I Reread My Reconstituted Second Novel

I won't go into the details again as to why my second novel was utterly craptastic. Suffice it to say that I was a new writer, stretching to reach a prescribed word count. That resulted in reams of unnecessary filler.

Throwing my hard work away doesn't come easily to me. I probably spent about a year writing Radio Crazy, and it did have a good main plot. I'm not an idea person, so when I come up with a good premise, it's a shame to waste it. At some point I sparked on the idea of getting rid of the multiple subplots and flashbacks and tightening it up into a novella (now titled Whispers in the Dark). Doing that required a ton of cutting, and I wondered if the story would still flow or if I'd banished parts of it that would completely discombobulate the story.

Nope, I never reread it before publishing. Why the hell not? Well, it seemed fine as I was piecing it together, and I was frankly sick to death of the whole thing. I know that's a terrible attitude for a "professional" to have, but I never expected to sell any copies anyway, which turned out to be true. But I don't sell any copies of my older books, so this new version managed to fit right in with the rest.

Well, now that I'm dead set on publishing an anthology of my eight novellas, it was time to finally read it. It's not bad! And in some places it's actually good. I found a missed word in one spot, so of course I had to fix that. I can't live with stupid mistakes. Then, as long as I had the original word doc open anyway (I was reading the book on my Kindle app), I made a few more minor changes. Tonight I re-uploaded the manuscript to KDP.

Re-reading, I learned some things about my writing progress and whatever the opposite of progress is. With that second novel, I penned descriptive, evocative sentences. I have no idea now how I did that, because I haven't done it since. It was actually the opening scene that convinced an editor at a small press to request the full manuscript. (That did not end well.) I love my descriptive elements; in fact, I'm in awe of them. Was my brain possessed by a long-dead poet when I was writing them? And if so, where did he go? I can't seem to write like that anymore.

I wrote Radio Crazy a long time ago, so it's difficult to remember my process, but I vaguely recall looking at images of things I needed to include, but was unfamiliar with, and I can only posit that my descriptions derived from my impressions when viewing them.

I also jettisoned a bunch of supporting characters, or at best turned them into "extras" in the plot. Sam's fiance's part was slashed considerably, her boss (and his worthless subplot) turned into just as "Mister Brinkoff", who only showed up when needed. And he and Sam were no longer best buddies. Same with the old woman, Martha. She served a purpose in advancing the story, but she (heaven forbid) didn't move in with Sam (another stupid-ass subplot). 

I originally had too damn many characters who, in the end, didn't matter. My cutting was done intuitively, and it was the right decision. 

My overall impression of the re-read: The story does alternate between present and past, but not in a drawn-out way, and had I not included past events, there would be no point to the story. Will it confuse the (hypothetical) reader? I can't control that. Yes, there was one passage that required me to get my bearings and register that I was now in a different time period, but if I'm not too dense to recognize where the plot has gone, the average (hypothetical) reader has to be just as cognizant as me. I'm not changing it.

Too, I originally depicted Sam as too foul-mouthed. I'm not big on obscenities; it's lazy writing, really, so in tonight's uploaded version, I softened her speech and only employed a few choice curse words when circumstances demanded them.

The final scene is good. I'd worked hard on it, and it had to register as dramatic. I believe it did.

The inherent limitation in a novella is a lack of (my term) fullness. It's hard to explain here. I feel I did a decent job portraying the characters who remained, but the novella can come across as rushed, especially toward the end. But the story is what it is. If somebody wants a fat novel, buy a fat novel. (I do have one I can recommend. 😉 )

I can't lose sight of my goal--which was determining if Whispers in the Dark deserves to be included in my second anthology. It does. In fact, I'm more confident of this one than I am of Find My Way Home, even though reading that one made me cry. I'll probably tinker with "Find" a little bit, but not much. I refuse to go on a long revision spree. That wasn't the bargain.

Re-reading my past work didn't turn out to be as cringey as I'd always imagined. I managed to surprise myself in a good way. Nothing wrong with that.