Revising Pebble
For the first time in quite a while, I went back to reread some of A Pebble Tossed yesterday. You'll never guess what I learned.
I learned that I've gotten better since I wrote it!
This is both heartening and discouraging. Heartening, because it means that all the hard work I've been putting in to improve my craft is paying off. Discouraging, because it means I have a lot of work to do to get Pebble up to snuff.
I remember when I published Pebble, I thought it was the absolute best it could be. Later, I began to have misgivings about certain passages, but not bad enough to make me go back to it. "I'll never revise Pebble," I was known to say. "Pebble is done. I'm sick of it. I want to concentrate on my next novel."
Yeah, I said that. And if I hadn't gone back to read a bit of it, I might have been able to stick to my word. But I did. Now I know. And now I must revise.
I know a lot of people are going to say, "Don't touch it, it's perfect." Well, maybe not a lot. Maybe I should have said "some people." Okay, just my mom. But other people are going to nod their heads and say, "Yeah, that first chapter sucked. And what was with that WTF subplot about Kate and Brian that went nowhere?"
Pebble needs a new opening line, and a lot of unneccessary fluff removed from the first chapter. It also needs an entire subplot removed, and all the chapters broken up into smaller ones. It's gonna take me a couple of months. Other work is on hold while I tackle this beast. Expect the new edition of A Pebble Tossed to come out sometime early 2016.
On another note, I added a Media page to my website today.
