The Editor's Review

So as I expected, the editor's review of my manuscript is a mixed bag.  I haven't had the chance to go over more than just the overview.  Much of it is very, very positive.  But there's still a long list of stuff I need to work on.  She didn't immediately discount my characters as unlikeable as at least one of my readers did, but she did give me pointers about how to make them more likeable, which is helpful.  I will have to go through the line by line suggestions.  I'm sure there is much from which I can learn.  And much work to do.

Sigh.  There is no such thing as a manuscript that is perfect.  I just have to achieve publishability.  That's still going to be a long haul.  But at least I know how I can do it.

I did it!

Last week, I said I was going to get my major rewrite of my manuscript done.  I worked hard over this last week and one day late, I got it to the editor for recommendations.  I've rarely felt that satisfied as when I finished that.  Few things are quite as tedious as that kind of revision, switching from first to third person.  I know it still needs work.  I got further suggestions from another writer, some of which may match what I hear from an editor.  But I won't mess with any of it until I have it all sitting in front of me.  Then I'll use what works and get it submitted [again] for possible publication.  If this next publisher passes, I'm back and forth between independent publishing and a small publisher.  I don't mind the idea of going indie, though it would be nice to have the name recognition of a publisher for at least my first one.  

Meanwhile, I'm kind of at a loss as to what I should work on next when it comes to writing.  I'd love to just write, but I know that manuscript's sequel/spin-off needs work, too.  I've just been so single-minded for around two months that I haven't been into anything else for a while.  It does feel nice to know I have choices.  It's a good place to be.  

Choked

So much for my writing deadline.  It doesn't help when I know the due dates are artificial.  I got a lot of work done toward getting my manuscript edited by the deadline.  But a lot is not the same as all, not by half.  I knew deep down [or not so deep down] that the deadline wouldn't make me or break me.  I want this manuscript done and sent to the editor.  I want to move on to my other book for a while.  But it's really hard to sit and use as much time as is necessary to get it all done.  So I had to extend.  I just hope I don't have to extend again.

It's not that an extension is all bad.  I have more time.  But this puts off my submission to another publisher even more.  It means people who might be helped along in their healing process have to wait that much longer for my novel.  It frustrates me to fail in even this artificial a due date.  I just need to find a way to motivate myself, a set number of hours to work on this project daily and a reward [maybe something without excessive calories] to give myself every time I succeed in meeting that goal.  I know I can do this.  I just need to do it.  It's so much more fun to do the actual writing.

Preparing for the Editor

When the publisher turned me down, they recommended I get myself an editor.  I'd considered it before, but now, it's become essential.  I just got an email back from said editor, inviting me to turn in my stuff [if possible] around the first part of August.

I've been incorporating the last significant feedback I received from a fellow writer.  I've chosen the middle ground.  I've been trying to figure out how it works within the typical format of the romance novel.  A lot of romance novels start when guy and girl catch each other's eye and ends when they close the deal somehow and become an item.  I don't start there.  That's what the feedback [and the publisher for that matter] seems to want.  They want my romance novel to be JUST a typical, run-of-the-mill romance novel that starts at eye contact and ends with happily ever after.  But that's not what the story is about for me.  It misses the point.  As I've said before, for me, it's the tale of two broken people who have to seek healing for themselves before they are ready to create a relationship with each other.

So now, I've cut out everything from the first 85 pages that isn't critical.  I introduce the character and make her loveable [I hope] by making the reader laugh and see her love for others around her.  They see her heart and her humor.  Now the reader cares about her, they may care about her false start at romance [the once upon a time that sounds like so many romance novels and fairy tales but ends badly] then her dramatic scene of pain and heart-ache.  All of that now happens in 15 pages, a prologue and a brief part one, which sets up [without flashbacks or dream sequences] the heroine's back story.  I can see where I need to reshape her character some, but overall, she's more or less ready for editing software and another read through with my husband.

The problem is his part of the narrative.  That same reader recommended I cut his side, where I write from both his and her points of view to add to the mystery.  From what I understand, there's no mystery in a romance novel.  Pretending there's mystery in a romance novel is like pretending there's some kind of mystery as to what's going to happen to the Titanic at the beginning of the movie.  I don't like cutting his side entirely since so much of the story revolves around him, and not just the romance.  A big part of the climax is about working out his trials.  If this is her story, his trials don't mean much.  It becomes a different story entirely.  In addition, I've just written the second book's first draft from, once again, the male and female perspective.  If I cut the guy out of this story, I have to do the same with that story.  And I'm not willing to do that.  Once again, it changes the narrative.

So does this mean I have to change it to third person?  I like the urgency of first person.  I don't know.  I'm inclined to find a new way, a brief way, to introduce him and to keep his voice as a back-up singer, less important than hers but still present.   That's the next part for me to struggle with.  Wish me luck.