#Writing and Rewriting

Earlier this year, I got the rights back to my worst selling book. My plan was to revise and it re-release it under a new title. I’m fairly certain NO ONE on the planet has read this book and if they have, then allow me to offer my apologies now.

It’s horrible.

That’s hard to admit.

I decided to print off the first half of the book and read through it to make changes in preparation for releasing it again. I grabbed my favorite fine point pen and sat down, thinking it would be a light edit. It started off okay and then by the second page it quickly went downhill.

Lord, have mercy. This book sucks. I got to chapter four and had so many marks I knew what I had to do. This was going to be a total rewrite.

I think the plot is still fairly solid but there needs to be some major changes. The characters are pretty boring and not motivated AT ALL. The writing is not very strong either. I wrote this several years ago so it stands to reason I’m a better writer than I was back in 2007. Right? Anyway…

Back then I was super frustrated that this book wasn’t selling. But you know what? It’s okay. Because now I see it. Now I know why it wasn’t selling. As I read, I felt sort of detached from the characters. I wasn’t interested in them at all. The heroine was feisty but annoying. The hero had conflicting motivation. Some of the actions the heroine did just didn’t make sense. Not to mention the opening chapter felt really forced. There was no flow whatsoever.

In other words, it was a hot mess.

My method for this revision is to start small. One chapter at a time. So I took chapter one and wrote it as if I would write it today. The main plot is there but the characters now have better goal, motivation and conflict. Plus I never really liked what I named my fictional city (which was based on Ancient Rome) and so I’ve decided to rename that as well.

And I’m going to buck up and work on this in between writing the new novel (the one about the mysterious trunk with is turning out to be fabulous fun). I hope to have it released by the end of the year. At least that’s the goal.

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