Saturday, July 05, 2008

Falling in Love Again

"Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made - like bread, remade all the time, made new." ~Ursula LeGuin

Here's what happens on the good days: I look at a manuscript after putting it away for a while and fall in love with the story and the characters all over again. I finished the first draft of One Night in Napa about 6 weeks ago and haven't looked at it since. Two days ago, I opened the file and started revising from Chapter One.

And I still really like it. I like my main characters. I like the minor ones, too. I like the storyline. About the only thing I don't like right now is the fact that I need to add about 14,000 words to get it to a marketable length (I'm aiming for 70K, for a mainstream publisher, though Samhain will take 60K and I'll send it to my editor there if no one else bites).

But despite that little (or not so little) glitch, I actually find myself looking forward to revising the novel each day. That doesn't always happen, believe me - sometimes it's much more of a struggle!

My goal is to have the story fully revised by the end of August. We'll see...

***
Oh, and the latest trailer I made:

6 comments:

Marianne Arkins said...

Ah yes... the good days.

:-)

Good luck with your novel! I didn't know you were going to market your One Night books to a mainstream publisher.

Anonymous said...

Nice work on the trailer. Did you finish the revisions on Summers Song? What is your revision process? Liz

Dru said...

I'm glad that you like revising your story and are still in love with your characters. Good luck with adding to your word count and sending it to other publishers.

I LOVE the trailer. Did you play the piano for it?

windycindy said...

Great trailer! I wish you the best of luck with your revision. Hope you have a great Saturday.....Cindi

Anonymous said...

I love the good days.

Good luck with the revisions.

Allie Boniface said...

Marianne, I'm deliberating sending it out into the traditional NY/agent waters and see if I get any response.

Liz,I did finish revisions - and the process? Um, slow but steady. Start at each chapter and work my way through to the end. And that's about it!

Dru, I didn't play the music for the trailer...though that's an interesting thought. I wonder how good the quality would be if I tried?