D. Lee Jackson

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A Writing Job Awaits Thee, O New Laptop

Posted on 2016-05-01 Written by D. Lee Jackson

New LaptopMonday (May 2nd) marks the day when I anticipate seeing progress on my laptop build. The company, XOTIC PC, already has my money after processing my order. I expect to see them put it to use during the upcoming week.

In the meanwhile, I have already lined up a new job for the incoming Gigabyte P55Wv5-SL1 Windows 10 system, complete with its 16GB of DDR4 RAM and its 512GB Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD.

I’m going to launch into draft number eight of Tapper, the sci-fi novel I have been writing since God Knows When.

“Wait a minute,” you might say. “Didn’t you say you were submitting query letters on your last draft to agents for possible representation?” The answer is yes, and their answer was no. I only sent out three queries, mind you, but none of them panned out. I’m not disappointed—Lord knows how many times now-famous authors have received an “it’s not for me” response in their early days. I got two of them. (The third was a form letter with a “Dear Author:” salutation.)

Tapper has always been built around an event that happens in chapter one which changes how scientists see the human mind. Chapter two starts fifty-one years after the events in chapter one. I’ve been told by some critiquers on Scribophile that this time skip presents a problem. I’m only now coming around to their side, and my reason is linked to the query process.

Many agents want to see the first ten pages of a novel as part of a query. I’ve decided that my first ten pages (and entire first chapter, for that matter) do not do Tapper justice. However, there is one portion of chapter one that stands on its own, sets up a good bit of suspense, and links the past to the present without going into the whole backstory. That portion will now become page one of Tapper. It will be followed immediately by the introduction of my protagonist. The rest of chapter one’s events will be incorporated into a later chapter, where their impact should be stronger.

This is not the only tweak I intend to make. I’m going to go over the entire text—again—with the proverbial fine-toothed comb. I intend to make Tapper the strongest novel that I can possibly write. If that means cutting scenes, so be it. The same goes for rewriting and adding scenes, although I feel I’ll be doing more rewriting than adding.

So, brace yourself, my incoming laptop. You’re going to get a workout from the moment you arrive. I hope you’re up to it.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thank you for reading!

Filed Under: words Tagged With: computer, novel, query, writing

Hello, and welcome! My name is Lee Jackson, and I'm the composer of "Grabbag," the theme to the video game Duke Nukem 3D, plus music for Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior (the original). I've got four albums out, with tracks on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud! Read More…

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