Following the Advice of Others

I have read through the first 80 pages of my rough draft so far, and I'm glad that I am not doing the rewrite yet. Yes, I've made a few minor changes here and there, but those were just because I didn't want to miss them the next time through. Whoever all of these established novelists are before me, they really know what they are talking about!

By reading through the first part of my novel again, I have discovered how my early characters are so vastly different from the characters they turned out to be. Much of the early dialog does not quite fit the personality of my characters, and so a lot of tweaking will have to made to it when I do start my rewrite. By not starting my rewrite yet, I have time to sit back and come up with dialog that my characters actually would have with each other. I know my characters so much better now than I did when I first started this journey with them. It would not be fair for me to not represent them properly.

I also made a huge, story-changing decision last night. When I started writing, the story in my head was about three friends, with one being the central character, and the other two being major supporters. As the story came together on paper, more was revealed about my major supporters than I even knew existed. Last night I realized that I have enough backstory to bring out the struggles of the supporting characters more and give them more of the limelight. And since I envision at least one, maybe two following books on these characters, that will give me more to play with in the subsequent novel/s.

So, here's to all of the published writers who are willing to share what they have learned with the world on their blogs. I am very thankful for all of the tips I have learned from them. I hope that as I refine my own way of writing I don't forget to also share what I'm learning along the way.