Friday, April 16, 2010

Revisions: Selonge Naita, the Martian Spy

Here's another example of Revision at Work.  The following are drafts of chapter openings for a longtime novel project, Jonathan's War.  These sections feature Selonge Naita, a Martian spy participating in a war against Earth.  The Martians have just discovered (in the previous chapter) that one of the soldiers from Earth simply cannot die.  In this second chapter, Selonge will be assigned to solve the mystery of the man who is immune to bullets and lasers and plasma cannons.

Maria Villanueva - Story Openings from "Happy Ever After"

Here I've provided an example of how I go through radical revision/rewriting.  For this story, I was truly stuck when trying to write the opening chapter, so I started over a couple times.  As you read each example, notice how the world I was writing about become more developed with each draft.  I started by trying to write about the setting - by the final draft, I was beginning to reveal the essential character details necessary for a good story...