I started writing Souls Unknowing back in 2004, when I was a sophomore in high school, and after a considerable hiatus, I finished the novel in 2006. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but I knew that it would need a lot of work before it would be even remotely close to publishable. As the years passed and I learned more about my writing, I thought about what changes I needed to make if I wanted to really make SU shine.
One of the biggest issues was that I originally wrote the novel in third person present tense. I cringe even thinking about that decision now. But, another issue that had cropped up thanks to the input from several of my early stage readers back then was that the prologue seemed to be emotionally distant and several people suggested that I focus that prologue on just the experience and feelings of one of the soon-to-be ghosts.
I can honestly say that now, after re-writing the prologue, those people who made that suggestion were all geniuses. Not only did I focus it on one character, but it is told from her point of view and without ever mentioning her name, because that will become an important part of the later plots. I love the new prologue quite a bit.
However, I can also say that I don't exactly consider that prologue to be the start of the story. It is the start of the novel, but practically the entire story--aside from the prologue--takes place in the present day. The more I read the original draft, the more I sort of hated it. I had Tru and her brother Luke in a car with their dad as he drove them to their new boarding school. It felt dull and forced and like so many other books I'd read, where the story starts off with a character or characters arriving at school and settling in, blah blah blah.
When I tried to re-write that first chapter I kept running into issues with trying to start the story with a focus on Tru, and it never felt right. Eventually I just wrote the basic idea down and continued with the story, since I put myself on a personal deadline for getting the story re-written, polished, and released.
Today, at work, I was finally struck with the perfect idea to fix that beginning with Tru and from that point I could just feel the words bubbling up and ready to explode from me and onto the page. I can still have the focus on Tru, but utilize another important character from the story to do so. Instead of following as Tru settles into her room and meets people, I can instead have Ian basically observing what happens when this new girl arrives at school and the ripples it causes around everyone else. Plus, with Ian already being so knowledgeable and accepting of his gift to see and speak to ghosts, he can also already point out that Tru is gifted, which brings the paranormal aspect in just a little sooner.
The big question now will be just how much this new beginning will affect the rest of the novel. If it slips seamlessly into place then I should still be able to have Souls Unknowing out by the end of January. But, if it causes a couple other scenes and such to be moved around or edited in any way then it may push the publication day back just a bit. At the very latest (I swear), this novel will be out by February 28, 2014. In some ways that could be nice, because then you'll be able to enjoy Project Death: Revelation in June/July and then Souls Abandoned will be out Dec/Jan 2015.
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