Shredded

I like writing. I especially like writing well. I had given up on acquiring an agent and have been self-publishing over the last 10 years. But recently, it has occurred to me that there is a whole new set of marketplaces for creative material. I'm talking about Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, Hulu, CBS All Access and more.

As people spend more and more time pulling their entertainment from places other than traditional broadcast media, the need for new, original works is going to explode. So I decided it was time to look for an agent again, one that could introduce my novels to the burgeoning streaming markets.

I know you will find this shocking but my writing has actually improved over the last 10 years. I'm on my 10th book and everyone that has read my books tells me that technically my writing has vastly improved. I can even tell myself. I go back and read portions of my first scifi novel entitled Rome's Revolution and whole sections make me cringe. If this origin story is the book that is going to snag me an agent, it has to be my best work, not my worst. Therefore I have no choice but to rewrite it using my "modern" techniques.

When I first wrote Rome's Revolution, it took eight to ten chapters before the reader even knew what was going on. That would be great if I was an established author and my audience trusted me to bring them an exciting story. However, I was brand new and nobody had ever heard of me. This approach would never work if transferred to the screen so I decided to take the time-honored technique of dropping you into the climax, namely Rei Bierak getting ready to destroy Dara while Rome flies away and then stopping, leaving you desperately wanting more. The rest of the book is your discovery of how Rei got into that predicament.

So that's what I did. I wrote a two-page opening scene designed to grab you and make you want to read more. So far, so good. But then the little criticisms started coming in. My general rule is if one person says it is too long and another says it is too short, you ignore them. But if everybody says "lose the phrase (pronounced ray)", then I do it. What do I care?

I finally gave what I thought was my final version of the opening to two more accomplished writers. Again, both said my opening grabbed them and made them want to know more but there was this wrong with it and that.

I gave it to my friend Helen and she absolutely shredded my two pages, in a good and loving way. But it kind of set me back emotionally. I thought I had done a good job, and Helen said the writing was vastly improved, but now I had to take on a higher calling and write a gripping scene which is completely different from writing well.

My heart has healed enough that I will go back to this next weekend. As a writer, you have to be thick-skinned. You cannot take criticism as a personal attack. After all, you want your work to be the best possible. But after the mauling I took, I needed a few weeks to recover.

So it's back to Dara and me making poor old Rei suffer some more. Next week. I have a 10th wedding anniversary to celebrate this weekend.