In preparing my submission I reviewed/revised/polished within an inch of it's life the first three chapters. I realized that the Ch 1 and 3, primarily in heroine's POV were much better than Ch 2 which is entirely in Hero's POV.
What to do?
I considered changing at least one of the scenes to the heroine's POV but I really wanted the reader to understand the hero. I tried adding more emotion but that just made it worse. Then I realized that the scene was too long, I have dialog that's witty ( I think
) but it doesn't advance the plot. I have the hero basically saying the same things to himself: I feel betrayed, I'm angry, I want to forget, my assistant is hot... So, I'm tightening up the scene and eliminating everything that's a repeat or him whining to himself.
Hopefully that will increase the pace and the energy of the scene.
I've also decided to skip entering the GH and send this directly to the Desire editor that asked to see more of my writing. A big decision since I finished this story last week in order to enter a completed MS in the contest. Once I considered what I would be entering the GH for, I decided I would have a better chance of getting published with the direct route.
Still on schedule to complete the revisions for my submission by the end of the week.
What do you hope to accomplish with your writing this week?
2 comments:
Here's me encouraging you to enter the GH anyway. If you sell before the finalists are announced and you're a finalist, this will give you a huge promotional boost. If you're still sitting on an editor's desk and final, it opens doors. Either way, it's a great way to get your name out there. If you fnal you get to be friends with a really great group of writers and get to meet all kinds of editors and agents.
Go for it.
Fingers crossed on the sub, BTW
Interesting about your opening 3 chapters. Man how we angst over those three chapters, eh?
I was going to agree with you about not entering the GH contest, but Cat has raised some good points - and she's published! My argument for not: no feedback! If you're struggling with a manuscript, I would think that another contest that offered critique/feedback would be better. But that's just me talking out loud.
Good luck with the manuscript, Anne - great to hear that there's an editor out there waiting to read more of your writing :)
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