Island of the Lone Sane Thought

Intro/Index of all parts | Read the commentary version

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Glenn's was in Moray Town, which was a good six or seven miles away from the Island. It was empty, as the handful of families that had summer cottages on the Island had already left. Only the Champlains--our closet neighbors--and two other couples lived on the island during the winter, and it was impossible to see the Champlain's house from ours. The other residences and cottages were all on the other side of the Island, which suited me just fine.

Moray Bridge was almost overrun with water; only the old stone railings kept it from complete submission. Mike commented on how high the water was. "We'll be flooded out by the end of the week," he added.

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Intro/Index of all parts | Read without the commentary

So. Here we are at the Wavedancer project. This is an unfinished romance novel I began during the mid-nineties, and I'm going to reread it and record my observations. I hope that I'll learn something from the experience, and that we'll all have fun poking at my sillier mistakes. I have no problem if you link to this. And please, join in the fun!

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When I finally awakened the warm fall sun had all but disappeared beneath the willows, leaving behind the chill that heralded night. I made no move to pull my faded overshirt on, preferring instead to lay in the gentle rocking of the skiff. It was kind of odd to spend this rare moment of free time on the water, given that I was the owner of a charter fishing company, but this was slow-moving river water, far different than the choppy Lake Michigan waters I wrestled with daily. As long as the mosquitoes held their peace I could drift here, alone and uncomplicated.

As an opening, it's not horrible. However, I must point out that I made one of the weirdest beginner mistakes there is: no name for the heroine. Hell, we don't even know she's a she. I think that, in my arrogance, I thought everyone would be interested in this novel, that it would be so awesome that all readers would be intrigued and want to keep reading, and that my heroine was so kickass and awesome that it wouldn't matter that I didn't include any details. She would just capture everyone's attention right off the bat.

Well, that and I couldn't think of a name for her at first. lol. Still, I was convinced that it didn't really matter. Now that I've read a ton of bad fanfic, and a ton of good fanfic, and a lot of advice for writers, I know that this is an amateur writer mistake. Not a terribly common one, but still.

I was never arrogant enough to think that this romance novel would be read by tons of people and would be on a bestseller list, but I really thought that it would appeal to romance readers, and maybe I could write several more.

How wrong I was.

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