Novelist, Playwright

1

Where do you want me to start?

As I proceed on revisions to The Mountain Man’s Badge, book 3 in the Mountain Man Mysteries series, there’s one big decision ahead of me that I really need my readers’ help in deciding.

Where do I begin?

Don’t get me wrong: I have a complete draft of the novel, so I’m not asking “how do I begin writing this story.” It’s more: where would you like me to dive into the telling?

It comes down to a few options:

  1. Should I assume everyone’s already happy with Lehigh as a character, and dive right into the action without setting up what a great guy he is? OR:
  2. Should I spend some time reminding series readers (and filling in newcomers to the series) about the strength of his character and how he got into the predicament he’s in before dumping a dead body onto the scene?

(Oh, snap. Spoiler alert!)

There’s an argument to be made on each side. The traditional approach is to assume everyone’s picking up this book without having read the others, so background and exposition is necessary. But series fanatics insist otherwise – “don’t make me skim through stuff I already know,” they say.

Where do you land on this?

Gary Corbin • February 15, 2018


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Comments

  1. Andrea Adams March 13, 2018 - 12:03 am

    I can relate to both sides, however I have begun a series far down the line and enjoyed it more knowing…just enough…so I wanted to go back and start from the beginning. So yes to recapping but only just enough to get repeat readers.

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