Victor Gischler writes:
In my early twenties, I got 50 pages into a novel more times than I can count. I never seemed to be able to finish. I thought I was going to be a sci-fi/fantasy writer, and one time I actually did get 110 pages into a science fiction novel before I could tell on a gut level that it just wasn't working. Even when I finally found an idea that would work (and ended up being my first novel Gun Monkeys) I still had plenty of work to do.
My first reader Anthony Neil Smith gave me some tough (but good) comments on the book. I ended up trashing the whole middle third of the novel and rewrote until I had what I wanted. So I don't have any novels in the closet, but I do have a heap of false starts.
Victor Gischler is the author of three hardboiled mysteries, including the upcoming Suicide Squeeze. His first book, Gun Monkeys, was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
Don't miss Mystery Ink's interview with Victor Gischler.
Comments