit I have recently re-started, after a long gap. All I can say is thank God we have gear bikes, rather than the beautiful but rather more difficult to handle bikes of the past (final bike link). Not sure my poor old legs would have been able to handle them!
