A Tale of Three Partials

I’ve written three partials in three weeks. Not out of some creative urge or crazy deadline but simply because I had a break in my schedule that allowed me to catch up. Plus I discovered that writing longhand on my lunch breaks at the day job was really effective.

Let’s call the stories SFR, PR and FR (Yeah, they were all different genres)

Each book I write comes out a little differently. And even though I’ve plotted the stories there is no guarantee.

For example SFR was clear in my mind I knew who the characters were and how they sounded. I had plotted it in detail and when I wrote it flowed out of me easily. (Those books are awesome!)

FR, it’s first person and while I knew the heroine’s journey and who she was I really didn’t get a feel for her voice and her deeper character until I was about 2 pages in. Once I was in it was great until my carefully constructed plot got ignored…next up commence re-plotting of the rest of the book.

PR, despite my careful plotting and my knowledge of the characters and the existing world I was 2.5 chapters in before I got a handle on the story and it actually started to get a feel and shape that I liked.

2.5 chapters out of the three I was writing were just me trying to learn how to tell the story. Sigh and rewrite.

I'll need to reform those first 2 chapters. And I’m really not sure about the first scene as I think the second has more impact. I’ve learned not to start hacking away without a second or third opinion though, as what I see in my work is different to what an impartial CP does :)

After getting those three done I’m now back into edits. I probably won’t look at the partials again for anther month then they’ll be cleaned up and ushered out the door, hopefully to find a home.