I spent the evening watching a movie I hadn’t seen in ages (“My Science Project”, does anyone remember that film?), while at the same time playing around on my laptop trying to figure out a character I’ve had in my mind for awhile. Questions like “How does he meet the heroine?” and “What is going to drive his arc?” floated around frustratingly in my head. My Catholic upbringing makes me feel guilty for everything so I even if I’m stumped and my brain can’t focus, I still try to write. Otherwise, I’m eaten with guilt over the missed opportunity of having time to write but unable to produce anything constructive.
So I turn to revisions. Revisions are the perfect way to level the guilt while not having to really analyze too many questions, because they’ve all been asked! Right now I’m revising a book called “Kismet”, which is going to be the sequel to my book “Spirals”. I had submitted it to my editor, Rory, a while ago and he suggested some changes that would enhance the story. One of the best things an editor does is to give an author perspective. An author reads and reads and reads the story so many times that having an objectionable point of view is nill and void. So the editor comes in and says “Hey, how about this?” or “What about that?” and suddenly you smack your forehead and say “Of course!”.
So I’ll share some secrets to my book “Spirals”, since that’s been published after this blog started.
Secret #1) All the characters in the book were named after streets in Los Angeles. The names are Tobias, Orion, Noble, and Carnelian.
Secret #2) The original manuscript had the US Government dropping bombs to level the remains of Los Angeles in the purpose of starting over and rebuilding. My editor at the time, Judi, was the one who suggested another earthquake.
Secret #3) Kaori’s dummy in the first chapter is named after a boy I had a crush on in high school!
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