total immersion

I am seriously considering an entire rewrite of my first book Sentinel. I talked it over with a friend (and fellow editor) last night and I liked his approach: Pros and Cons to changing a sub-premise. I wasn't taking notes or anything, but I realized how the approach I took years ago had held back the story and the characters. He also said something very powerful (in response to my frustration with my stalled career):

It's an urban fantasy written with a thriller structure, an extremely unusual antagonist, and likeable, protags, and he thinks it could have very broad appeal; read: breakout novel. He thinks if I make this rather significant change, the book will take off.

This is the sort of talk I like--not because it's complimentary, but because it's professional and thoughtful. I feel like I've just reached another tier in the way I'm approaching writing and my books. It's very exciting, and the concept gives me something to ask agents about at conference in a few weeks.

I also have a good opportunity to finish a first draft quickly. If I can get a decent working synopsis and character scripts down, which should be fairly quick and painless since I know the story and the characters so well, I could set a pretty high bar for myself as to daily page-count. I wrote Taming The Tiger in four months. I can also cull some scenes from this draft, and this book is shorter, so if I really push it I could conceivably have a decent draft by the end of the year, end of January at the latest.

I really would love to experience total immersion in a novel again. It's the best.

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