Moving Day

I've been absent over the past couple of weeks as I scurry to get a bunch of projects completed before the RWA National Conference in a couple of weeks.

One of those projects is a website and a new blog.

Please come talk to me at www.annemacfarlane.com/blog

And let me know what you think of www.annemacfarlane.com.

One of the problems with designing your own website is that, just like my WIP, I can't see my own mistakes. So, any typo's or nonworking links, let me know.

Thanks

Harder than it looks

Where have I been all this time? Struggling to revise the requested partial of After Hours with the CEO. It seemed simple. I thought it would be. Until I tried making sense of a book that was put together one way and now had to be reconstructed with a big chunk of the motivation gone. Yikes. And yes, I know if I want to be a published author, editorial input, revisions, rewrites are part of the game.

The first draft is written from the heart, the rewrites are written with your head.

Trying to make the changes so it serves the story and the Desire premise is proving challenging. One of the criticisms of the original submission was the hero needed to be both sympathetic and alpha. When I make the changes the editor suggested, it seriously impacts his motivation, which means the inciting incident doesn't work anymore. So, I have to go back and give him different motivation that makes him look more sympathetic but still alpha - and that's tripping me up. I'm either making him too alpha - or too vulnerable.

The other problem is that I have the book written, and the editor didn't criticize the external plot, so I don't want to change the story so much, it turns into something else. Because, then, I might as well save myself the grief of tearing this one apart and just send them something else. Which, of course, I don't want to do since they liked this and took the time to make suggestions and asked to see it again.

I like black and white answers - right and wrong. That's why I became an accountant in "real" life. A balance sheet either balances or it doesn't. So you know right away if you got it right or wrong.

Response from Harlequin

I received a response from Harlequin Desire on my partial for "After Hours with the CEO" ( I love that title and I swear even if I have to ditch the book, I'm using that title again)

It's a rejection telling me that they found aspects of my story compelling ( yeah!) especially my writing (double yeah!!) but found the set-up problematic and the hero not alpha enough. If I wished to rewrite and resubmit the partial they would be pleased to look at it again. And if I had another project suitable for Desire they would be pleased to look at it.



Although I wished they'd been more specific about the parts of the story they liked so I didn't change those, they were very specific about what they didn't like. I know what to get rid of - almost everything to do with the hero. I plan to put my head down and get this proposal back out within the next two or three weeks - soon as I figure out how to give my hero a personality transplant.

I am sensing a theme to my rejections - they like the writing and heroine, don't like hero and external plot.

A Hero's Heart

Not the glittering weapon fights the fight, but rather the hero's heart. - Proverb.

I was struggling with my current MS, wondering if I was trying too hard to fit the line and losing the heart of the story.

I finally realized my problem: I couldn't see why my heroine would fall in love in love with Luc the way I'd written him - he was too suspicious and uncompromising. (Rather an ass actually.)

I changed my hero's motivation which changed his behavior and responses to the heroine. Suddenly  I started to fall in love with him. Now, I've made him Carly's hero - and she's the one who is too suspicious and stubborn to trust that he really does have her back in every way that counts. He has to prove himself to her. But he is so worth it in the end. And I guess I don't care if it makes him too romantic and not alpha enough for the line. He's not a whimp but he's confident and strong enough to put the heroine's feelings first.

Whew, now that I've fixed that I can get back to writing my pages which were severely stalled this week as life took over and demanded my time. Daughter's eighteenth birthday, taxes and more taxes, and unpublished contest entries. But I've had a productive morning. And I have a list. Hopefully I can make up some time this weekend.

I also have to tackle the garden. As you can see - bright green is popping out from the weeds and leaves waiting for me to tidy it up. Sunny and nippy out there this morning when I took today's picture.

Gardening or writing - which would you choose?