My Ivory Tower

My name is Karin Huxman and I write romance for New Concepts Publishing. You can find my author page at http://newconceptspublishing.com/karinhuxmanbooks.html. I write a mix of time travel, contemporary, paranormal, and sf/fantasy and love every minute of it.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Revision isn't for Wimps!

I had a depressing rejection a few weeks ago and my agent and I decided to set aside that project and move on to something else. Not being a drama queen, though I was tempted to weep wail and gnash my teeth, I had a couple of quiet days then put the whole manuscript, all my research for it, even everything I'd done for the follow on books, in a box and set it aside.

I really tried to move on to something else. We went on a trip. You know, life goes on. But that doggone story just wouldn't let me forget it. So I thought about all the comments I'd had on it. Mostly they ran towards, "Love your characters. The plot was contrived." Ouch! I don't see how, really. But when more than one professional editor says that, it's time to re-examine the prose.

So that's what I'm going to do. I decided it's time to put on my big girl panties, stop whining about it, and revise the sucker.

The story was originally a straight from the heart romance. I got sidetracked when I tried to make it into a romantic suspense. So my goal is to basically gut everything that doesn't advance the romance and see what I've got left. It might be crap. It might be worth working on. All I know is that I won't know until I do it.

Sigh.