Wednesday, June 07, 2006

In which I get a grip

The thing about writing in the morning is that it is the morning, which means I am almost always sleepy and cranky.

I am so, so, so over the mopiness. This friend of mine who's critiquing my novel has so nailed the problems I've been facing. It's like she crawled into the frightened (terrified) part of my writing brain and started throwing shit out at me. The right shit! The shit that needs to be thrown!

Sorry for that visual, but that's the crude truth. She's laying my story bare and helping me make a much better job of it. Or, well, that's step 2, getting rid of the crap I don't need and focusing more on the crap I do need.

Like for instance my subplot, which is daunting and has stopped me in my tracks about midway through my book, in both Draft 4s and now in Draft 5.

I'm letting the subplot stop me when the plot itself is getting away. Languishing over in a corner, doing nothing. The book is not about antiquities theft. The book is about this woman and her relationships with her father, her sister, and the man she falls in love with. It's about finally seeing the world for what it is, mending what you can and casting off what you can't.

That's hard to write but it's a helluva lot easier than figuring out police procedural when it comes to a non-enforced crime like the antiquities trade.

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