A New Start

I've started work on a new book...which isn't exactly a new, new book, but a new version of a story I've started three previous times. I'm trying to write a fast first draft since I know these characters tolerably well. They've been lurking around in my head through and between those various proposals. Anyway, a dirty draft would allow me to get all the story down without my usual obsessive search for the right word and sentence structure and reading rhythm.

It's not easy to change one's habits, however. I keep coming back to the start, knowing I don't yet have the right opening and fussing because I want it close-to-right before I move on. Yesterday I scored a breakthrough. I realised that my opening didn't work because my heroine was "found" the wrong way. In other words, I'd chosen this situation which highlighted her conflict but didn't show her in the best light. In fact, she wasn't acting true to character.

My new opening isn't brilliant; it still needs work; but I'm getting closer. And at least I've shown her true colours. Opening line of what's currently the prologue: Susannah Horton spent the day before her wedding the same as any other Friday.

The prologue may yet go, if I can feed those details in later. I know chapter one starts in the right place and with my hero shown true to his character, although I'm still searching for a decent opening line. At the moment I have: Twenty-four hours at Stranger's Bluff and nothing had flicked the switch in Donovan's memory.