Revising on the Porch
A few readers have asked me what’s happening with my work-in-progress, The Lies We Told, due to be published next June, so I’m here with an update. I’ve shared with you the synopsis process, the outline process, the writing process, the revising process and the torturous rush-to-deadline process. That was followed by two weeks of waiting as my editor and agent read the manuscript. Now I’ve received the feedback from both of them, and I begin revising again.
Both my agent and editor loved the book, and that’s excellent news. You never know if you’ve done good work until someone other than your very biased self tells you so, so I was relieved. Of course they each had ideas to share. My editor’s suggestions relate to one of the story threads. The book is about two sisters, Rebecca and Maya. Without giving anything away, I can tell you that they are in different locations doing different things, so their stories are, obviously, very different. Maya’s story is Gripping, with a capital G. My editor had some ideas on how to make Rebecca’s gripping storyline also worthy of a capital letter. My agent, on the other hand, focused more on Maya’s thread, suggesting that I nudge her character a bit more in one particular direction.
As I’ve mentioned before, I usually need about 24 hours to digest editorial suggestions and get over my knee jerk defensiveness to them. That didn’t happen this time. I could see both my editor’s and agent’s ideas were good ones right away and now I’m happily toying with ways to make the changes. It helps that the weather is fabulous, and I’m alternating my workspace between Starbucks and the porch. Revisions are due September 28th. Unfortunately, I have two trips between now and then, so I’ll have to cram a lot of work into a few days, but that’s what makes the life of a writer exciting!
One of my fellow writers asked this question on Facebook today: If you could be anywhere, doing anything, where would you be and what would you be doing? I responded that I’d be on my porch, writing.
Am I lucky or what?
Both my agent and editor loved the book, and that’s excellent news. You never know if you’ve done good work until someone other than your very biased self tells you so, so I was relieved. Of course they each had ideas to share. My editor’s suggestions relate to one of the story threads. The book is about two sisters, Rebecca and Maya. Without giving anything away, I can tell you that they are in different locations doing different things, so their stories are, obviously, very different. Maya’s story is Gripping, with a capital G. My editor had some ideas on how to make Rebecca’s gripping storyline also worthy of a capital letter. My agent, on the other hand, focused more on Maya’s thread, suggesting that I nudge her character a bit more in one particular direction.
As I’ve mentioned before, I usually need about 24 hours to digest editorial suggestions and get over my knee jerk defensiveness to them. That didn’t happen this time. I could see both my editor’s and agent’s ideas were good ones right away and now I’m happily toying with ways to make the changes. It helps that the weather is fabulous, and I’m alternating my workspace between Starbucks and the porch. Revisions are due September 28th. Unfortunately, I have two trips between now and then, so I’ll have to cram a lot of work into a few days, but that’s what makes the life of a writer exciting!
One of my fellow writers asked this question on Facebook today: If you could be anywhere, doing anything, where would you be and what would you be doing? I responded that I’d be on my porch, writing.
Am I lucky or what?
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