Living up to your characters ....

I got quite a shock when I opened the book that I'm currently editing.

Note that I haven't really looked at it for a year or more. I'd been thinking all along, "Hmm, that book is ready to go, I just have to find the right editor." It had finaled in a few contests, and people either loved it or hated it.

Now here's the interesting thing: I would get comments from judges saying, "This scene was forced, I didn't see her motivation". But another judge would say, "This scene was great -- I loved the subtle way you handled motivation."

When I went back and read it, I realized, yep, Judge 1 was right: it just wasn't there. The scene was wrong. It was forced, it was what I wanted, not what was right for the scene.

Sigh.

I've thrown out a bunch and am starting from scratch again. I LOVE these characters and they deserve a home. Now I just have to make the book good enough for them.

As Maggie said ... it's all a learning process. The good thing is, I'm excited about this because it's a real challenge. I'm SO into these characters right now, it's all just flying off the end of my pen and onto the page.

I hope the editor who precipitated this appreciates it (and buys it)!