You may or may not know that I've been revising (and re-revising) my novel The Fancy Deep with my agent Scott to prep it for submission to publishers. So here I am on the cusp of submission (*crossing fingers*) and am wondering "How could I have done this quicker." The answer came through loud and clear . . .
Be a better parent.
You see halfway through the revision process, I lost my main character. I was negligent. She wandered off during an edit and I never called the police. On my watch, she had become (my agents words) "generic" and "wishy-washy" and seemed to "swing from one emotion to another." Amazingly, when I lost my MC everything else seem to crumble around her - the plot, the setting, the suspense, the dialogue all stopped working. Pieces that were once engaging felt far-fetched and even my cool tech elements stopped supporting the emotional thread . . . wait, did I still have an emotional thread?
BIG LEARNING == Your story is ALL About your main character. Be a good parent! Make sure you know what she wants and how she changes in your story. Her world, and your story-telling ability, revolves around that change.
PAYOFF == Faster writing, better stories, LESS REVISING. : )
Have you been a bad parent? Share.
