Hello, Insiders!
Matt here again.
Oof. That’s the best way to put it. Just… oof!
David and I have been leaving notes on each others books-in-progress. Now David’s book, a brand new Jake Fletcher story, had plenty of story notes that needed attention by the time I handed it back, but was, basically, sound. My book…?
Oof!
I knew as soon as I handed it over that I wasn’t happy with it. Wasn’t sure why, but I knew it didn’t work for me, which is not a great place to be. When David seemed to be having similar feelings about it, I walked away from it for a couple of days and had a think about just what had gone wrong. And then I realised…
…I’d betrayed the central conceit of the story. This book was born when I was in the shower (please try not to picture that, you may pass out) and a single tag line for a story popped into my head. A line we could use to tantalise a thriller audience. A line that, I realised as I looked through my story again, I had ignored for most of it. It should be the central drive of the whole thing, and yet I’d awkwardly pushed it aside and told a mostly different story.
Yes, I am a fool.
As soon as I realised that, the whole book came back into sharp focus for me again and I saw that a muuuuch better, tenser, creepier story was waiting to be told. So that’s the story I’m telling now. Maddie’s story. It’s gonna be a weird one! But what else is new?
Matt.
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