1st Writing Post of the New Year!
Believe it or not, after nine months of absence, I am back at the computer, editing. The same manuscript. Taking an agent’s advice, I’ve decided to revise my manuscript to shift the point-of-view from first person present to first person past tense. The agent thought it would be ‘less jarring’ that way, so I decided to give it a shot. My husband wasn’t enthusiastic about this change, staunchly and sweetly defending the work as it was, but after reading the first twenty pages rewritten, he admitted the agent had a point, and he actually liked the new version better.
So…I’m back at it again, but in a slightly different context. You’d think it would be all cut-and-dried–my uncle actually suggested I try creating a macro in Microsoft Word to do the bulk of the edits–but as I’m sure you can imagine, the change requires more than adding an ‘ed’ to all the verbs (even making allowances for the irregular ones). And, of course, there are other, non-related things I want to change… But that happens with every edit.
I go from being really happy with the work and kinda sorta impressed with myself to wondering if it’s cohesive enough and up to par with what’s being published right now. But, while working on this, I’m trying to consider my next project–whether I want to pursue the book I (just barely) started at the end of last year or try something altogether new. As a writer, it seems I live in Limbo Land.
01/16/2009 at 4:10 am
I always have a POV when I start a new manuscript, follwed then by a struggle to keep things in past tense. And by always, I mean I’m in the middle of my second manuscript, so what do I know? Anyway, I end up doing the first three chapters or so both ways and I end up back at first person every time. Next time I’m determined to write third person, no matter what!
Okay, not no matter what, but it’ll be a sequel and I think 3P will make more sense.
Cool blog.
01/16/2009 at 4:46 am
What a chore! But so cool that you get to be a published author. That is just so awesome!
01/16/2009 at 4:30 pm
In the process of changing mine to first person POV. Don’t even want to think about changing tenses. Why do we do this??