A Book is Born – Part II
Time to start writing – get those words flowing. I dreamed up scene after scene based on observations, experiences of friends, my life, and overheard comments to develop a woman expat’s life in Rome and her difficult marriage and how she made choices and, eventually, overcame obstacles. And then I read what I’d written. Oh well. So, I began to rearrange, delete, cut and paste, think more in-depth about who my characters really were and what they wanted and how to convey this. I put the draft aside, let it ripen a bit and do some hard thinking before each rewrite. Several more rewrites later and using thoughts kindly friends made after reading the latest drafts, I thought I had enough to solicit a developmental editor’s input. She returned with pages of single-spaced comments, making suggestions on every character, the timeline and the plot – holes and all.
It took several months to go digest her comments and decide whether to incorporate or discard the recommendations. I eventually decided to keep one character that the editor wanted deleted, deepen others, and make a decision about one of the defining events. I was sorry to see it go but adhered to the advice to “kill your darlings.” I did several more rewrites and again put the manuscript out to faithful (and long-suffering) friends. One issue that came up was where to start the story. That must have changed six or seven times. I think that’s one of the more difficult choices – is the protagonist looking back from a distance, or is she in the middle of the action and what action? What makes a hook to entire the reader and bring the story to life. I experimented this way and that. And rewrote again and again until I had something that resembled a true story. Or so I thought.
The story was written in the third person and it just didn’t come across as engaging. I wanted to be in my protagonist’s head over a relatively long period of time – the time she was in Rome, the aftermath, and the resolution. I sighed and changed the Point of View to first person.
Now I had something to show for my efforts if only some publishing company would take it. If only.
