Just before Christmas '07, I went out for drinks with friends I rarely see. I'd been writing for about 6 weeks. I told them I was writing a murder mystery, proudly boasting that I'd written 12,000 words already. I hadn't got to the murder yet though, I added.
"You've written 12,000 words of a murder mystery with no murder?" said one of them. "That doesn't exactly sound riveting!"
With friends like that...
However others were A LOT more encouraging, so I kept writing instead of topping myself.
I stopped submitting to agents a month or so ago. I decided that the novel was just not ready, and I could be harming its chances by sending it out. There were a number of issues churning at the back of my mind, not ready to be verbalised.
The intervening month has clarified one of them for me:
The first 12,000 words of my murder mystery have no murder. Maybe that is insufficiently riveting.
So when I embark on the next round of edits, the murder will be moving from page 58 to page 1. Current pages 1-57 will appear around pg. 4 or 5 and 9 or 10, interspersed with current events.
I'm not over-fond of books that are structured like this. If Agatha can spend 30 pages (admittedly, rarely 57 pages) setting the scene, I tend to think, who are we to introduce time disconnects and where-did-it-all-go-wrong flashbacks?
There is, however, a difference. When you pick up an Agatha Christie you're along for the ride. You know you'll be entertained. You let Agatha take you there how she will. When you pick up one of my books there will be slightly more uncertainty - at least until you've read some of my stuff already.
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Look forward to reading the revised version when it's ready; I love your heroine. I think there is nothing wrong with your structure, but anything you can do to make an agent look at it is worth the effort. it's all a learning curve. It really is good though, have rarely enjoyed a tale as much.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It'll be a while before I get a chance to work on it as I'm doing some web stuff for which I'll be paid actual money - yay!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Cynthia may start a private-detective's blog and get cyber-stalked in the meantime. Could be fun.
Either EM or JJ . . . or possibly NW? Not me surely (I can say this mostly because I'd have to sit with a calculator to work out how many pages 12,000 words would be!)
ReplyDeletekeep at it girl, Cynthia will see the light of day yet :)
I do have other friends you know! Although you might not be far off the mark.
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