Beginning The Rewrite

The first draft of my first novel is done. 58k words. Sweet. Time to rewrite!

If you’re interested in some of the thought processes it takes to tackle a rewrite, read on:

One of the hardest parts of my second draft is reinventing the book’s opening. As it stands, I managed to capture the book’s themes and establish the characters and setting, all within a pretty static and boring first chapter. Worse yet, the inciting incident doesn’t come until the end of the second chapter — and all the great advice I’ve read on YA insists that the inciting incident needs to happen ASAP within the first chapter.

This is hard! The inciting incident in Holy Shuriken is high-concept, and a huge break from the norm. Stylistically, if I push it too soon, the incident could come off as comedic. (It is slightly comical, in that it’s highly unusual, but not comedic.) Also, I think it would be a mistake to open with the incident (even to flash back to normalcy), because I want it to break my protagonist. You can’t break something if it’s not built yet.

As I come up with ideas to shorten + combine the first two chapters, I am also left with challenges of tonal consistency. Regarding the prose, writing for a YA audience is nice because I don’t feel the pressure to construct arcane, complex sentences, like in adult literary fiction – unless I really want to. However, the expectation (fair or not) to get right into the action leaves me unmoored. I like building foundations. They’re stabilizing. You need one to properly launch a rocket.

Enough navel gazing. To nail down the succinct beginning – which I will do, so help me God – I’m going back to the first ideas that inspired me. That means re-reading the parable of the prodigal son. My story doesn’t match it at all, but the protagonist is inspired by the older brother. My pastor sister provided me with a number of challenging commentaries on the parable, and I’ll re-read some of those, to challenge my preconceptions again. I will think deeply about what I want to say, and then concoct a sharper, briefer story to express it.

And if it’s no good, then I’ll rewrite again.