{"id":6995,"date":"2016-04-10T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T06:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6995"},"modified":"2016-04-10T07:00:24","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T06:00:24","slug":"a-dive-into-the-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/films\/a-dive-into-the-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"A dive into the archives"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The old archive – when everything was in hard copy… page proofs and magazine stories and rejected novels. Now it’s all in my computer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I never throw away anything I write. Even if it\u2019s terrible. It\u2019s not just because I am a pack rat and have trouble throwing anything away (although I am and I do- as testified to by my messy office).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because there\u2019s no such thing as a bad idea. A bad idea is just an idea that hasn\u2019t been fully developed. It\u2019s also because writing, like any other skill, is learned and improved on over time. An idea I might not have been able to properly develop ten years ago, might just be a trigger for something better today.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 and here\u2019s where I am putting it all out there .. I thought I would take you with me on a dive back into my archives<\/p>\n

The whole idea was prompted by a blog I wrote last week over of the Take Five Authors <\/a>site. I was talking about prologues. I\u2019ve only ever written one \u2013 in a book that was never published. So I went back and had a look at it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to share it with you. Please \u2026 be kind.<\/p>\n

In my head the book is called Lust in The Dust (no sniggering \u2013 that\u2019s actually the name of a 1958 comedy western which even I haven\u2019t ever watched). It was submitted (and rejected) under the name Secrets in the Sand.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s loosely inspired by a film called The Sheik, starring the legendary Rudolph Valentino. It\u2019s a 1921 silent film and truly dire. But, at the time, it was a huge hit, as was The Son of The Sheik.<\/p>\n

\"Valentino
Valentino … not exactly today’s hero, but he was handsome. I hate the sculpted eyebrows though.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the film \u2013 and in my book \u2013 our English heroine is captured by a desert Sheik and whisked away to his harem. Of course she falls in love with him. My book is a contemporary novel, so the heroine is an archaeologist and the harem is actually a secret ancient\u00a0tomb.\u00a0I added a suspense sub-plot involving black market antiquities\u2026 but there was a scene in which our hero appeared mounted on a white horse \u00e0 la Valentino.<\/p>\n

It had a prologue. Here\u2019s the first version\u2026<\/p>\n

Prologue.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Women aren’t kidnapped into harems anymore,” Kayla said out loud. Even to her own ears, she didn’t sound too certain. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Don’t be silly. This is the 21st century.” <\/em><\/p>\n

That didn’t help much either. Not when she looked at the figure ahead of her, blocking the end of the dry riverbed. Either side of Kayla, the rock walls rose sharply against the searing blue of the desert sky. There was no way she could climb out of the narrow wadi. If she wanted to get to the antiquities office, she had to go past the horseman.<\/em><\/p>\n

He had appeared just a few seconds before, a dark silhouette against the glare of sunlight where the cleft opened onto a wide path. He seemed to come from nowhere. One moment, her way back to the ruins was clear. The next, the menacing apparition loomed ahead of her.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know \u2013 terrible isn\u2019t it? It was more a flash forward than a prologue, because I was looking for a \u2018hook\u2019 to drag the reader in and thought being kidnapped by a man on a white horse was just the thing. I realise now the flash forward was there because the opening chapter wasn\u2019t exciting enough. It had no hook.<\/p>\n

After that version was deservedly rejected by some very well know literary agents, I did a re-write\u2026<\/p>\n

Prologue.<\/em><\/p>\n

The tomb entrance was a black scar against the rich red rock. The chamber beyond had none of the ornamentation that graced the ancient tombs of the nearby city. The workers who carved this tomb were not artisans, merely faithful servants of a dying master. Now they waited with heads bowed, for permission to carry their lord’s body to its resting-place. <\/em><\/p>\n

The woman was veiled, in the Bedouin fashion, only her eyes visible. Those eyes were blue. She looked across at the workers. Even after all these years, they would not meet her foreigner’s gaze.<\/em><\/p>\n

“In sha’Allah.” She spoke Arabic well.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is better. This is a true prologue \u2013 a scene that occurred before the novel actually starts. It is the start of a dual timeline novel. Reading the opening chapters again, I have discovered the book really does have some merit. I rather like the idea of the reflection of two women, a hundred years apart, who are very different yet share both character traits and experiences. This early attempt needed a lot more research and more writing skill than I possessed at the time. It also needed my red coloured pencil.<\/p>\n

\"I
I think I may have saved about three good sentences.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since then, I have travelled many times to the Middle East and spent a lot of time in museums. I have read a lot and written a lot. I have learned a lot. I think today I could write this dual time line novel and make it a good one. With research, I could plot a suspense story around black market antiquities. And, I do rather like the idea of writing a cross cultural romance.<\/p>\n

My 2016 version of Lust in the Dust would be very different and a lot better than my\u00a02003 version. It might even be worth publishing.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I never throw away anything I\u2019ve written \u2013 no matter how terrible it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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