urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire The Journal of Seanan McGuire Seanan McGuire 2008-06-12T16:27:01Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:seanan_mcguire:7376 2008-06-12T16:27:01Z 2008-06-12T16:27:01Z Shawn Colvin, 'Sunny Came Home.' Last night, after a lot of introspection, prodding, and generally gnawing at the idea like a velociraptor gnaws on a brontosaurus bone, I took the entire first chapter of <i>An Artificial Night</i>, shifted it to a separate file (where it wouldn't get in the way), and started working on a new first chapter. It contains a lot of the same elements and setting-establishment themes, but is, at the same time, a very, very different beastie. This has become a pattern. Every time I start revising a book, the first chapter seems to wind up in the recycling bin.<br /><br />(I am at least reasonably confident that this won't happen with <i>Newsflesh</i>, since it starts with rip-roaring zombie adventure, or with <i>Chasing St. Margaret</i>, which starts with...um...Indian food. And I'm pretty sure taking off the first chapter of <i>Upon A Star</i> would cause the rest of the book to stop making any sort of linear sense. So it's probably safe.)<br /><br />I find this part of the process insanely annoying -- I had a perfectly good front porch on this house! I was just getting used to it! -- but also deeply gratifying, because I have yet to build a <i>new</i> porch that isn't substantially better than the <i>old</i> porch. Plus, it gives me the excuse to really go to town with the chainsaw, and I always love that.<br /><br />(Editing viciously and with little concern for life or limb, machete. Editing carefully, with surgical care and precision, scalpel. Editing in a way that leaves women weeping, strong men sick to their stomachs, and entire chapters broken and bleeding on the road to editorial perfection, chainsaw. I don't get to use the chainsaw very often. It is not an instrument for small adjustments. The chainsaw does not forgive authorial weakness. The chainsaw does not care. I love the chainsaw.)<br /><br />I should be finished with the new porch by the end of today, and I'm just sort of amazed, because it's so very clearly a better porch, and it's so very clearly the porch we needed, and yet? I really thought the old porch was the right one.<br /><br />It's a funny old game, writing.