For some reason, I find my self revising the second draft of Naga Story. And I’m not sure why. I finished its first draft a long time ago. Two jobs and three (or four?) novels have passed since then.
I stopped production because when I was done, I just felt disgusted with it. I felt the quality of the writing was poor, I barely had enough story to make 90,000 words (which would be reduced upon the second draft). I didn’t know what audience this was for. It wasn’t commercial enough (what shelf do you put “lovesick snake girl” on in Barnes & Noble?). I remember being excited during pre-writing–the world-building, the characters. But when it got down on paper and was brought into, it didn’t look as good.
Maybe I just got burnt out on it — I remember it took just about all my stint at Ameriprise to write it, sitting in the first floor lounge of a downtown high-rise, sitting in a too-big seat among the conference rooms. Using a crappy laptop I got with credit card points. I think I was disappointed that I hadn’t had any bites on my previous novel.
It’s been nearly four years since I last opened up this file. I don’t what motivated me to do so. Like I said, I finished Superhero Make-a-Wish. Since then I’ve also finished the first draft of an erotica for my alternate personality. But I just wasn’t ready to jump into the second draft of Superhero story yet. Not enough incubation time. So I took a look at Naga Story.
It’s not so bad. Not as bad as I remember. But the beginning was really strong (IMO). The ending is what got wonky. But the beginning is the most important part and needs a lot of scrutiny. And my writing skill has improved significantly since then. I can see lack of clarity–there’s a lot of information to communicate about this universe–but the prose is pretty nice.
I’ve only revised the prologue so far–about two pages. But so far it doesn’t seem beyond salvation. Not like I remember it being. Should I continue on with this? Or should I do more studying as I originally was going to do? I don’t know.
