Re-Visioning

I’m reasonably certain that I don’t need to visit any amusement parks this summer – this writer’s conference has been enough of a roller coaster to last me quite a while. I suspected that it might be, but, to steal a phrase from the imaginary cowboys who live in my head, boy howdy, I had no idea.

I came here with what I thought was a reasonably well put together novel. Now, I had no imagining that it wasn’t in need of a little editing here and there – no one is perfect, after all. I was confident enough that I paid for a critique of the first 40 pages, thinking that most of the commentary was going to be mechanical (because, after all, the story was brilliant! The characters were delightful! And I am witty and cute!)

Turns out, my heroine is unlikeable (that’s the mildest term used) and my hero comes off gay. Not really what I was going for.

To add insult to injury (well, at least in my fragile, delicate mind that’s how I saw it. I can be a tad dramatic at times), taking a class on the rule of romance revealed that I had broken pretty much all of them…including some that weren’t really written. (And honestly, that was annoying because I read romance. I know the rules. And I thought I’d followed the majority of them, though I knew I bent a couple.)

And so I wallowed somewhere between “Good Lord, what was I thinking coming here?” and “Clearly I’m delusional and should not listen to anyone who reads my writing and says it’s anything other than trash.” Then I had two separate and very encouraging conversations with two wonderful women and I stepped back, resolute in my thought that I would just put this book away on my little virtual shelf, and move on with something else.

Then God hit me with a plan. The woman who did my critique (who is someone whose novels I enjoy and whose opinion I truly respect – which is probably why it crushed me just a little bit more than is reasonable…and really, she was so nice about it. It wasn’t her!) wondered aloud to me if there was a different place to start the book – somewhere down the road where the heroine was more likeable (she does become likeable). She suggested a place based on my synopsis, but that really didn’t work. But I did finally see where it might work…chapter 25.

Yeah. Chapter 25 is my new chapter 1 (or at least, that’s what I’m going to work with for a little while.) I’m also going to tweak the relationship with the hero, which will, incidentally, make it fall back in line with the rules. (No more rule bending/breaking for me!) (Also, is anyone else unable to say/read/write the word “tweak” without hearing Tom Hanks in their head?)

It’s more than a little frustrating to go from 90,000 words (ish) to about 25,000…but I’ve got an incredibly detailed back story for my heroine all spelled out in living color, and that can only be good going forward. Right?