Leigh Bardugo in Manhattan
Hi all!
As part of my commitment to living a creatively nourishing life, I decided to take full advantage of my proximity to New York City and go down there to inhale life and culture whenever I can. Which means I'm writing this from my very small hotel room in Brooklyn, the same place I stayed in February when I saw Laura Benanti's one woman show. This time? I went to Leigh Bardugo's book signing on the day her new book dropped.
Huh. I just noticed the two names both have the same initials. Wonder if that means anything.
Anyway! Bardugo's new book, The Familiar! Set in Inquisition-era Spain, which I now have a compulsive interest in because of my winter break travels and my ideas for Hand Magic and its possible sequels.
I can't wait to read it. Knowing Bardugo, I'll be unable to put it down. Gonna have to set aside a block of time for it. The second photo is of Leigh telling me I look like Emmy Rossum, which I've never gotten before! I get Natasha Lyonne not infrequently because of the hair. Ugh, what a nice thing to say. The event was amazing. She’s such a funny lady.
In another news! I Have Workshopped The Living Hell Out Of My First Chapter. I did this for Manuscript Mart, for which the due date was last Tuesday. They wanted first five pages, and a synopsis and query letter were optional, but highly encouraged. Obviously, I included a synopsis and query letter. The query letter I rewrote six times, with six different pairs of eyes on it. I rewrote the first five pages three times. On the third time, I was irritated about the first two times, so I pregamed by reading The Hunger Games first five pages over and over again, tracking what Collins did to make them so effective.
Want to know what's interesting? They say Show, Don't Tell, but I found Collins actually tells a lot in her opening pages, mostly via Katniss' stream of consciousness. Katniss tells the reader about the Capitol, the Hobb, the Seam, the people, her family, her school, et cetera, all while she's heading to the woods to go hunting. The trick is that Collins shows it all later. And because we've gotten necessary context from what she's given us by telling, by the time we get to the Reaping, we can dial in fully on what's happening and what's at stake.
From this, I learned that it's important to make things as easy for the reader as possible in the opening pages, otherwise they'll put the book down. If a single sentence will explain some critical bit of world-building for the story, just add the sentence. Give readers what they need to know to make sense of what's going on, then show it as you go along.
The chapter I posted for you all back in February still sort of exists, but the book actually starts earlier now, instead of later. Usually they say do the opposite, but my trusted critique partner made some astute observations about themes and character journeys that made it make sense to start earlier. Also, my new pages are a lot more internal. Much more in the protagonist's head and in her feelings. Her character journey literally starts in the first paragraph now. Way better than my first thing, where I was much more concerned with setting up the world. I mean, I’m sure the better chapter will change significantly once again, and I’ll feel really silly for being so proud of it here. But that hasn’t happened yet! So I’m gonna be proud.
Manuscript Mart due date snuck up on me. I wish I'd had time to get more edits in for my pages, and also at least one beta read of the full manuscript. I'm getting one now, doing a swap with someone I met on a writing Discord. From their comments, I already know so many things I'm going to tweak, and they've only gotten the first fifty pages. I am so happy.
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xx Claire
