Progress continues, though still not as quickly as I would like. I wrote 700 more words tonight on Chapter 5, "The Farm," and solidified my plans for the remainder of the chapter. I'm actually pretty relieved about that, because I've had a real block on that part of this chapter ever since I first started planning it a few weeks ago. It's a pivotal emotional scene early in the book, and I just wasn't happy with my original vague plan. But I really like what I have so far on that scene, and now I'm finally happy with my plans for the rest of it, too. It's really surprising how different that entire scene is from what I had originally imagined--in setting, tone, everything. It's a lot more original the way I actually wrote it, and much stronger.
I guess I've been writing for long enough that I shouldn't still be surprised at that, but I always am. I've had pivotal scenes go sour in the actual writing before, so I'm always wary of that, and pleasantly surprised when a scene comes out better than I expected in the first draft. So far I haven't written anything in ALDEN RIDGE that I feel like is going to need a lot of rewriting later; that wasn't the case with my first draft of THE GUARDIAN. I guess I'm getting better at this.
It sounds like you're doing great work here! :) Btw, if you don't mind me asking, where do things stand with The Guardian at the moment? Are you going to look at submitting it again? (Obviously, from what I've seen so far I think you should!)
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen!
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm still waiting to hear back from another 4 agents on THE GUARDIAN. If I don't get favorable responses from them, then I'll talk to Beverly Swerling and see what she thinks I should do. But if these last four don't bite, then I think I've pretty much exhausted all the AAA agents in my genre. If that's the case, then I probably won't pursue THE GUARDIAN as my lead book any longer. I'll then focus on ALDEN RIDGE, to see if I can get a AAA agent for that book, and then hopefully get THE GUARDIAN published at that time if all that comes to pass. Thanks for asking!
Chris
Congratulations on your progress! It sounds like you're doing great work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Colleen! You know, it's funny but I think I was posting comments on your blog right as you were posting on mine. :)
ReplyDelete