And for my next trick…

I’m going to be revisiting my first completed novel, which was titled Loss of Innocence. It started as a serial right here on this site at the launch of my blog (way back in 2006). I initially conceived it as a near-earth military science fiction novel. The dialogue was somewhat campy, attempting to pay homage to Heinlein, Haldeman, and Drake, and instead sounding like a poor imitation. It’s only as I’ve grown as a writer in the past few years that I’m able to recognize the work for what it is. However, underneath the all of the stylistic issues, there is a pretty neat plot, with several interesting concepts. To my knowledge, no one has done a near-earth military science fiction story.

Among the most grievous of mistakes was my attempt to use first person point of view. This was a mistake in the framework of the story, because there were too many things that needed to happen “off camera” to advance the plot, and I ended up with awkward narration as the main character would “watch video” or “research previous actions.” It not only affected the pacing of the story, it was also terrifically jarring to the reader. Another way in which I intend to excel is to incorporate elements of hard science fiction. There is so little of this on the market now that a good attempt at it (and rest assured, the science in this story will be right) really has the potential to differentiate the story from others under consideration. To do this, I must walk a narrative tight rope. I need to maintain real, poignant character interactions as well as a light tone among some of the “grunts” in the story. The resulting story needs to be accessible and comprehensible without sacrificing plausiblity. Furthermore, it must build suspense until the end, with the readers feeling as though characters in the story are in real danger at every turn.

That means my work is cut out for me. It also means that this will be a complete re-write, and not a revision. Wish me luck, ladies and gentlemen!