Okay, I know I'm lame. Here goes...
Dear Blog:
No, I didn't forget about you. Actually, I have been writing this blog post in my head for the last 2 or 3 days but rather than pull you up and get down to business, I have been working on a far more important project. The dreaded re-write! Except it hasn't been as dreaded as I thought it would be.
Big changes, though. One villain, for instance now gets to die at the end of the novel, which is kind of amusing since I haven't even reached the end yet in the edits. Another villain actually undergoes a sex change and becomes a woman.
Plots are thickening, the stakes are getting higher, characters becoming meaner and more involved and complicated. And all around becoming better defined. It is interesting when a character you have formerly loved becomes somewhat of a jerk. You wonder if the reader will see through their bluster and still love them as much as you do. Or if they will be duped by their bad boy, hard exterior and dislike them.
I am enjoying the re-write surprisingly. It's like watching a movie you loved and then finding ways to improve it. There are definitely moments when I cringe and think, "I cannot believe I wrote that" or "I cannot believe that character said that!" and I get out my trusty pen and scribble through it like those mere black lines will erase the fact that I ever put something so lame on the page. But those moments are rare comparitively with the ones where I think, "Sweet, this is great. If I just tweak this or that, it'll be even MORE intense!"
So if I am not around for a while, it is not because I haven't had interesting observations or experiences with the re-write process. Actually, it's more like that this is exactly why I haven't had time to update here.
As your copy editor I have to note that the word "like" in your final sentence should have been "likely"
ReplyDeleteand that I miss you.
And that you are an excellent writer and I am having fun reading your book.