Prologues and Impulsive Moods

First of all, congrats to the winners of the twitter pitch contest! Both contests really made me think about my opening lines, opening scenes, pitching in a succinct manner, and led to my current project: Adding a prologue to my work.

My co author wanted the story to begin with a certain scene, but wanted the first line to still be; "My name is Leeto Homero, but everyone calls me "Little Little". The scene was written in another character's POV, not Leeto's. So I compromised and made it a prologue. It works beautifully!

Initially, he said prologues written by the author were never read. So I took a poll. 17 people responded that they read prologues. Two of them said they do not read forewards. To me, Forewards' are written by others than the author; maybe a famous NYT bestseller who endorses your book. I don't always read those because they have nothing to do with the story. he caved

But now that I'm happy with the first 3 chapters and prologue, I sent them out to be read by some trusted beta readers. I have gotten one response back so far, finding some small errors that I immediately fixed.

I am planning on polishing the next 3-4 chapters. By the time I get to them, and finish them, I may have some responses back. :)

Another writing friend said 'if you listen to all these beta readers, and make changes, you will lose your original story'. But I will not. I have a co author to keep me in line, plus there are things I will not change.

The biggest challenge for me is maintaining the distinct voices throughout the novel. Each character has a style of speech all their own, which is not me. If it were my writing style throughout, I wouldn't have to think about this. However, Leeto is 9 years old. I don't speak like a child anymore, so when my co author and I write these parts, we have to use words like a child would.

And while I am doing all this, my co author is writing the ending. The ending I gave it during Nano was all me, without the flavor and style of my co author. It was flat compared to what I am getting from him. There are so many new twists and turns, and he has this amazing ability to never lose sight of the small details, tying up loose ends that I had nearly forgotten about 20,000 words ago. :)

While I am waiting for him, I keep researching information on self-publishing and consider what I will do this summer with my YA novel and the compilation of short stories I keep promising.

Then I find myself pushing him to send me the ending, while discussing the beginning. He has to reign me in! I'm in one of my impulsive moods, I guess. This time it is manifesting in my writing hobby.

When I see lots of tweets about people reading ebooks, making ebooks, marketing ebooks, and recommending or reviewing ebooks, it makes me antsy. I don't want to wait. But like Miracle Max says in Princess Bride, "Rush a miracle, you get a rotten miracle." My co-author sent me that quote when I was rushing him, but I need it for my other works too. I need to make sure what I send for publishing is my best!


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