First-and-a-Half Pass Done!

Made it through to THE END of the romance rewrite this afternoon. Why am I calling it a first-and-a-half pass? Because so much of it turned out to be new material! I retyped the whole thing, even the scenes that came across reasonably intact, because I was hunting down passive voice and shallow point-of-view along with the deeper issues of wobbly plot.

Next week I'll read through the whole thing and figure out if it works now. Doubtless I'll find a few things to change, to say nothing of the fact that I'm 3,000 words over the maximum allowed for my target publisher. 3K will be quite easy to cut, though. In fact, I may already have chopped a third of that as I tightened and retightened the opening pages for the Genesis contest. I'm not sure until I transfer the pages back into Scrivener, where I've been doing all the writing since then. (I had to do the pages in Word to make sure I had the formatting correct all the way through.)

And then it's off to a few trusted critique buddies while I turn my attention to writing the workshop for May. I'm happy! :)

Genesis contest

Having experienced a measure of success in the ACFW Genesis contest the past two years, this year I decided to try out some of the other genres I've been writing in. This morning I got my third (and final!) entry into the '09 contest. I've had a lot of help over the past couple of months from my critique partners as I've polished three sets of 15 opening pages and their accompanying single-page synopses. Now they're out of my hair and can be ignored until the first round results are released in early May.

Next week I'm back to the romance rewrite, currently sitting at almost 45K out of 60. Back to critiquing, back to workshop writing, back to rebuilding my website, and back to *normal* writing life. Whatever that is.

Story Math

So the original romance novel that I wrote during NaNo was about 54,000 words. The market I'm aiming for is 55-60K. I threw out a bunch of scenes and added new ones. Apparently they are longer ones!

Today I discovered that, at 38K, I've reached the half-way point of my printed-out copy of the original draft. Kinda scares me. I can't afford this book to come in at 76,000! I'm on scene 25 of 53, which seems to tell me about the same thing, lengthwise.

On the other hand, half of the original length is 27K, so if I add 27 (what's LEFT to rewrite) to the current 38, I get 65, which should be much easier to whittle down to 60 than 76 would be.

I'm always on the other end of this stick, trying to lengthen without padding! It's new to be worried about over-length. However I slice it, though, I have a whole bunch of words to go, so I refuse to sweat about it this week. When I actually get through Scene # 53 is when I'll figure out a plan of attack.

I'm still on target for finishing this pass by the end of March, unless it really does turn out to be 76... Nah. I'm NOT going to worry about that today.

I'm not.

Still, that's kinda long, isn't it?

Book Tour--Love Finds You...in Humble, Texas

Summerside Press is publishing a series called Love Finds You:

Want a peek into local American life--past and present? The Love Finds You^TM series published by Summerside Press features real towns and combines travel, romance, and faith in one irresistible package!

How does it work? Well, (Love Finds You) in Humble Texas is the only book in the series that I've read.

I mentioned recently that I don't read a lot of romances--not because I don't love love as much as the next gal, but because it seems a bit of a stretch to invent so many ways to keep a couple apart realistically for the sake of the story. And yet, the convention of a novel requires that there be true conflict. Preferably something that isn't obviously too manufactured. (Well, that's kind of funny, being as of course the author is manipulating it all, but you know what I mean...don't you?) Being as I'm rewriting a romance novel of my own these days, I'm constantly watching out for what is *realistic* and what isn't.

So the set-up for this story is that two sisters--one an image consultant and very *together*, and the other a retail worker who lacks self-confidence--both fall in love with the same man. Miss Priss saw him first, decided he wasn't the guy for her, sets him up with her sister, then decides she loves him after all and wants him back. The humble, introspective sister is very kind and allows this to happen...if the guy is willing. But of course they don't tell him what's up.

To me this arrangement took a bit to get off the ground. When Trudie, the heroine, allowed her younger sister Lane to get another chance at the gorgeous Mason, I wasn't invested in her character enough yet to see this as believable. Once the story got rolling, it mostly worked, but the introduction to the issue felt awkward to me.

Here's the opening paragraph:

Trudie Abernathy always wondered about two things. First, how was it that some people could live charmed lives while others accumulated troubles like those beetles that spent their time rolling up balls of dung? And secondly, how could one person fall in love as effortlessly as a sneeze, while another hobbled along on love as if it were a twisted ankle?

One of the premises of the entire series is that the interesting name of the featured town be a significant part of the story. Thus Trudie of Humble, Texas, is the *humble* sister, but in the end things work out well for everyone. I read the novel in a couple of evenings and found much to enjoy. Enough to make me wonder what cool town names haven't been written about yet in this series!

Anita Higman is the author of over 20 books ranging from romances to mysteries to devotionals to plays to children's books. Wow, busy gal with a diverse set of interests! She lives in Texas. But not, I believe, in Humble.