Friday, February 15, 2013

Should I Continue on my Serial (Writing) Spree?

Photo of Charles Dickens by The Boston Public Library,
used with permission, cc license

So starting last summer and continuing until a few weeks ago, I serialized chapters of my Science Fiction novel in progress, DERELICT.

I really enjoyed the experiment in public accountability for my writing and judging by my readership numbers on the blog and on Wattpad, as well as emails and comments, folks really enjoyed the read.

So now that DERELICT is completely drafted (and thank you to my lovely beta readers--I'll be working on the revision over the next few weeks), I've turned to revising renovating what had been a 'trunked' novel.

In the old days, you'd but it in a trunk beneath your bed and forget about it. Now, it's in a file on my computer. But regardless of its physical form, it needs an incredible amount of work to make it readable.

It was an early novel and I had still not gotten a firm handle on POV and characterization. But I still like the idea of the story and thought it had merit. I hired a developmental editor to give me a reality check and though the red comments outnumbered the words on the page, she agreed it was a story worth resurrecting.

So I'm 20,000 words into the rewrite--a little shy of the 25% mark. And I'm thinking of serializing this one as well. Working title: Heal Thyself.

Lilliane Tor, a renowned healer from Rimland, learns the cost of keeping her oath when she saves the life of Jahnissim Hal Zev, a member of the nomadic and insular Tisreen. A fugitive from her own land, she escapes to Tisreen with Zev and enters a bewildering world of a rigid religion and culture, where women's roles are tightly controlled and political disputes are settled on the edge of a blade. And where hudessh, or The Divine obligation, is as binding as any healer's oath.

That Zev owes his life to a woman, and one who doesn't follow his beliefs challenges the foundations of his identity. When he finds evidence of an illegal slave trade poisoning the heart of both their countries, Zev must learn to trust Lilliane, working with her against a common evil. Their quest to unravel the truth and expose the trade threatens their lives, the stability of two governments, and the core of their own beliefs about one another.

My question to you, dear readers, is would you be interested in following along with my renovation? In a way, this version is first draft 2.0 because it's being nearly totally rewritten. Of the first 20K, I think I salvaged maybe 500-1000 words of the original.

Weigh in with comments, if you please.

2 comments:

  1. I'd love to read, but I'm not sure my vote counts as there's a good chance I'll get to anyway. ;)

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  2. Follow your gut, Lisa. That sounds like a cop out answer, but it's not. My sense is that you would like to serialize it. If that's the case, do it. Do it because it pleases you, resonates with you, feels right to you. If you follow your heart, you'll never go wrong.

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