Rewriting from a different point of view....

I think I may FINALLY have hit on what's wrong with the opening to my completed FR story. Originally, I opened it in my heroine's pov - at some point, I changed that to my hero's. I've rewritten those first few lines COUNTLESS times since, eliciting advice, rewriting again and yet somehow it's never quite worked. And now I think I know why - because Cécile is meant to speak first and continue speaking till about half-way through the opening scene when Adrian originally took over.

Hand slaps to forehead. Fortunately I still have the old opening. Lots of it will have changed, but the basics are there, so I don't have to start from scratch completely. Something tells me it will end up being a complete rewrite, but there's something comforting about beginning the process with words on the page. We'll see. I just have to squeeze this rewrite in. It WILL happen as none of my characters are taking this school excuse lying down any more. They're demanding my attention.

Overall, I feel a huge weight has lifted as far as this story is concerned. It's something so simple, something I know I can do.

Have you had a writing epiphany lately? Care to share?

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips
Link of the Day: Holly Tucker's Early Modern History Resources

Snowflake Method...

Yes, I know I said I was going to focus on just writing rather than methods, but then I saw Katy Cooper's post about the Snowflake Method and decided to check it out again. This time it struck a chord in me, so I've started to work with it.

I like the building blocks approach, though I can also see myself using FDin30D forms as well. But what it did do was get me jump started again. Well, that and a couple of suggestions from Sean. Fitting my writing work in right now is a tad tricky as I'm super busy with house stuff, but finding the excitement again certainly has helped.

Writing for me has always been a form of escape, but sometimes I forget that because I put so much pressure on myself to produce a marketable ms. In the end, I need to remember why I write, and get back to that rather than worrying about how to sell it. Not that I'm aiming to write something that won't sell *g*, but at this early stage the story and characters are paramount.

I've been researching as well and had great luck this week emailing the British Museum for information, receiving back a detailed response with just the info I need. So for those of you who've hesitated about emailing a major institution, I urge you to give it a go - you may be pleasantly surprised :)

Teresa

Link of the Day: Deborah Hale on Walking the Historical Tightrope: Giving Your Historical Romance 'Atmosphere' Without Making it Sound like a Doctoral Thesis

Bonus Link: Lord of Scandal by Nicola Cornick