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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Revisions and Diet Books

Hello there! I apologize for not being my usual chatty self lately. This always happens when I get into a writing groove. I'm happy to say that after a desperate afternoon of "Dear God, why won't this novel just BE GOOD ALREADY?!?!?!" the revisions are going well. At least I think they are, anyway. I'm resisting asking my trusted beta readers to look at it until I've finished the first chapter.

This is a big overhaul--I'm aging the protagonist down to an eighteen-year-old from a former twenty-three and, for a short time, twenty-seven-year-old and I'm rewriting it in first person from third. Oh, and eliminating all the extra points of view. And making a major plot change. But it's totally no big deal! (Can you hear my voice getting higher and higher?) Okay so it's a big deal but it's also--I think--going to be a big big improvement, so let's focus on that for the moment.

In other news, today I began the task of weeding out and relocating the diet books at the used book store. This would probably mess with anyone's head and as I've said before, I've had a complicated relationship with my body since about...oh, first grade. That's when I noticed that when my skinny partner in jazz class bent over, I could see the bumps of her spine and that when I did the same thing, you couldn't see mine.

Needless to say, tonight's dinner is going to be heavy on the vegetables.

All jokes aside, it's a negative section to be in, and I intend on finishing this project as soon as possible.

4 comments:

  1. Weirdly, I actually COULD hear your voice getting higher and higher. But I'm VERY EXCITED FOR YOU!! I think revisions are FUN! Ahem.

    Re: diet books: did I tell you my first ever job in publishing was as an editorial assistant in a diet line? Yeah. Head sufficiently messed with. If you ever come to my house and see my Bookshelf of Trophies, where I keep a copy of each book I've ever worked on, you'll get a good laugh/shudder out of the whole first shelf.

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  2. First, thanks for the encouragement!!! That really means a lot : ) Actually, I think revisions are fun too once I think I know what I'm doing.

    Yikes. You had NOT told me about your stint as a diet book EA. Were all the authors totally fit and crazy?

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  3. Mostly haha. But there were exceptions. Eg one lady had a miracle diet solution that had helped her lose 75 pounds and had kept it off for 5 years, and now she was all hot Barbie doll. But apparently the publication process stressed her out, because while we were working together she gained 35 pounds again. I believe there may be a lesson here about miracle diets.

    Oh, that is just one of many stories I hadn't thought about in a long time... Next time you come to visit, I'll regale you with many of them. Over Turkish buffet brunch.

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  4. Dishing (PUN) about diet books over a Turkish buffet?! Oh delicious irony--I'm there!!

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