It also seems to me that a valid question could be, "What counts as my first novel?"
When I was thirteen, I wrote a 20k story and considered it a "novel."
When I was seventeen, I wrote a 75k story that I refer to as my first full-length novel. It sucked rocks. Oh, gods, did it suck rocks.
Thing is, it's not unfixable. I'd started the book with no idea of where I was going and it rambled everywhere. Add in gratuitous violence and 1600 word haircutting scenes without any real description. (I'm still not sure how I managed that one...) By the time I wrote the second book, I'd had more direction, and threw a lot of twists into the plot.
Never did finish book three.
But, anyway, while the execution sucked, the trilogy has promise, and I've reoutlined the first book. (Which had essentially a thin plot, thin characters, and no villain.) I haven't been able to write it yet because the book's themes are too close to home at the moment. (It's key that my MC fall in love with a character who will later betray her, and the problem is, said character must trick her about the same way my abusive ex tricked me.)
When I do write it, I know it will be a good, competant novel.
But will it be my first novel anymore? I'll have rewritten it so thoroughly that the plot and characters are only vaguely the same. Considering this, does it still "count" as my first book?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
On first novels ...
Date: 2004-08-20 04:25 am (UTC)When I was thirteen, I wrote a 20k story and considered it a "novel."
When I was seventeen, I wrote a 75k story that I refer to as my first full-length novel. It sucked rocks. Oh, gods, did it suck rocks.
Thing is, it's not unfixable. I'd started the book with no idea of where I was going and it rambled everywhere. Add in gratuitous violence and 1600 word haircutting scenes without any real description. (I'm still not sure how I managed that one...) By the time I wrote the second book, I'd had more direction, and threw a lot of twists into the plot.
Never did finish book three.
But, anyway, while the execution sucked, the trilogy has promise, and I've reoutlined the first book. (Which had essentially a thin plot, thin characters, and no villain.) I haven't been able to write it yet because the book's themes are too close to home at the moment. (It's key that my MC fall in love with a character who will later betray her, and the problem is, said character must trick her about the same way my abusive ex tricked me.)
When I do write it, I know it will be a good, competant novel.
But will it be my first novel anymore? I'll have rewritten it so thoroughly that the plot and characters are only vaguely the same. Considering this, does it still "count" as my first book?
*all contemplative now*