Archive for the ‘Anne Gracie’ Category

Layering

Friday, July 1st, 2011

I’m doing revisions, as I said the other day.  And I recall one thing my editor said when we discussed them was, “I didn’t think Yiannis had had a relationship with Cat when I read his part of the first chapter.”

And I said, “He didn’t think so, either!”

Which was pretty much true when I wrote it.  Things were just beginning to come together and neither he nor I had a clue about the backstory at that point. Well, we had a few clues, but not much more. And certainly we didn’t know that.

It was when Cat started talking that I realized all this emotion had to come from something more than, ‘He bought my grandmother’s house.’

And, indeed it did.

But in the hurry to get it sent in, I didn’t go back and layer in the necessary recollections on Yiannis’s part. Getting to do so now is actually fun.  I know him so much better now. I can hear his voice whereas in the beginning I was just getting to know him.

These are fun revisions because they don’t change the book; they deepen it. They layer in more feelings, more emotions, more nuance. But the emotional arc itself doesn’t change. 

annegracieI am hoping to get them finished this week.  But I’m having a visitor as of tomorrow.  As RWA is ending, my dear friend and middle-of-the-night-because-it’s-afternoon-in-Australia support, Anne Gracie, is coming to visit for a few days!

As much as I’m actually enjoying the revisions, I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy Anne’s visit more!