Each Work Is Different - Copy Edits
Each work is different, and boy can I tell that in the copy edits. I've had problems with plot threads, with adding paranormal mystery elements (Heart Quest), with making sure my research is solid, with refining my worldbuilding rules.
Heart Dance has the worst problems with choreography at this stage than any of my other manuscripts. I obviously wrote too many scenes and didn't tie them together as well as they should have been. People are sitting and do stuff that people sitting wouldn't. Someone leaves and is referenced as still there. Messy. And neither my copy editor nor my editor caught this, so I'm glad that I've been doing so.
Still, at this point, I would have thought it would be a little smoother. But that's the biggest problem of the whole book so far, and I'm VERY pleased because it's such small, fiddly stuff that needs to be fixed.
My mentor was right (you know she calls me at various times of the writing process to reassure me, don't you?). The book is better than I recall. What was the best of all is that BEFORE I started the edits she said that the book was fine and would satisfy my readers. That's the most important thing to me, that I satisfy my readers.
As usual, I find myself smiling at a turn of phrase, but that's pretty much all the emotion that the book pulls out of me. By this time in the game, the emotional content of the story is flat, flat, flat to me and I always pray that it isn't that way to others. Like all authors I feel that if I don't tweak your emotions, I haven't done my job. So, since I need to fret, that's what I will continue to fret over until I see reader reaction.
May you do some wonderfully emotional writing today.
Robin
Heart Dance has the worst problems with choreography at this stage than any of my other manuscripts. I obviously wrote too many scenes and didn't tie them together as well as they should have been. People are sitting and do stuff that people sitting wouldn't. Someone leaves and is referenced as still there. Messy. And neither my copy editor nor my editor caught this, so I'm glad that I've been doing so.
Still, at this point, I would have thought it would be a little smoother. But that's the biggest problem of the whole book so far, and I'm VERY pleased because it's such small, fiddly stuff that needs to be fixed.
My mentor was right (you know she calls me at various times of the writing process to reassure me, don't you?). The book is better than I recall. What was the best of all is that BEFORE I started the edits she said that the book was fine and would satisfy my readers. That's the most important thing to me, that I satisfy my readers.
As usual, I find myself smiling at a turn of phrase, but that's pretty much all the emotion that the book pulls out of me. By this time in the game, the emotional content of the story is flat, flat, flat to me and I always pray that it isn't that way to others. Like all authors I feel that if I don't tweak your emotions, I haven't done my job. So, since I need to fret, that's what I will continue to fret over until I see reader reaction.
May you do some wonderfully emotional writing today.
Robin
posted by FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens | 12:17 AM
2 Comments:
As always I find your self-critiquing comments refreshing and insightful. As for emotional flatness, if you are looking for a fans unbiased honest opinion, I felt the emotional side of Protector of the Flight a little flat. While it didn't stop me reading and enjoying the story it was only when I read your comment that I realized that was what was missing. The emotional link between Calli and Marrec after the ritual Choosing and Binding Ceremony lacked something that intimated a connection beyond the inner knowledge they gained of each other from Blood Ritual. This is just my opinion and I hasten to tell you that it didn't stop me reading your story and looking forward to the next "Summoning".
Thanks, Robyn.
It reaches a point where I simply can't judge, so I depend on others.
Robin
Post a Comment
<< Home