Rewriting "Takeover."

Finally sat down to wrestle with "Takeover."

I very much like what I did there. But it was an experiment that didn't quite work, reading wise. It was a bunch of individual testimonials in individual voices, which was what I was after, but there wasn't a strong narrative thread, almost by definition.

The last 2/3rds of the book is straight ahead action/thriller plot and works really well, I think.

Turns out, I can write thrillers. They may actually be more successful in execution than my horror and SF novels.

There does seem to be a different process, however. In the both of the thrillers I'd written before "Takeover," I had first drafts that really didn't work, so I rearranged chapters and tried a second version, and that made some of it better and some of it worse.

In both cases, after a long hiatus, I came back and rearranged and rewrote them in a form that really improved the plot.

What this most reminds me of--if I may--is my term papers in college. Usually I'd do a rough sketch of what I wanted to say, then set it aside, come back and do a second version, then set it aside, and after a bit of thinking, come back a third time and if I was lucky, the narrative would become clear.

So really, with "Takeover," I'm still in the second phase.

It's hard, because I'm having to write new material when my creative phase is already gone. It's more of a mechanical process. Or perhaps a more positive way to put it, it's a "crafting" phase.

I have to create more of a linear narrative for the first third of the book. I'm also putting characters from "Deadfall Ridge" into the story. Hart Davis, of course, and Granger, and Nicole.

I'd hoped to take the putative main character and substitute him with Hart, but I've discovered that I have to split him between Hart and Granger.

Which means that, just as in the original draft, there probably won't be a "main" character, but it's more of an ensemble. I'll try to build up Hart as much as possible. Might require writing a couple of new chapters.

If nothing else, the narrative flow should be better.

Like I said, this is the crafting of a rough second draft, and won't be the final form. But the final form can't be shaped until this draft is done.


ADDED: Talking to Linda about how both "Deadfall Ridge" and my fire book finally came together when I wrote a prologue chapter setting up the scenario and the characters, but damned if I could think of anything for "Takeover."

And then, just like that, I had it. A set-up scene with action! Exactly what was called for!

I love it when that happens.