As She Keeps Talking...

With nothing pressing to do yesterday, I spent about six hours listening to my manuscript. Normally, that's far too much listening for one setting, but surprisingly, I didn't lose interest. In fact, I would have kept going, had the hour not grown late.

Somehow, about halfway through the novel I became a much better writer. Not only was my writing better, but my ideas really flowed. I was thinking as I closed out Word, I haven't even gotten to this scene and this scene and this scene yet.

Analyzing why the story became so much better, it's clear that I finally really knew my characters; not only the main character but especially her cousin, who she is now interacting with a lot. Once you know someone well, you can almost anticipate how they'll react in different situations, and that knowledge made writing the story easier. I didn't have to stop to ponder what she (or he) would say. Even the more incidental characters began to sound more realistic, more true to their personalities. That was a huge leap forward. 

Therein lies the problem with the first half. A reader won't know any of these people, and introducing them, while still granting them distinct personalities, is proving difficult. Added to that is the fact that most of them don't even show up in the first part of the story. Which is another drawback. It's her interactions with them that make the story sing. 

Granted, a lot of the novel is a literal journey ~ the main character spends a great deal of time on the road, playing one club after another, but that provides no grounding. It isn't until she moves back to her hometown that the story finally settles in. 

While the first half sounded clunky to my ear, the parts I'm listening to now are smooth, natural. I'm going to need to capture that vibe when I go back and rework the previous narrative. 

I should be elated that yesterday's listening session restored my faith in the novel, but now I'm just worried ~ worried that I can't successfully fix what needs fixing. I'm well aware that it's the first half that'll lead readers to continue reading. 

I'm likely going to need to rethink everything and try a different approach.