Finally getting back to my NaNo editing. So much hospital visit transit and other stresses over the past month put that work on the back burner. The time away was well spent though as I got to think through some things that needed work before I jumped in and started killing my darlings. I’ve pretty much had the same opening since I started it two years ago. I’ve even had the first two sections workshopped to good effect but no one said the things took too long to get going – my first few pages are funny and certainly set the mood but don’t get the plot in motion quickly enough. So out they go. The information in them can be set in place at other points in the story. I had to get my hero in contact with his his first ‘antagonist’ sooner. It now starts:
“Harris felt her eyes on him as he dabbed at the sauce from the pulled pork sandwich that had dripped onto his Aquaman tee-shirt. He loved eating on the subway but hated people watching him. He didn’t look up. His feet felt trapped in the new shoes he was breaking in. Trapped and hot.”
Brings them together in the first sentence. Plus gives a pretty clear picture of my ‘hero’ and his eating habits, his sloppiness and his geek quotient. The novel runs to just over 99,000 words so I have lots of work ahead of me. I’d like to have the next draft ready for Bloody Words in June (http://www.bloodywords2012.com/) so I’ll have something to pitch to an agent. Maybe even submit the first 30 pages for evaluation – deadline for evaluation is April 1.
Watched a great movie I recorded from French CBC – Providence (1977) directed by Alain Resnais. The way he plays with narrative structure, dialogue and continuity is delightful and inspiring. It comes up rarely on TV, so far no DVD either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_(1977_film)
TOpoet 
Hahaha, what a vivid first paragraph. I can see a brownish stain on his shirt (in my mind it’s lime green, not sure why).
You’ve gained an intrigued reader. Have fun pruning your novel like a bonsai tree. 🙂