Surely, there's an easier way...

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go quite as planned? I'm having one of those years, I think. It all started when I edited the first four chapters of Heartless, started rewriting chapter five and then lost everything I did when my flash drive decided to croak. 

I have since started over on the editing and have just completed chapter four. Not bad for six+ weeks, huh? (I'm rolling my eyes here.) I've a great start on the rewrite of chapter five but let me tell ya, I was so tempted to crapcan the whole d*** project and my writing career too, for good measure. Can you hear the frustration I'm suffering under here??

*deep breath*

OK, now that the whining's out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. Heartless MUST return to his rightful place at the top of bestselling lists everywhere. I admit, he was only at the top of search lists on Amazon (thus inciting venom from a tiny-minded fellow writer-type) but I'm determined he'll see the top of bestseller lists too, upon his re-release.

So....back to editing his brains out. *snort* (Now you're rolling your eyes too. We're all in this together.) 

While I'm doing that, why don't you click over to my author blog and weigh in on a very serious subject. How do you define sweet, traditional, and clean when it comes to romances? Is there even a difference? Click the pretty little rose to hop over to my other blog and let me know what you think.

A Heartless Setback

Ever hear of someone losing all the progress they've made on a manuscript due to a technological malfunction? It's never happened to me. 

Until last night. 

I rebooted my laptop. When it came back to life, I opened my Heartless file only to discover nothing after January 12 was saved. Why it chose that date, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's the flash drive I use as a take-everywhere-with-me means of saving my book files. I try to back up my flash drive on my various hard drives (current hard drive count is three) but the last time I saved to a hard drive was Jan 7. 

Woe is me. 

I suppose I should have anticipated the flash drive crapping out at some point. It just figures it would be during a major MS overhaul. 

The only change it saved was the removal of the prologue. Hubby said God was trying to tell me that I was making too many changes. Nice thought but I don't believe God gets that involved with humans. This was just an unfortunate technological backfire. And like I said, it happens to everyone eventually. 

That being said, though I saved every 30 seconds or so, it made no difference. This was unavoidable. It sucks but I'll get past it. It will cause yet another delay in getting this book back into the hands of my readers. For that, I apologize. 

I'm gonna get back to work on it today, see if I can't dredge up the changes I'd made from the dank recesses of my mind. (Yeah, that sentence isn't structured properly but my mind's fried so cut me a break.) I hope I make it out alive. It's scary in there. 

A Trip to the Dump

I need to share my Heartless progress. OK, I don't really need to. It's not like I'll die if I don't. So, I want to share my Heartless progress. 

I've begun editing chapter five. Fabulous, right? I'm thrilled, believe me. But now, despite my joy in my characters, I've come up to another HUGE decision regarding this MS. 

In chapter five, we're with our heroine, learning how her days are spent since becoming a duchess. There are more room descriptions in this one chapter than in all my other books COMBINED. It's shocking, believe me. 

In the critical writing world, this is what's known as an information dump. The problem with info dumps is they're boring. The reader usually loses interest at that point and if the dump is long enough, the reader might even set the book aside. 

There are times an info dump works but those times are quite rare. It can be a challenge determining when and where to place one. The better, safer bet is to take that information (if it is, indeed, important) and lace it throughout the story itself. 

For example, in Heartless, where Leandra's lamenting the horror that is the Egyptian Salon, instead of devoting an entire paragraph to this in chapter five, I could mention her loathing for it later, when she instructs the butler to put Hart's mistress there. (Oops! Not a spoiler. Not really.) Or I could work it in some other way.  

So chapter five might find itself shorn down quite a bit, perhaps deleted entirely and rewritten from scratch. Not the type of major edit I'd envisioned when I started out on this path but, what else can I do? 

Progress...of a sort

I've finished editing... 

Chapter One. 

Why, when I'm determined to get something done, am I that much more likely to get distracted? Why, when I'm determined to get something done, do I get more cover orders than I can shake a stick at? And why, when I'm determined to get THIS interior edit/format done, do I want to work on the COVER?? 

There is no understanding me, even for me. 

I will go to my other computer now and endeavor to complete at least one more chapter before dinner. Can I do it?? Probably not. But I'll have fun trying. 

☺

Heartless Revamp Step 1 : Read Through ~ DONE ~

So I did it. I read Heartless cover-to-cover. And with no tears shed, though I think that had everything to do with my determination not to shed a tear. Funny how when you read a book objectively, emotion takes a backseat, and the whole reading experience is far less enjoyable.

Before you read further, please be assured that I value each and every one of my fans, followers, and readers. I love that you love this book and love the other things I write. Please do not take what I am about to say as an insult to you or your opinion. I am in no way denigrating your views on this work. As is often the case with authors, we are our own worst critics. This can be a good thing.  

My thoughts? Needs a little work. The issues:

• I think the prologue gives too much away right up front, taking away from the natural question as to WHY the hero acts the way he does. 
• I think the passive voice is a tad overdone. 
• There are words and phrases that weren't used at the time. For example, Hart mentions he's "working with a deadline." The word DEADLINE didn't come into use until the American Civil War and it referred to the "do-not-cross" line in war prisons. Deadline in the sense of a "time limit" was newspaper jargon that came into use in the early 1920s. Then there's the use of handicapped in reference to people with disabilities. Yeah, the word existed then but not in that sense. There were a few more but I think I made my point. 
• There is an excessive amount of characters. Servants, family members, friends, all named and given a few lines each. Sheesh.

I think these flaws are easily overlooked in the natural draw to the main characters. I totally agree that I CAN write characters. Dang.

Possible "fixes":

• Prologue: Do I really want readers to forgive Hart for everything before they actually get to know him? I don't think I do. I think I want them to start out hating him a little, getting to know him as the story goes on, and then realizing he's severely warped for good reason. 
• Passive voice: This is one of those "little changes" I mentioned in a previous post. Some sentences will get some restructuring to allow for more showing, rather than telling. 
• Historical inaccuracies: Of course these will have to go. I mean, what was I thinking??
• Excessive characters: I do believe that removal of names would go a LONG way in clearing up some confusion on this one. I'll try that and see what happens. 

So that about sums up my initial thoughts on the simple read-through I did. Next step, edit out the redundancies, inaccuracies, passivity, and prologue. 

Thoughts?