Monday, August 2, 2010

Monday Musings


MY PAPER HEART was written in a period of three months, great but that was the vomit draft.  Since February I have been editing, and editing.  Last month it started going on submissions again with a few requests, but the big one came in the form of a full with a request for revisions.

More sexual tension.

I don't think this is YA when she's this concerned about her sex life, maybe women's fiction?

And so it began.  The 10th round of edits.  I sent my baby out again to get a few more critiques and used my editor to REALLY tighten my grammar and to point out where I can add that fluff and sexual tension.  Because when you look at your manuscript it's always PERFECT you just love it so much.  Okay maybe some of you look at it that way...  I can't deny that I love MY PAPER HEART, but I always feel like I can make it better and then sometimes those critiques can really blow you away.

So here is my advice on how to take critiques...with a grain of salt...oh and of course you have to add a lime and a shot of tequila with that.

Funny?  True.  After the initial sting you realize that what they are telling you is only to help you.  I mean you wouldn't let someone you didn't trust or like your genre read your work, would you?  Okay I have been guilty of that and couldn't be blamed when I cried when that person basically hated my work and told me that I was a terrible writer.  Some people just have different tastes and you have to respect that and sometimes you just need a good glass of wine and some re-runs of The Kardashians.

So what is my muse for my re-editing?  Lately I have been going through some of my favorite books and figure out what draws me to the relationship of the characters?  What sexual tension is looming?  Why do I care about the main character?

One example:  HUSH, HUSH - I adore the almost kiss scene of Patch and Nora.  Throughout the whole book there is this looming sexual tension, that you usually don't get in YA like this, but Becca Fitzpatrick does it PERFECTLY.

So today I ask you, what is your muse for editing?  How do you go about the process?

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