$!#%&*$ #$!#@?$%
That's how I feel about what I am about to say. You probably won't care, so you can skip this one, and it won't hurt my feelings.
I'm going to rewrite my entire book, changing it from third to first person.
It's taken me a long time to write this thing. I first got the idea in the fall of 2007/spring of 2008 and didn't start writing it until September, 2010. It was officially finished around the first week of December, 2011. If I'm being totally truthful, I wrote over half of it between my October, 2011 trip to the mountains and Thanksgiving.
Maybe I'll write more about why it took so long and how the story came together later. Maybe I won't. I don't know. It's kind of neat.
Anyway, a few days after I finished it, I started to read it over, and I just felt like something was wrong. There were parts I loved, but there were also many parts I couldn't stand. It felt repetitive. Despite my protests and desire to get it revised ASAP, I followed the advice of everyone from Stephen King to my gay cousin and put it away until after the new year.
In February, I finally got around to reading it again, and while I didn't hate it as much as I did when I first tried to read it all the way through, I still felt like something was missing. Every time I tried to go through and start fixing errors and incongruities, I would get hung up on various parts of it and never get anything accomplished.
Last weekend, I had a thought. I called my cousin (the only person who knows the whole story and has read most of it), and I said listen to this, and I started reading it to him in first person. I changed all the "She said" to "I said" and all of the "Holly's sister" to "my sister" and the...well, you get the point.
He was quiet for a minute, and then he said, "That's it! That's what it's been lacking!"
We talked about it for a bit, and I've asked some other people who I've let read some of it what they thought. My dad, who is one of the most literary-smart people I know, and I just had a long conversation about it. I've gotten lots of mixed reactions, but most people have supported my decision to go to first person.
Personally, I don't like books that are in first person, or at least I didn't think I did. A few days ago, I went to my shelves and picked out my ten favorite books that are closest to my genre. Eight out of ten of them are from the protagonist's point of view. I also read a very convincing paragraph from another writer who explained why many of the books in my genre are in first person, and it made a lot of sense. Honestly, I think I write better in first person, too.
So, I'm hoping it won't take very long. It may even be kind of fun. Oh, who am I kidding? No more blogging until 2013.
Actually, I'm hoping to get started tonight and work on it this weekend if time permits. So far, this weekend's already getting eaten up with a funeral and some babysitting I offered to do. Didn't I just say I was going to ban social media and family when I needed to write? Yes, yes, I think I did. (I'm so kidding if any of you are reading this.)
That's how I feel about what I am about to say. You probably won't care, so you can skip this one, and it won't hurt my feelings.
I'm going to rewrite my entire book, changing it from third to first person.
It's taken me a long time to write this thing. I first got the idea in the fall of 2007/spring of 2008 and didn't start writing it until September, 2010. It was officially finished around the first week of December, 2011. If I'm being totally truthful, I wrote over half of it between my October, 2011 trip to the mountains and Thanksgiving.
Maybe I'll write more about why it took so long and how the story came together later. Maybe I won't. I don't know. It's kind of neat.
Anyway, a few days after I finished it, I started to read it over, and I just felt like something was wrong. There were parts I loved, but there were also many parts I couldn't stand. It felt repetitive. Despite my protests and desire to get it revised ASAP, I followed the advice of everyone from Stephen King to my gay cousin and put it away until after the new year.
In February, I finally got around to reading it again, and while I didn't hate it as much as I did when I first tried to read it all the way through, I still felt like something was missing. Every time I tried to go through and start fixing errors and incongruities, I would get hung up on various parts of it and never get anything accomplished.
Last weekend, I had a thought. I called my cousin (the only person who knows the whole story and has read most of it), and I said listen to this, and I started reading it to him in first person. I changed all the "She said" to "I said" and all of the "Holly's sister" to "my sister" and the...well, you get the point.
He was quiet for a minute, and then he said, "That's it! That's what it's been lacking!"
We talked about it for a bit, and I've asked some other people who I've let read some of it what they thought. My dad, who is one of the most literary-smart people I know, and I just had a long conversation about it. I've gotten lots of mixed reactions, but most people have supported my decision to go to first person.
Personally, I don't like books that are in first person, or at least I didn't think I did. A few days ago, I went to my shelves and picked out my ten favorite books that are closest to my genre. Eight out of ten of them are from the protagonist's point of view. I also read a very convincing paragraph from another writer who explained why many of the books in my genre are in first person, and it made a lot of sense. Honestly, I think I write better in first person, too.
So, I'm hoping it won't take very long. It may even be kind of fun. Oh, who am I kidding? No more blogging until 2013.
Actually, I'm hoping to get started tonight and work on it this weekend if time permits. So far, this weekend's already getting eaten up with a funeral and some babysitting I offered to do. Didn't I just say I was going to ban social media and family when I needed to write? Yes, yes, I think I did. (I'm so kidding if any of you are reading this.)
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