Last week, I changed two major plot points, which required me to follow the threads through the first two hundred and sixty pages. Painful but necessary. On Saturday, I realized that the last one hundred pages will need to be scrapped and that I will be writing it from scratch. I’ve outlined fifty pages of it, a first for me since I write by the seat of my pants. I feel confident that it will make it a stronger ending and a better manuscript over all.
I’m hoping that making these changes before sending the first fifty pages to the two agents who requested them is a wise move. I know that right now they only want fifty pages, but I want to be prepared if they want the whole ms. Maybe I’m putting the horse before the cart. Maybe I should just send them the fifty pages and continue with scrubbing the rest while they take their time reading it. Although, I have a friend who sent her first thirty and twenty minutes later, the agent requested the entire ms. So, maybe I should have the whole thing ready before sending the first fifty pages. I can’t seem to find a clear path. Maybe one decision isn’t better than another.
If you were in my shoes what would you do?
I guess to give good advice, I need more info. How long will it take you to rewrite?
A week? If so, do it first. A month…maybe send, and explain that you recently got some feedback and are tinkering with the ending?
I consistently fret over stuff like this. I am still tinkering with my first chapter, which I like, but understand it needs some work to be as perfectly eye-catching as it can be.
Those are some good questions. I’m not yet sure on how long it will take to rewrite, maybe two weeks, but then I’m also working with a technical writer on getting the chapters clearer and grammatically correct. (That’s a must as I am ignorant on quite a few rules.) Then I will hand it off to her and that could take another two to three weeks.
What don’t your beta readers like about it?
I’d say 90% of my betas ADORE it, but the first chapter takes a lot of turns, and doesn’t cut a straight path. I do a lot of this zig-zagging to sprinkle in backstory, but I think it is kind of clumsily done.
I’ve been told that the first 2 chapters were good, but not as highly engaging as the entire remainder of the novel. This is kind of good for me, but it is also kind of not. It’s good in that, the rest of my novel is pretty solid. It is bad, because most agents judge you on the first few pages. So….yeah.
One of the main characters in my book is only lightly referenced in the first few chapters, which some people find problematic. While I agree that it makes things slightly more difficult in the beginning, the character has no reason to exist in the first few scenes. Thankfully, my book is set in modern day, and phone calls and text messages will at least allow said character to have a small presence.
At least….I think so.
Sometimes, it is hard to know where to put a character. But you’re right, those first chapters are extremely important when it comes to grabbing the reader/agent’s attention.