Random rambling from an epic nerd, sometimes about writing, sometimes… not

On 10 January 2010 I finished the first draft of Book 1, and it was a really rough draft.  It took me three years to write it.  I’m hoping Book 2 will go a lot faster.  Book 1 had to go through a lot of revisions.  It started as a first person Mary Sue fic about the angstiest Sue who ever angsted in the history of mankind.  But for some reason, I still had a lot of fondness for the story, maybe because it was the first one I ever finished.

The new version is third person, with actual characters and a plot.  Star, the main character, was the biggest problem – which leads to a lot of re-writes – she had a back story, but her behaviour didn’t fit it at all.  Also, part of it was just nonsense – the kind of stuff you write when you’re 13 (I was) and know nothing about the world.  She had an abusive history, but she was rude and provocative, and when I rewrote, I thought she’d be more cautious about things like that.

Her best friend, Molly, was simply an enabler.  She stood around going “Wow, Star, you’re so cool” for no reason.  There was no friendship or affection between them, they were just two people who met.  Not unlike a certain sparkly-vampire-fancier – she has no connection with anyone in the entire book, and I hate that.  So I built a better friendship between them, and that was a little strange, because I became best friends with my own Molly.  She has a different name, but she looks much the same as Molly and has the same unflappable attitute towards life (and guys, for that matter), and even her mother dated a guy by the same name as Molly’s mother’s boyfriend!  All of this was written before we became friends.

The boys, Steve and Jared, both had back stories, which I expanded, but again they were really bland.  Now they’re a little more complex, and so are their relationships.  To be honest, Steve wasn’t much of a character, simply a guy with a place to hold a plot point party.

Now the characters are quite likeable, there are still problems, but they are so many that I need a second pair of eyes, so I’ve emailed the file to Craig, who is going to go through it.  It takes a very brave man to edit his wife’s writing.  Especially since every other time he’s done it, I’ve immaturely taken it to heart and sulked.  Sometimes there have been rows.  I’m working on my attitute.

Last time we got through it quite well.  Craig brought up all of the issues I had seen myself, but offered suggestions as to how to get through clunky chapters, or retell something in a more interesting way.

At that point, I hadn’t finished the story, I had about three chapters to go, but I thought that there was no point forcing myself to get plot points down if Craig agreed with me that X, Y and Z needed changing, because that would impact the ending.  Now it’s finished, and I await his response.

Which he’s probably putting off forever because I’m scary.