Jennifer L. Davidson's Blog, page 13

A woman raised by apes?

I tried several times to get interested in Origin, a book that has been on my shelf for years. The book's description sounded interesting enough and it's by an author I'm not familiar with so I thought I'd finally open it up. I tried and tried and tried. Here's what got me every time: the main character was raised by apes. I'm not even joking. There's no way I could pull that off. My main focus in my writing is believability, and asking my readers to engage in a woman that was raised in the rain forest doesn't seem possible. Before deciding to quit the book, I went to Goodreads to read some reviews and was surprised to see that many people enjoyed the story. There were some, like myself, who questioned what the author was thinking. Needless to say, I won't be recommending this book. Apes? Really?[image error]

In with the new, out with the old?

I love creating new characters. I love creating a ficticious life for them to be a part of. It gets my creativity flowing and life is good. However, my husband insists that readers want to hear how characters from the previous books turn out. He is suggesting that I continue to tell their stories. For me, that isn't always easy. First off, I'm about sick of some of the characters I've created after reading the book for the eight hundredth time. Second, I find it difficult to continue a character's story after a certain point. Does everything work out for them and they live happily ever after? Is that what the reader is looking for, some sort of closure? Does the character suffer from more sadness and betrayal and need to be talked off the ledge once again? At some point, if a character can't buck up, I'd want to just push them over that ledge and be done with her or him. Is that too cruel?

I will say that I did extend a few characters from book #1 to book #2 - Nancy being one of them. I'm struggling with the idea of pushing some characters from #2 to #3. I have some new characters already formed and if I string along the old ones that might make for a confusing book with too many characters to keep track of. Maybe I'll take a poll once book #2 is published to see if anyone is interested in hearing more about a particular character's story.

If you're reading this, who do you want to hear more about from Missing Maggie?[image error]

The beginning of a new novel

It's hard to know where to begin a story. Do I start by telling the reader something quirky about a character? Do I start in the middle of an action scene? Do I set the scene first and then dive in from there? Books I've read about writing typically say to start with some sort of rising action. They say you only have a few pages, maybe even a few paragraphs, to hook your reader. It makes sense. A reader can download a sample of a book and know within a few pages whether they want to spend money on the piece of literature. So, the beginning is crucial. It is your first impression and it better be good. Hence, starting a new book takes a lot of consideration. I don't know how many times I rewrote the first chapters of my other two books until I felt satisfied. Each word had to be scrutinized. Each character description had to be just right. Each line of dialogue needed to reach out and grab the reader. Now, I just need to do that again. I need the reader to hang on and enjoy the ride with me.

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Well deserved break

I'm taking a break from taking a break during this hot 4th of July week. The sun is a beautiful sight, but this chick has had enough. While gathered with family and friends, we've camped, swam, and laughed until we had nothing left in us. Today, we'll take time to recover in the air conditioning until the fun starts all over again. Is it possible to have too much fun?

As for writing, my printed copy of book #2 sits in a pile on the counter waiting to be edited. It's been moved several times, never out of sight though. I keep it out in plain view as a reminder that there is still more work to be done. There is always more work to be done.[image error]

Editing

Editing is not one of my favorite things to do, but it's probably the most important step in the writing process. I'm reading book #2 AGAIN and this time I'm looking at the sentence structure only. I'm making sure my word choices are consistent and my verbs are all correctly congugated. I'm removing extra spaces that somehow snuck into the paragraphs and I'm looking up words in the dictionary to verify my use is correct. Everyone thinks that English majors are grammar freaks that can pick apart a sentence and tell you all their fancy names. That isn't me. I studied English for the literature, the beautiful flow of words on a page. Hopefully when I'm finished with this book, it will be cleaner than Missing Maggie. I plan on editing it two more times---I'm determined to get it right.[image error]

My son is writing

I've always known he was a good writer, but I just didn't think he would sit down to type on the computer without an assignment prompting him. The other day though, my 11-year-old typed out 1000 words. This is summer vacation, mind you! I thought I might burst into tears.There he was sitting on the couch, netbook on his lap, and get this, THE TV WASN'T ON. Shocking. Is it possible he's even tired of watching that hunk of junk?

I haven't read his story yet because I'm afraid I'll say something to make him stop. Moms have a way of doing that you know. They butt in when they shouldn't but they can't help themselves. It is so hard to keep our mouths shut! I can only hope that he continues with his story and turns it into something wonderful. Maybe he'll even let me post it here.
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It was too much

A scene in book #2 that is meant to give more insight into my main character, Kody Burkoff, was too much for my draft readers. Not a one of them liked the scene the way it was written. Their main complaint was that it seemed uncharacteristic of Kody. I've read those same pages about a billion times trying to justify to myself that Kody would indeed react the way it's currently written. I've been incredibly stubborn about making changes---until yesterday. I deleted all the disruptive description I used and ramped up the emotion. I think I was looking to shock the reader, but it backfired on me. I was portraying Kody in a negative way. It didn't go over so well. This just goes to show how important it is to ask for early feedback.[image error]

Too many characters?

In the feedback I received on the draft copy of book #2, a couple readers commented that I introduced too many characters early on. I hadn't noticed that until I printed out the TOC that I use to keep track of what's going on in the story. They're right. I do introduce quite a few and can see how they might get confused. Some of the characters are new and some of them are from Missing Maggie. I've been studying the TOC trying to come up with ways to move characters around, but I'm afraid that I'll mess up the timing and the flow of the rest of the story. The movement of chapters and characters has to be strategically planned out. I'm at a standstill right now. It looks like it's another issue I'll have to sit on for a few more days.[image error]

A realist and a dreamer

Yesterday when I admitted to wanting the cover of a local magazine, I couldn't help but be reminded of the differences between my husband and I. He has always been shooting for me to get the cover of Oprah. You see, he's the dreamer. He sees my name in headlines and at the top of the best seller's lists. He buys a lottery ticket and envisions winning millions. He sees our oldest son playing professional sports with us travelling the country in our RV watching every game.

I, on the other hand, am a realist. I just want to get on a list, any list. I never buy a lottery ticket because I know I won't win. I hope my son goes to college and includes me in his life. Listing it off like this makes me sound really boring. But I can't imagine life if we were both dreamers. We'd be in serious trouble. We'd also have a lot of fun.

Here's to my fun, dreamy husband on our 14th anniversary! I love you.[image error]

1000 copies sold!

I did it! I reached my original goal of selling 1000 copies of Missing Maggie. Back in October of last year, I honestly thought 1000 was quite a stretch. The pessimist in me figured once my friends and family had told a few of their friends, the cycle would stop there. No sirree! Sales are better than ever and I feel even more confident about my new career because book #2 is looking mighty fine.

Included with my goal of selling 1000 copies was to somehow make the cover of Rochester Women magazine. I realize that it's a pretty lofty goal since there are probably several women writers in the area who have reached the same milestone. I just think it would be cool since this is the magazine that lit the fire in me to take a chance at writing. I'll at least make an attempt by sending an email or two and see what happens. You never know unless you try, right?

Thank you, readers, for your support of Missing Maggie and your support of me. It is greatly appreciated.[image error]