Today, as I revised, I came back to those first pages I wrote--the ones in which I first connected with the character and the story. I still love them but I'm not sure they fit anymore in terms of the emotional level at which my mc should be at this particular moment in the story plot-wise. I'm pretty good at killing my darlings, but I've gotta say that deleting those first magical pages when you feel a story start so that you can get to the finish is still tough.
What do you do with those first 1,000 words?
The first words ARE the hardest to change, because they were the words that let you tell the story to begin with. (Usually, I don't cut them or change them...but sometimes, I'll rearrange where they come in the story.)
ReplyDeleteShelley
i keep a file of "cutting room floor" snippets. They might end up inspiring an entirely different story...
ReplyDeleteHi, Stasia! I rewrite the beginning so many times--which causes shock waves of revision through the entire manuscript, of course. But those first lines are special because it's where you first connected, as you said. For each ms, I keep a file called snippets for the lines I cut but am not ready to lose forever.
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