Why I Don't Have My Revisions Finished, II

The real reasons I haven't got my revisions finished:









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Enough said?

Why I Don't Have My Revisions Finished

The silence you've seen (heard?) from my end is because I have been devoted to working on my revisions since I got back from the west.

Well, I also got a cold and that slowed things down a bit. As did the multitude of electrical storms that had me turning the computer off and on more than I would have liked.

But I've been working -- and I need to go on record as saying that if anyone ever says to you, an editor for example, that if you just changed one thing in the beginning bit -- have the hero say yes instead of no -- that won't be much trouble, it's just one word, right? Don't believe them!

Yes, it's just one word. But the ramifications are, um, vast. Basically it changes everything that happens to some degree for the rest of the book. Which means not only writing about what happens once he says, "yes," but also what happens after he's done what he's agreed to do.

Because, believe me, baby, things are not the same.

I knew that. I knew it when I started. And I wouldn't have agreed to do it if I hadn't seen that there was some wisdom in doing it that way. It's a different angle on the same story, but a stronger angle, perhaps. And that's all to the good.

But it's taking time to do right.

And of course I couldn't get to it because I was busy. And I would post some of the real Extremely Important Reasons I was busy here, but Blogger isn't uploading pix tonight.

So I'll do it tomorrow. I hope.

Meanwhile I'm heading back to the book.

Mom Camp III

Here we are at Mom Camp.

Well, not this pic. This is the grandkids -- and several hundred kids all at the same camp. But because they are, we have Mom Camp for the third year running.

It's the week my daughter and I look forward to all year, when her daughter and whichever cousins are the right age (only one this year) go to our local university sports camp from 8:30 in the morning until 9:30 in the evening and she and I get to enjoy each other's company.

This year Mom Camp has taken a slightly different spin because our side-kick and honorary member, my cousin's 16 year old daughter, isn't here to join us. She thought the Naval Academy at Annapolis was a better alternative. Some people really have no idea about what constitutes A Good Thing.

So it's just been the two of us -- and she had to give a final and do some preparation for fall classes, and I finally have my revision letter. So the mornings at Mom Camp are filled with WORK (and occasional breaks for tea and the Tour de France).

The afternoons, however, we've been doing fun stuff -- and napping. As a rule I don't nap. It usually makes me feel worse than I felt simply tired. But I've been fading in the afternoons so far this week, so I haven't fought it off or 'played through' it.

Last year, you may remember that we had a crisis on the first day of sports camp when the elder child knocked out his teeth. This year -- so far -- no one has done anything untoward. At least no one we're related to.

But the week is early yet. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Hard to type that way, but I feel it's safer.

The revision letter was very useful. I'm blessed with an editor who has both a grasp of what the book needs and what I do well. And she's probably the only editor for Presents who has ever told ME to make my hero nicer.

Nicer?

Hard to imagine. McAllister heroes ARE nice. They could hardly be nicer.

And yet, I understand what she's saying. When they brood they can get surly and annoying -- and she wants Demetrios to stop being quite so surly.

No problem. I can do that. It's the surly bit that I have trouble with (maybe that's why it didn't work).

I'm very glad she knows what I can do -- what my voice requires -- and encourages me to do it. Don't know how much of it I'm going to be able to finish this week, but if I don't get it all done (and that doesn't seem likely), it will come along with me on our trip west.

I wish I could leave it here for Mitch and Micah and the dogsitters who are living with them, but I can't expect them to do revisions for me, too.

People are beginning to gather in Washington, DC for the RWA National conference. I've had emails from a couple of friends who've arrived today and spoke with Anne Gracie who is in New York visiting her editor and agent before the conference. I envy them the trip, but I have plans of my own for NYC coming up in the autumn.

But more about that later. In the meantime, I'm off to revise chapter three.

Happy Anniversary to Kate Walker and Mr Kate Walker who are, even as I write this, winging their way to Washington. Hope you and the mister enjoy the conference, Kate.

If you were at RNA, did you have a good time? What was the best part? If you're on your way to RWA, I don't expect you'll have time to comment, but I'd love to hear from you about the conference and what you learned.

Don't forget, if you haven't entered Sol's contest, you have until July 16th to do so. Send entries from the contest webpage, please.

The Ripple Effect

The discussion of revising and, particularly, of 'middles' seems to have struck a chord.

Why am I not surprised?

So I thought I would touch on the notion of the ripple effect which anyone who writes surely must be aware of. And if you're not, you need to be.

Ripples are what happen when you toss a rock in the water, yes? No rock, no ripples resulting. But the minute a rock lands -- or you make a change in a manuscript -- everything thereafter (and sometimes everything before) has to change as well.

Why?

Because everything is connected. Everything tends to result from something else and lead to something else.

Example: Anne Gracie said to me last week, "I'd rather see Demetrios convince Anny to come with him rather than have her just turn up on the boat."

Simple, yes. A new scene in which she turns up on the dock, says what she's come to say, then turns and leaves.

Why? Where's she going? Why?

And then he goes after her.

Why? (He must be out of his mind).

He convinces her.

Why?

He has his reasons.

Why?

Because of something that happened in his backstory.

Why did it happen?

Because that's the kind of guy he is, has always been.

And then presuming he succeeds, what then?

She didn't expect to be on a boat.

Now what?

And of course none of the 'now what' falls into what I've already written in chapters 5 and 6. So they have to be completely rewritten with new stuff that follows from the simple change in one scene.

So does the earlier stuff -- before the boat scene -- because otherwise it wouldn't have occurred to him to convince her. In fact, he isn't at all sure this is a good idea.

Sadly, I can't just simply write down, "Because Anne told me to."

If ripples aren't your thing, think about Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In that book he talks about making small changes.

He says that if you just change a rocket's trajectory by one degree at lift-off, it will be thousands of miles away from where it would have been if you'd kept the original trajectory. For good or ill, one small change effects everything that comes after.

Yet another way of saying, "One thing leads to another." There's just no getting around it -- even in books.

So I'm off now to deal with my ripples. I have, however, had a bit of good news to go with it.

My editor is off to France for the week so I have now got until the 22nd to deal with all the ripples and make sense of this thing.

And how are your middles doing today?