Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Writing again?

I have been writing again. I have an old romance novel/ghost story in my head that I lovingly refer to as the prequel, as its the love story of my main characters in my Fashion and Fiends series. I wrote half of it, once upon a time, but hit 50,000 words and when things got good, I couldn't keep going.

For years, I had this dead spot.

And then I asked myself two questions: What if we saw her perspective? (The story is told from two view points: the young man falling in love and his dead father.) What if her mom knew about the relationship? (As it stands, they hide their relationship.)

That got me thinking even more: What if her mom encouraged their relationship? Maybe did some matchmaking?

I started this story years ago, before my daughter was born. She just turned seven. And yet, it never occurred to me to include the female love interests thoughts and conflicts in the story.

So I guess my point is, every once in a while you have to look at your manuscript intentionally asking the obvious questions and toying with the answers.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

More on first lines

In my mind, I've been reworking some chapters in my first volume of my Fashion and Fiends series. Except the more I contemplate, the more I think I'm treading into rewrite territory instead of edit... Is this Galen's story (the villain from Manipulations and Courting Apparitions, the first two volumes in the series) or is it someone else's story?

The ideas I've found make Galen a better character, and I think he needs them unless I'm willing to relegate him to a less-than-my-best status and I don't think I am ready for that.

I opened my file and planned to read the text noting what edits would be necessary if I implemented my ideas. It became overwhelming quickly. So I started drafting potential new first chapters. And today, after six weeks of summer class and no real word gain on any of my personal projects, I wrote this line as my proposed new opening:

The sanctuary trembled on shockwaves of heat, rattling the century-old stained glass, as Galen flung his wooden staff toward his lover. 

Of course, I already want to change "lover" to "sister" and show them doing something naughty in the next sentence.

I suppose the moral of this blog remains to be seen, but I have to reiterate that you have to follow your instincts when you think something is wrong with the text.