My Journal #2

Manuscript is Done

I sent the manuscript to the client last night. I had to do a major rewrite on Monday night.  Her ending read like the rest of the book whining about her guilt and her love for her dead husband.   I wrote the ending so the moment they finally admitted their feelings, then gave a little more conflict and a moment when he fell off the ladder and was sent to the hospital and she tells him she loves him forever. (Trope) 
This was quite an undertaking for me. There was so much wrong POV inserted, storylines of non essential characters she just wanted in this story. I'd tell her over and over write their story in a different book.
"I just want to show the change he made after meeting the girl." Fine but it isn't part of the Main Character's story. This is a romance between two people.
She is writing this based on real people. She doesn't understand her characters. As a reader I asked questions she couldn't answer. The reader is going to ask the same questions. If there isn't an answer in the book they are going to disappointed and throw the book out.  I don't know what she'd going to think of my ending. It is what it is.
After all this is her story. What she leaves in or takes out is her business. If I read it and it reads bad, I don't want my name on it. I may have enhanced some of the story line but ultimately it's her story.

Next month I start working on the next biography rewrite. It's going to be harder.  How can to you tell someone that in this day and age the word "abuse" has a very physical connotation. She had very little of it in her marriage. It was more emotional and non verbal abuse. She's intimated all these years it as "horrible abuse."  For her, yes, when people read it, they are going to be less that sympathetic. UNLESS I can SHOW her feelings in all this.
I told her if she and I don't cry when reading this neither will the reader.

I guess my challenge is making this story about her life emotional and interesting.





MY Blog: www.christinamweaver.wordpress.com
Follow my journey writing a crime story 35 years in the making

     


MY Blog: www.christinamweaver.wordpress.com
Follow my journey writing a crime story 35 years in the making