Unlocking the Door

If you read my last post, you'll know that I received an unexpected full request before I went on vacation. Let me tell you right now that vacation is not a good time or place(s) to try to revamp a manuscript. While there were some technical issues in dialogue tags and repetitive sentence structure that were pretty easy to fix, I didn't actually write a single word I felt truly CHANGED the manuscript for the better. By changed, I mean helped the reader get into the MC's head, which I've felt to be one of my downfalls writing this novel.

At first I was worried that not enough time had passed since the last time I revised Evangeline. That wasn't a problem, as it had been about six weeks since I even peeked at it.

However, it was only once I got home from vacation, decompressed, and relaxed a bit (this was not the fun, relaxing kind of vacation, I was on no fewer than six planes and spent over fourteen hours in various cars, slept in uncomfortable beds, swam in 65 degree water-- which was beautiful, if hypothermia-inducing-- and woke up to my brother's two year old screeching the mornings we were there. Oh, and I caught a cold as soon as I got home. But I digress...), that I was able to put a spin on my original opening that sort of, unlocked, if you will, a door into my MC's head that had been completely blocked to me.

Actually, it was more like I didn't even know the door was there, like the Secret Garden, covered over in vines and neglected. By unlocking that hidden door, I realized that there was so much more to her than I had shown on paper. More even than I thought I knew.

I'm supposed to be the one who knows her the best, but I was so close before all I was seeing was the bigger picture-- the garden wall, and not the garden. I was ignoring her quirks, her personality without even knowing that I was doing her a disservice. Not only did I need time to let her personality develop, I'm certain that writing the main character of my WIP helped a bit. For some reason, this new MC has no problem letting her innermost thoughts bleed all over the page. I hope I've been able to use what I learned writing this WIP to give my queried manuscript the overhaul it needed.

Sorry to keep this so short (I've been writing it piecemeal for two days now, when I have a few minutes to spare), but I've got another 200 pages of my manuscript to comb through, and too much other work to do on top of that.

Promise I won't go too long without a new post, even if it's just to tell you some of the good things that happened on my vacation. I did go to a Drive-In and saw Harry Potter 6, which was awesome, even if I got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

C'est la vie!