A Change is as Good as a Rest

I am still writing! That's why I'm not blogging. I'm so busy getting this story down on paper again

that I'm not really doing much else. Then, I realised that I hadn't blogged since August! August! It's almost Christmas so that's remiss of me.

Here I am with my current WIP (work in progress). 

The title has changed. It's a much more dynamic title and it hopefully grabs people's attention.

I am also doing a complete rewrite. I'm about 10k words into it and just come to a bit of a stand still. I'm at the point where I think the whole thing is utter rubbish and I'll never finish it, but I've been through this enough times so I know I'll come out the other end with enthusiasm.

I have been using Lisa Cron's Story Genius to help me. When I've had feedback from rejections, I've been told that readers aren't connecting with my characters. From reading Lisa's book, I can see where I've been going wrong and what I can do to fix it. The book doesn't need a complete rewrite, it just needs a little tweak here and there.

I think that I was trying to show too much emotion through actions and not enough through inner monologue which made it difficult for readers to know my main character's motivation and why she was doing what she was doing.

I've also developed the back story I already had in mind.

One of the things I hadn't done, and I think this was a real draw back, was develop the back story of the minor characters. They were all there to support the story rather than have their own motivations. There were no subplots among the minor characters. I've just had to layer up the novel and give it depth. I think I focused on world building and forgot story building.

I feel as if the main plot is quite steady, I'm not really changing a lot there. What I really need to change is what happens in the middle of the novel with the subplots and the world building.

I have written a teaser scene but I'm not sure if that should just be taken out. The main characters could just go through the door, just go into the world and get on with it.

Word counts are precious things and I don't want to slow the pace of the story.

Seeing as I'm in a bit of a rut with the novel at the moment, I'm going to start typing it up. I was thinking of reading it to my own children, to see if the pace and the words are on point. My son enjoys listening to me read, although he's a little younger than the target audience.

This is where I am with my novel: a complete rewrite with a view to layer it up and to make it more relevant. It's about connecting my audience with my characters and adding depth to my minor characters. I need to only include characters who are relevant to the story. I need to consider what these characters contribute, why they're there and what they're doing.

The main thing is to not give up. It took JK Rowling three years to write Harry Potter and I am only one year in. I can do it!