Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Revising Part Deux


As I've mentioned, I'm revising Dead on Delivery, the sequel to Don't Kill the Messenger. It's been a fun book (once the horrid misstep with the Maenads, etc., got cleared up) and the notes from my editor were far from onerous.

But I hit a spot on Sunday where something was wrong. I knew the smart next step for my heroine was to do something that in the original she doesn't do for another sixty pages or so. Neither my agent nor my editor brought it up and for a moment I was tempted to just let it be. I mean, if it didn't bother them, why should I move it? Especially because there's a deadline looming and another book that needs to be written and my son needs a haircut and my mother hurt her arm and the cat is licking at his leg in that weird way again.

I actually left it and moved on. Then, with my head hanging in shame, went back and moved the scene. It's going to be a pain. It's going to cause ripples for the next one hundred pages or so that will have to be addressed. It would have been so much easier to leave it, but I just couldn't. It would have shamed me.

It was one of those moments that I have to ask myself for whom I'm writing. Sure. To an extent, I'm writing for my editor who signs the checks and for the readers that buy the books (please, please buy the books), but I think in the end, I'm still writing for me. I'm still writing for the joy of being as storyteller and part of that joy comes from pushing myself to be the best storyteller I know how to be.

5 comments:

Stephanie Doyle said...

Great cover Eileen. I am SO excited for part two.

Vampire guy comes back right? :)

And you had to move the scene. Once it gets in your head it won't get out and then everytime you thought about the book... it would bother you.

Eileen said...

Vampire guy is back and he's having issues. So is Werewolf dude for that matter.

The cover is totally delicious, isn't it? I'm thrilled with it.

Molly O'Keefe said...

Eileen - I just had this particular chicken come home to roost. In the O'Neill series that's coming out this summer/fall, my critique group had some issues with some things that would require that kind of rewrite - the rippling kind - and I thought, "nah, I don't want to do that" and then my editor called the same problems out but by the time it got to my editor, the fixing required TONS more work.

So now, when my whole reason for not wanting to do an edit is about the amount of work it's going to require - I'm going to do it. Because I don't want to be that kind of writer - and you're right, in the end, I'm writing for myself.

Maureen McGowan said...

That is an awesome cover!

And good for you. I mean, in the end we need to be proud of these books, right? Although with the huge pressures of deadlines and the rest of our lives demanding attention, the temptation to let something go is HUGE. Even with my limited experience I've felt that.

Eileen said...

I know! It's so easy to let something slide, especially when you know it's going to be a pain to fix. I figure it will come back to bite me on the butt at some point if I don't fix it.

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