I've had over a dozen people read G-157 and they all freaking loved it. That's a good sign, but after I read through it again last weekend I realized that even though its a good book, it's still missing something. I've felt it was missing something for the longest time, that the book wasn't quite there yet and still needed something more. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, but after a week of racking my brain I think I figured a few things out.
First off, the book is too short. It's just under 70k words, which means something is missing.
The characters aren't developed enough. Yes, most of them are supposed to be a little bland and blur into each other because that's a major part of the story. But my main peeps just aren't there. They have no soul.
The beginning is way too slow. I do like slower books to a certain extent, but there isn't enough action going on to keep the reader's attention. I do a hell of a good job at keeping the oddities up and making the reader go, "hmm, that's weird," but there's not enough omph to keep your adrenaline pumping.
There's not enough back story. G-157 is supposed to have a bit of mystery in it, but at times its too much.
I don't think my list of needed revisions is very big. Hell, I thought I'd have two pages of things that needed to change, so four things is pretty darn good. And that's because it is a good book with a great story. So I'm hard at work this weekend cranking out those changes. I've added some freakin awesome, page turning back story scenes, spiced up the characters, and so far have added another 30 pages of material to the whole thing. I'm not sure how many words that is because I hand write everything and sometimes my writing is micro, sometimes its huge and sprawling, but I'm guessing I've added around 5k words to it over the last couple days.
And the great thing is, I'm getting excited about this book again. For the longest time I haven't been totally stoked to be working on it, and I think that's because the damn thing has been through like 8 revisions and I feel like it should be finished already. But it's not, because this book is my problem child. It doesn't mean it's less good than the other novels I've written, it's just more difficult to complete it. Unlike the Sledgehammer Club, which flowed like molten lava out of an exploding valcanoe. I've been slowly working on that one now since it's almost finished, and truth be told it is a freaking badass book that I'm so proud of, which is why it's been coming along so slow. I don't want to leave that world to go into another.
I love that story, love the characters, love being completely wrapped up in that world of evil. One of the main characters is a kid named Goat, and he is the most evil character I've ever written. He's also my absolute freaking favorite. He's so fun to write about, and I love showing his reactions and creepy tendencies. He's also the character that has made me most uncomfortable to write. I know he's not real, but some of the things that come out of his mouth make me so uncomfortable. I know that sounds really weird to non writers, but writers understand how words just seem to come from nowhere and land on the page, words they had no intention of writing. And that's how it is with Goat. Because he rocks. Well, except for the whole evil thing. But he's badass evil, so that makes him awesome, like the Joker in The Dark Knight movie.
Anyway, I'm so glad I had another break through with G-157 and have figured out of what it's missing. I'm sure after I go through this round of revisions and edits, let it sit, and go back to read it again, I'll find something else that's not quite right with it. But that's okay, because with each page the book gets a little closer to being completed. And really I'd rather edit a book 15 times to make sure I feel like its right than to say, well it's been revised 6 times so it must be good enough. Nope. That's how people publish totally crappy books, and I refuse to publish a totally crappy book. Sure some people will think its kind of crappy, but that's okay, because even those people will find a lot of good things about the book that they like. And the rest of my readers? They'll either like the book or love it, because it's a great story on the verge of being greatly written.
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