I’ve sent a few sample chapters of my first book to a friend of a friend, who works as a literary agent in the U.K. He gave valuable feedback, most importantly that the book in its current form has a weak opening. It will not grab readers, and most certainly will not interest publishers. I knew this, but I was reluctant to do anything about it, for a very silly reason – I had started on this book many years ago, and wrote the first three chapters quite a while back. I only returned to finish the book this year, and made minor edits to those early chapters in order to ensure some plot consistency. Due to a mix of nostalgia and sheer indifference, I changed little from the opening chapters.
Thinking back, that was a bad idea – my writing has changed a lot over the years, both as a result of my skills developed through my work, as well as my own life journey. This meant that the first three chapters are not only the weakest part of the book, they are MUCH weaker than the rest of the book. Unfortunately, today’s audience doesn’t have the patience to wade through three slow and rather tedious chapters to get to the interesting portions. They won’t even wade through ONE chapter. If I’m going to make the book work, I have to rewrite those portions, and be as ruthless as necessary to cut away whatever makes it less interesting to read. Even if they are portions that come from the very beginnings of my writing life. Sentiment, nostalgia, laziness – NONE OF THESE HAVE ANY PLACE IN A SUCCESSFUL WRITER’S LIFE.
A couple of important things I’ve learnt – firstly, backstory is important to keep in my own head, but not to download to the reader, as it gets boring very quickly. Only give whatever is needed to move the plot along or give the proper context. Secondly, reveal backstory as you go along, not do a massive chunk of frontloading – it’s not just boring, it’s hard to remember by the time the reader reaches the later chapters.
So, I’m going back with a knife, nay, an axe, to chop away the dead wood at the start of the book. I need to learn how to write fiction well, and write fiction well for the audience of 2017 and beyond, not follow the writing style of people long gone like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, whose audiences were from a different era, with different sensibilities and a whole lot more time (no planes to speed up travel, no mobile phones to entertain us in queues, no internet to flood us with reading choices).
I’ll leave you with a quote from Stephen King, which aptly summarises this recent epiphany of mine:
“Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which the dull knife of talent is honed until it becomes sharp enough, hopefully, to cut through even the toughest meat and gristle.”