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Friday 15 April 2011

Changing direction


Well, my Draft in 30 Days blogged about earlier has hit a snag. But, at least it's a nice snag. That's because whilst I was at the beginning of starting with Karen Weisner's method an e-mail dropped into my in box. It was from the editors at Mills and Boon. I had submitted the first three chapters and a synopsis for a sheikh novel way back in August last year. True it took them some time but they have said that they like the basic idea, think it's fresh and intriguing but they had a few problems with it. If I wanted to work on the problems and re-submit they'd be happy to have a look. Would I? Ohmigod yes I would!

Looking at it critically and taking their comments on board I have only kept the first chapter and had to ditch the other two altogether. Before now I have found that incredibly hard to do, but this time, with the benefit of their comments I found it easy. After all, they know their stuff and if that's what they want I must try and meet it. The rewrite is going slowly but surely. Slowly because I am now being more critical of myself. This morning for example, I looked with a real eagle eye at what I had produced yesterday. I'd gone and done exactly what they had asked me not to do in the feedback - basically, I had moved the relationship on too quickly. As an individual who likes to complete a task as soon as, I realised that I sometimes do this for my characters. But, Mills and Boon readers like the suspense of not knowing how the relationship is going to go. They want it to twist and turn and meander and for their heroes and heroines to really work at it. So, again, I ditched large amounts of what I'd done and wrote the scene again. I think it works much better this time and realise that culling sometimes has to be done. I look on it now not so much as a waste of time but as a means of writing myself into a scene, testing out my characters. Let's hope it does the trick. Oh, and that photograph, it's of my teeny, weeny summerhouse which I hope, when I get a minute to kit out with a table and chair so that I can write in there in the warm summer months..... if they ever arrive that is!

11 comments:

Scarlet Wilson said...

Oh Congratulations Cara that is fabulous news! Are you resubmitting your new partial to them? Fingers crossed and good luck, good luck, good luck!

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

Fantastic news, congratulations, Cara.

Lots of luck with the rewrite.

XX

Julia Broadbooks said...

How great! Best of luck with your rewrite!

Chris Stovell said...

Brilliant news, Cara, Here's wishing you all good luck with it.

Thank you too for visiting my Choc Lit blog.

Rachael Thomas said...

Great news, Cara. Good luck!

Talli Roland said...

Fantastic, Cara! Good luck.

Morton S Gray said...

Whoo hoo go girl. Well done. I look forward to reading the finished product after buying it in WH Smiths. Mx

sm said...

congrats

Cara Cooper said...

Thank you all so much for your good wishes. Yes, Scarlet, I will be submitting my new partial to them. I'm really thinking hard about this one and not rushing to submit without having hopefully structured it properly. I've also been reading nothing but M&Bs lately - I think I must be keeping them in business all on my own!

Carol Townend said...

Great news, Cara! :)

Cara Cooper said...

Thank you Carol, much appreciated!