It Never Ends (Part 2) or 3?
I’m slowly rewriting short sections of my first novel, A FALSE DAWN, which I published in paperback and online more than three years ago. This is not something I would recommend that ANY novelist do. You should publish a novel once and move on.
Why am I doing such a foolish thing as rewriting an already published novel? Because I didn’t get it right the first time. I spent too much time fooling with the plot (which readers seem to like) and not enough time defining my characters, even my main character, Louise (whom many people either do not like or do not understand.)
If readers don’t like a character, that’s not fatal to a novel. But if readers don’t even understand her, that’s a problem. The lesson I learned from this first novel is, no matter how much time you spend figuring out all the contortions of the plot, you cannot neglect figuring out your characters. And for heaven’s sake, find a good editor, which I never managed to do. So many things I did right for A FALSE DAWN, but those two things I really got wrong. That’s why I feel that I have to fix these things now.
New readers of the novel may not notice much difference. But I will.
About The Author
Jeff Heller
I'm a historical novelist who focuses on Colonial America, particularly the French-Canadians who settled North America in the 1600s and 1700s. My first novel, A FALSE DAWN, features Louise, a young wife and mother who must search for her son and her husband when the English invade their home in French-held Montreal and torch the city.