Hi Folks,

The first three chapters are typically part of the query letter package for an agent. Concerned that I was getting off-target with the revisions, I threw together the revisions and got some feedback. When I did, I discovered two things:

1) I have created a big. damn. world.

2) My story lost its focus.

I spent some time away from ARGENTUM so that I could put my mistake behind me. Then I deconstructed similar genres of novels to see a) how many characters were introduced and b) how often they were mentioned. Part of what I discovered, was that the characters I had introduced in the main chapters were exploring the setting but not the story.

From those lessons, I rebuilt a rough outline for ARGENTUM, one that is a lot more focused. Then I had a serious “think” about the chapter breaks (e.g. pieces of memory). Even though they may not individually be related to this specific plot, they are as a whole. So they definitely need to stay.

Now that I have a rough outline, I can see where the holes are, what characters I need to flesh out, what settings I need to explore and what “new” things I need to add.

I will say one thing, though…there’s enough story for me to keep going for dozens and dozens of books. Here’s hoping that becomes a possibility, eh?

So I decided to run a December Writing Marathon on my blog located at . My goal is to have the book completely revised by the end of March, if not sooner, so hopefully this will give me a huge jump start!