Last night, I finished reading Redeeming Will Scarlet for the first time. I finished in early June and and gave myself the entire month off from the manuscript. Considering that I finished the last 40K in about three weeks, most of it read like someone else's book. AND A DARN GOOD ONE. Here are thirteen reasons why:
1. Will, my darling beta hero: Motivated by greed, held in line by a prickly conscience, he is one indecisive mess at the start. Lucky for everyone, he finds his way toward the front of the pack and kicks ass.
2. Meg, my darling pyro heroine: She's blind, dangerous, and mostly psycho. Lucky for everyone, she sorts herself out before setting too many fires.
3. Villains: five, yes five villains. Lots of happy deaths. One of them accidentally dies twice, of a broken neck and by burning--a goof I'll have to remedy.
4. Marian: she's made of awesome, all clear-headed thinking and one very human mistake.
5. Robin: I actually think I got him right, which shocked me. Back in June, I thought his character stank. I was happy to read that it does not.
6. Humor: Laughing out loud at one's own work is a fun treat. Some of the exchanges are really very good.
7. Sex: DANG. I actually loathe writing sex scenes. Something about the tedium of the same essential act. You wouldn't want to write three battle scenes in the same book, at least not with the same outcome, yet sex has a certain repetitive quality. Somehow, in selfless devotion to my craft, I manage to set aside my boredom and write curtains-on-fire happiness.
8: The castle escape: Will rocks, Meg rocks, lots of adventure. Very good pacing.
9: The cabin explosion: Yes! A cabin explodes! I joked about it when I wrote that scene. "Kev, I'm gonna go blow up my heroine today." But now it makes me cry.
10: The final assault: Again, very good pacing. Lots of action and quick cuts. I wrote everything so quickly that none of it sounds forced or sluggish. Excellent use of POV, if I do say so.
11: No TSTL heroines: Meg and Marian are smart cookies.
12: Pages 1-30 and 150-THE END: Nice. Hardly any editing aside from the double-death villain and some typos. It sings to me, and even the ending that I didn't previously like seems fitting.
13: Pages 31-149: Frankly shit. But that's a relatively small portion of the book to revise and bring in line with plot changes I made after the fact. It'll take another few weeks of work to smooth and polish, but now I'm pleased.
Now I can write and practice my pitch with renewed enthusiasm, because this is a book I want to sell.
1. Will, my darling beta hero: Motivated by greed, held in line by a prickly conscience, he is one indecisive mess at the start. Lucky for everyone, he finds his way toward the front of the pack and kicks ass.
2. Meg, my darling pyro heroine: She's blind, dangerous, and mostly psycho. Lucky for everyone, she sorts herself out before setting too many fires.
3. Villains: five, yes five villains. Lots of happy deaths. One of them accidentally dies twice, of a broken neck and by burning--a goof I'll have to remedy.
4. Marian: she's made of awesome, all clear-headed thinking and one very human mistake.
5. Robin: I actually think I got him right, which shocked me. Back in June, I thought his character stank. I was happy to read that it does not.
6. Humor: Laughing out loud at one's own work is a fun treat. Some of the exchanges are really very good.
7. Sex: DANG. I actually loathe writing sex scenes. Something about the tedium of the same essential act. You wouldn't want to write three battle scenes in the same book, at least not with the same outcome, yet sex has a certain repetitive quality. Somehow, in selfless devotion to my craft, I manage to set aside my boredom and write curtains-on-fire happiness.
8: The castle escape: Will rocks, Meg rocks, lots of adventure. Very good pacing.
9: The cabin explosion: Yes! A cabin explodes! I joked about it when I wrote that scene. "Kev, I'm gonna go blow up my heroine today." But now it makes me cry.
10: The final assault: Again, very good pacing. Lots of action and quick cuts. I wrote everything so quickly that none of it sounds forced or sluggish. Excellent use of POV, if I do say so.
11: No TSTL heroines: Meg and Marian are smart cookies.
12: Pages 1-30 and 150-THE END: Nice. Hardly any editing aside from the double-death villain and some typos. It sings to me, and even the ending that I didn't previously like seems fitting.
13: Pages 31-149: Frankly shit. But that's a relatively small portion of the book to revise and bring in line with plot changes I made after the fact. It'll take another few weeks of work to smooth and polish, but now I'm pleased.
Now I can write and practice my pitch with renewed enthusiasm, because this is a book I want to sell.
And darling once you've tried it,
You're gonna fall in love with it, you'll see.
"Have I Got a Deal for You" by Reba McEntire
2 comments:
Jou can do eet!
"3. Villains: five, yes five villains. Lots of happy deaths. One of them accidentally dies twice, of a broken neck and by burning--a goof I'll have to remedy."
Ooh man, do I hate it when I do that!
Post a Comment