During this semester the class
workshoped my novel. I learned the value
of fresh eyes. It is impossible to read your own work and get a sense of what
the reader sees. We as authors know our characters motivation, even if that
motivation is not clearly stated on the page.
As author Robert Stone once said, “Revising is like cutting your own
hair." You don’t do
yourself or your work any justice if it is only your critique of your novel
that is taken into account during the revision process.
From this workshop I came away
with a new understanding of what I had written. I realized that though I loved
the lyrical feel to my prologue, it was not the best introduction to my story.
The goal of those first few pages is to grip the reader, pull them into the
story and keep them turning the page. What I had written was beautiful but had
an outsider’s feel. I wanted the reader to feel as if they were right there in
the mythical land of Tulea with Lan. So, I pulled back and began the novel at
the moment Lan’s world changed, propelling her to action.
Chapter One
This is not supposed to
happen, Lan thought.
She willed her mother to take
a breath, but no amount of strength on Lan’s part made a difference. Her mother
decided her own fate, and she had never been a fighter.
Lan calculated everything to
the smallest of details, and this. . . this was never part of the plan.
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