I think the opening of the book is the thing that has changed the most over the years. This is mostly the result of critique groups where I could only bring ten pages for others to read. As such, I always chose the first ten pages because it needed little explanation like the rest of the book would have. I cannot say how many reiterations of this particular page I went through in fifteen years of sharing it. Part of me wonders if the rest of the book should have gone this deep under the microscope, but in a way I am glad it didn't.
There came a point maybe six years ago where I decided enough was enough and I basically scrapped everything I had up to the previous point and rewrote the whole book. I kept the same two main characters, the same basic idea of the story but I was so tired of seeing just the first chapter that I needed to write a completely new book. I suppose I could have shared much more, given background of other chapters for critique but I wanted the opening to be the best it could be so that it would catch a publisher's eye.
Looking at it now, I'm very happy with the result, though its the process which I lament. I hear about authors taking years to write books but I never imagined that this project would take this long.
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