Saturday, May 2, 2015

Is It Over Yet?

Yes! Thank goodness.

April was just nuts for me. Why did I do it to myself? Why did I sign up for so many classes, all at once?

Beats me but I did learn a lot, so it was worth it. Still, I'm not going to do that to myself again (she said with crossed fingers).

I did do a good deal of writing on the book. Much of it is backstory, but that's a good thing. It means I know my characters a lot better now and can write them with more authority. In fact, I wrote over 6000 words of backstory in a single sitting. Will any of it be in the book? Not likely but it's possible.

Of course, I have created a problem for myself...I have so many good 'opening scenes' that now I'm not sure which one to actually open the book with.

One of the two (yes, only two) classes running through May is for writing romance. Naturally, I'm being told that the book needs to start with the heroine. Trouble is, it's actually about the hero - or it has been so far. That being said, I realized that I didn't know my heroine as well as I needed to so focusing on her is helping me to learn about her and how she is and she's not entirely the soft touch I originally thought her to be. This girl's got some attitude, which is a good thing because she's going to need it to deal with her hero.

They have a past and not a very good one. They'll have to work through all that resentment in order to live happily ever after together. They'll also have to deal with her father who is essentially trying to kill him and force her back into the life he's decided she will live. Yeah, I'm pretty hard on my characters but then, that's what makes a good story. Am I right?

So, May will be all about bringing all these pieces together into something more or less coherent so that my readers will have a good story to read....and rip apart. I'll then do another editing run through, using their suggestions...or not. Then, hopefully, I'll have something to send to an artist to do my cover and then, maybe, I'll have the book up on Amazon first of next year. Depends on when I can get with an artist and how long the artist will take to do the cover.

Or, I'll submit the finished manuscript to an indie publisher like Booktrope and let them help me do the hard work. My friend who is with them just got the notes back from the editor. She left writer's group feeling just a tad overwhelmed. We tried to encourage her, but even I had to admit, there was a lot the editor had to say but then not all of it was going to require major revisions. Just a tweak here and there. But it did prove to me that knowing the backstory as well as the purpose for every character in your book is very important. As if I needed more proof than my own experience.