And Send...

Last night I pressed the dreaded 'send' button, After two weeks spent hunkering down in the revisions cave I was finally happy with them. Of all the revisions, these, the third set, have been the most challenging. After mulling over the ed's revisions, I sent her an email with how I wanted to incorporate her suggestions and, luckily, she went with it. She also had a few more of her own which were genius.
I didn't have to change the story or its running order but from around chapter seven virtually every conversation between the hero and heroine had to be altered, along with their reactions. The hero's conflict was upped dramatically and I was given free-rein to make the heroine's back-story even more of a car-crash (think Linsday Lohan without the freckles or the jewellery stealing) and these filtered throughout the story.
And now I am happy with it. Really happy with it. Whether or not the ed will be too is another matter. After all, I was happy after finishing my first revisions. And my second...
Before I sign off I want to thank, in alphabetical order, Aimee Duffy, Catherine Coles and Sri Pammi for all their generous help, encouragement and support while I've been doing these revisions. Before I started interacting with other wannabe romance authors I had no idea how incredibly friendly and supportive the romance community could be and these three in particular have made all the difference.
So now for the dreaded wait. Someone pass the silver bucket!
Take care all
xxx

More Revisions!!!!!

Last night I received an email from the editor (she must work crazy hours) with the latest batch of revisions for me. As you may recall I had an email from her a couple of weeks ago promising she would be in touch 'next week' but what I never mentioned was that she also told me it had been passed on to the Senior Editor for Modern (Presents) and it would be the senior ed's thoughts she would be passing on as well as few of her own. To say I was cacking myself would be an understatement - what if the senior ed hated it???? Luckily she didn't. She said I have 'great potential', a 'very readable voice' and 'a sexy story'.
When I saw the actual revisions they wanted though, my heart sank. It went on for so long it felt as if I had taken a step backwards. But then I reread them this morning and I realised they were not as bad as I first feared. Basically, my hero needs a lot more fleshing out - there are times when he's coming across as cruel and the underlying motivation behind it isn't coming through. As the ed said, by the halfway point in the book, the reader does not really know him. Also, my heroine, at a few points, comes across as a walkover. There was then a list of fourteen specific examples highlighting these points, and a couple of suggestions as to the hero's motivation.
Now, in the (very) cold light of day, I can see exactly where they're coming from.  They've asked if I can get it to them by the end of the month which is completely doable. My ed also said: 'If you have any queries please just let me know - I'm here to help you do the best job possible and would love to see you bring this all together.' Methinks she might regret that when I start bombarding her!
I already know how I'm going to fix it but what I don't know is if I'm going to be able to pull it off. I have a feeling that this time, the revisions are a case of do or die.
I shall be heading off to the revisions cave now, and will let you know when I've got them done.
Take care all xxx

Crossing the River

The good news is that I haven't ditched my wip. I nearly did. Until last Sunday I had completed nineteen thousand words. From Monday to Friday I managed a grand total of three thousand (actually I probably wrote double that but I kept ditching chunks). My problem, at the time, was what I often refer to as the 'river crossing' - I can see the other side of the river, I need to cross it, but there's no bridge in sight. In this case, I had completed the first section of the story and I knew what my characters needed to do next but - and here's the big but - they needed to get there in as natural a fashion as possible. It's like the river analogy: in an imaginary world I could have a giant bird offer me a lift to the other side but, because I want to keep my fiction as plausible if not realistic as I can, that would be cheating. So I spent the week tapping out random words and far-fetched scenarios whilst waiting for the bridge to show itself. And guess what? It did. In fact, the bridge had been there all along, right beneath my eyes. I could kick myself. It involved having to rewrite parts of the first completed section (and ditching another couple of thousand words) but I am much happier for it. Now I can plough on into the 'other side' and see where the journey takes me.
So I suppose you're waiting impatiently for me tell you my bad news. Well there isn't any (yet). A week ago last Friday the ed with my full had emailed in response to me chasing to say she would be in touch 'next week'. She never actually clarified which next week so I tried to keep my disappointment to a minimum when Friday came and went with an empty inbox. I say empty but the spammers were having a wonderful time bombarding it. I say tried to keep my disappointment to a minimum and I really did try. And I really did try not checking my inbox every couple of minutes. I know she will get back to me as soon as she can and all I can do is be patient. Unfortunately, as I tweeted just a few days ago, if patience is a virtue then my virtue must be shot!
Take care all xxx