New Year, New Challenge

And i couldn't think of a better one than writing the second draft of a novel! 

It's 2011 and it could be a great year.  In fact there is a particular thing that will make it a great year for me, but that's a private matter and this is a blog about writing, so...

I had a go at re-writing my prologue.  There were a couple of minor plot points that i wanted to amend so that events further into the book made better sense.  I also wanted to sharpen up the prose and give the opening to the story the right injection of pace.  It took about three hours to re-write and I'm fairly happy with the result.  Of course that is still no guarantee that what i have written will make the final cut, but psychologically it felt like a big step forward!

Later on today i'm going to have a bash at chapter one.  I already know that this is going to look completely different in the second draft.  There are specific things that i want to establish about the protagonist, Amy, and her relationship with her best friend, Jane.  I also want to move the action to a different location, so there is a bit of work to be done.  It will probably take a couple of days, especially with having to go back to work tomorrow!

You know, another of the great things about this blog (for me) is that i can write about the things that i intend to do, such as the changes to chapter one above, and if i forget what i'm meant to be doing i have an account of it all here.  There's no escape!  In fact it's going to be really useful as a guide.

Before i go, one other thing to impart is that i have started a completely new document for version 2 of the novel.  I'll cut a chapter from version 1, paste it into v2, rework it and then save it as v2.  That way i won't be overwriting the original document, which for me would get too confusing.