It's strange to read your own book. After agonizing over every word during the editing process, I'm now sailing through the chapters of "Xmas Carol" as a reader. Doing this feels quite odd. Here are my impressions so far.
It was a strain for me to provide a "backstory" for the characters. I'm fine when the story's moving along, when I'm writing a scene with action and dialogue and I'm pushing the plot forward. Something's moving in those scenes; the words seem natural and alive. But telling the backstory for a character is more of a recitation: this happened and that happened.
As a writer, I don't like doing this. I have to become the omniscient overseer, the one who knows all, to reveal a character's history. This rubs me the wrong way. So I find the initial chapter a bit stilted. I was executing a requirement of storytelling rather than telling a story.
But as soon as the story gets going -- which happens late in the first chapter -- the tale flows. I'm pleased with the dialogue, descriptions and movement. They seem natural and free -- and much more graceful than the backstory segments that precede them.
I wish there was no need to reveal a character's history. In my earliest drafts, I tried to skip this. But readers told me they wanted to know why a character did a certain thing, which meant they wanted to know more about the character's history. Grudgingly, I supplied this information. I'm not sure how, but in my next book I will deal with this in a different way.
Anyway, this is all beside the point. The book works and I'm enjoying it. Once things get going, the story has a life of its own. It seems fresh and suspenseful. I'm quite pleased.
It was a strain for me to provide a "backstory" for the characters. I'm fine when the story's moving along, when I'm writing a scene with action and dialogue and I'm pushing the plot forward. Something's moving in those scenes; the words seem natural and alive. But telling the backstory for a character is more of a recitation: this happened and that happened.
As a writer, I don't like doing this. I have to become the omniscient overseer, the one who knows all, to reveal a character's history. This rubs me the wrong way. So I find the initial chapter a bit stilted. I was executing a requirement of storytelling rather than telling a story.
But as soon as the story gets going -- which happens late in the first chapter -- the tale flows. I'm pleased with the dialogue, descriptions and movement. They seem natural and free -- and much more graceful than the backstory segments that precede them.
I wish there was no need to reveal a character's history. In my earliest drafts, I tried to skip this. But readers told me they wanted to know why a character did a certain thing, which meant they wanted to know more about the character's history. Grudgingly, I supplied this information. I'm not sure how, but in my next book I will deal with this in a different way.
Anyway, this is all beside the point. The book works and I'm enjoying it. Once things get going, the story has a life of its own. It seems fresh and suspenseful. I'm quite pleased.
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