Getting Ready

To get a new proposal ready, I reworked the first five chapters of Grace all weekend and most of tonight. I'll concentrate on tightening the original synopsis tomorrow. Then off the package goes to my agent.

Just like with Big Bad Wolf, it's strange rereading Grace Happens. I discovered that I liked writing in omniscient back then, a style that's sort of out of fashion in the way of romantic suspense. You can still find it in historicals, especially in Loretta Chase's books, but I can't remember the last time I've read omniscient voice in an RS.

Not that I read that many lately. Like some authors, I usually avoid reading my genre when my mind is sifting through my own story. The last new RS I read was...hmm...Linda Howard's newest, Death Angel, I think.

Anyway, I found myself having to rewrite these omniscient POV parts. For example, in one scene change, I'd inserted a sort of set-up, in which two of my characters were sitting down having dinner. My omniscient voice gave a quick review of how they'd sat there enjoying quiet conversation, including a trip down memory lane, of that certain restaurant in the past and what that meant to them.

I know, as a writer, this passage reads fine. But in comparing it to current standards, it'd a very distant, quaint feel to it. Also, I've changed my style to deep POV, and it sounds so un-GLow.

To correct that, I took away that omniscient viewpoint, and made it the male character's since he seemed to be doing a lot of the internal monologue in this scene. I did allow a slight break of rules by starting the scene with, "Meanwhile, back at __..." so as to establish the change in venue, but I moved the "telling" to a more immediate "Ed sat back and watched Sandra finished her dessert." That puts the whole paragraph in his perspective and I was able to reuse most of my original paragraph. But the intimacy is now magnified more.

At least, it seemed so. Who knows, five or six years down the line, I'd probably re-read it and smack my head because it'd sound wrong ;-). Never satisfied, that's me.

But enough about writing. I know talking about it can be boring. As you can tell, I hadn't had a very interesting weekend and Monday. The only piece of funny I have was me riding on Ranger Buddy's ass all day.

I think I told you that his class mates called him "Smart Guy" these days. Today, we had to get a roof ready. He was his usual self--forgetting his truck keys, putt-putting down the wrong roads, even forgetting a roofing measurement, something that was a reflex for both of us. So I began teasing him, calling him "dumb ass," "idiot," or "not-so-smart guy."

Finally, it was time for his evening class. As he climbed down the ladder, he said, in a mock-huff, "I'm out of here. I'm going back to where people think I'm smart."

Heehee.

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