Check out the lovely Shannon O' Donnell's contest. Ends October 22.
Last week I took the week off. The hubs was off so we enjoyed family time. I got a ton of new ideas which is great, but overwhelming. Some of the characters are pretty pushy about wanting their story written. WiP#1 is super strong though. Maybe because it's my first novel. I'm trying to get through the first round of revisions while learning the process so it's going to take a bit longer than my patience can handle. I get this. I get the fact I have to put in my time. Trust me, I've been working as an interior designer for the past 15 years and I've learned a lot about not only how to coordinate and deal with color, but also how to promote myself and deal with people.
I think there are parts of this journey where I get confused. I'm an amateur or a newbie as some professionals like to call it. I get it. I don't like being called that, but I get it.I'm willing to put in the time and work my butt off because I've never felt more passion and drive for something in my life. I understand things like sentence structure should be varied, watch for the "was", "as", -ing count, how a plot should flow, etc. To me these are just ground rules. I get them and I'm learning them.
Here's where I get confused. I know writing is subjective. I've had many critiques where one person will tell me I must do something different with a part of my story and another person tell me, no, do it this way. I like critiques because that is how I learn. I'm a visual person so for me trial and error (where I'm shown my mistake) sticks with me better. I've tried to look at my critiques like this--if more than two come back with the same comment then change it. If only one notices something, think about it before changing it.
I read something last week from a professonal in the biz that stated not to introduce the love interest early in the story. It sort of sat with me funny because my love interest is introduced in the second chapter. I know I probably have some overwriting there and that I can change, but really is this that bad? I've read plenty of novels (successful ones) that the love interest is introduced early and with some googly, lovey eyes (some overwriting). Also, a while back I had an agent look at my first four chapters (which I know now how horrible they were). This person told me to start with my fourth chapter which introduced my love interest. Now, I've done a lot of revising since then and have come up with --what I think-- is a good way to start it, but it leaves the love interest intro in the second chapter.
It's stuff like this where I think--holy cow now I have to rethink some things and my mind keeps jumping back and forth on what to really follow and what not to. I've read several self help books which don't necessarily address stuff like this.
Is this more of opinion?
Some rules are easy for me to see, but stuff like this just makes me think crazy thoughts. I hope everyone had a great weekend.
I hope to catch up on commenting soon. I know I keep saying that, but my schedule should be straightened out this week. Have a great day!
