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My sister said my opening chapter was boring so I rewrote it 4 times and now she says she liked the first one
I sent my sister the first chapter of my novel back in March and she said the opening was flat, so I rewrote it 4 times and each version got shorter and angrier. Last night she read all of them and said the first one was actually fine and I ruined it, which made me want to throw my laptop off my balcony here in Reno. Do you guys save every draft somewhere so you can go back, or do you just trust the first version and move on?
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the_simon15d ago
That line about each version getting shorter and angrier hits home, because that is exactly what happens when you rewrite out of frustration instead of out of a real plan. My question is this: when she read that first version back in March, did she tell you anything specific about what felt flat, or did she just say it was boring and leave it at that? Because if she gave you nothing to work with, you spent months fixing a problem nobody actually named. And when she read all five last night, was she reading them fresh, or was she comparing them to a memory of the first one that got better in her head over time? That part matters a lot before you decide whether she is a good reader for you at all.
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