I’m entering a competition.
It’s for a chance to be published with a well respected publisher. I seriously don’t think I’ll be one of the finalists judging from past winners, but it gives me a chance to be seen by local industry professionals.
Some would say, ‘why bother?’ Well, first off, I’m a paid member of the organisation offering this opportunity, which means it is free for me to submit. But there is a problem. I’m 1800ish words short of the minimum word count.
This manuscript is already polished.
Initial scenes have been read to my writing group, and their critique has helped shape those chapters. Several drafts later, this manuscript has made the rounds to publishers and agents.
This contemporary fiction tale has one Urban Fantasy scene. But the only way not to upset the pace of the book is to add another fantasy scene straight after, which is risky.
In the initial fantasy scene, a major secondary character gives advice to other main characters while they appear as their alter egos from another piece of classic literature. I reference the classic in the title of my manuscript. The advice that is given permeates subconsciously to the characters in the second half of the novel.
To make the new scene valid, it also needs to have ramifications later.
But of course, the reader won’t know that until they finish the book, so they may roll their eyes with the introduction of more surrealism. Fortunately, there is a character who is spoken about but never seen, and in the context of the story, they can only exist outside the narrative.
You may have guessed I’m avoiding spoilers in this blog, so please bear with me. I wrote the initial draft of this new chapter last week which features this mystery character, and like all important scenes, the first attempt is far from great.
Sometimes when you write a scene, the planets align and very little changes draft to draft. But that’s the exception. On the other end of the spectrum, important chapters with important twists in the plot are sometimes reworked over and over. If you still don’t nail it, you’re likely to scrap what you’ve written and start again.
This new scene has to feel it was always in the outline.
It can’t reinstate revelations already made to the reader later in the book, but it can signal them in some way. The best way to do this is to present a different point of view to these revaluations, so when they are mentioned later, there’s yet another new take on them.
Done right, this new scene will be a heartfelt reunion, adding more depth to the narrative overall.
UPDATE: After some research, I’m not applying for the competition mentioned in this blog, but I am applying to a different competition which I have a better chance of winning.
And I’m keeping this extended fantasy scene in the novel. It adds a lot to the overall emotional intensity to this work.
kevin klehr 