Psychedelia Gothique

Not long ago, I was going on about the importance of endings and how the recognition of the weaknesses in my original ending in The Human Template drove me to rewrite it. All well and good, but it leads into the next topic – on the dangers of rewriting. There are several levels of rewriting.  We're in home renovation mode lately at our house, so it was the metaphor that sprung most easily to mind. If you think of a novel as a house: 1)     There’s the complete teardown and subsequent replacement with a whole new structure. 2)      There’s your regular reno with repainting inside and out, plastering, filling of plot holes, and maybe a bit of roofing or sanding of hardwood. 3)       There’s the room by room remodeling meant to beautify and improve the existing structure that requires moving of furniture and selective repairs. 4)       And then there’s the spruce-up with new door handles, curtains, light fixtures and th...

Immediately after finishing the last draft of the novel, I started questioning myself. Is there something wrong with the opening? I convinced myself that there was. After all, I was pretty confident in my actual query letter and the only thing other than that that I’ve sent to all five agents is the opening five pages. I decided immediately that they suck and started replotting the entire first 150 pages of the novel to fix it. This is bullshit, as reflexive as falling in love with the first person you meet after a breakup. Because in point of fact, even if they do suck, it’s too early to tell from the agent’s reactions. Their lack of response could be due to all sort of things – but three weeks in, is far too early to tell. I should not be assuming anything at all yet. Now that I have fixed all of the trouble spots I earmarked as I was approaching the end of the last draft, I need to wait, and reflect, and judge what's there on its own merits. And it certainly wouldn'...