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| Clean first draft, before the pens took over. |
So, it has occurred to me that I haven’t actually told you guys what my novel is about. Bad writer! Without further ado, my novel in a sentence:
A young art protege, thrown into early fame, yearns for a normal life with her immature parents, only to discover a shocking secret about her birth.
The Art of Lying (working title) is a Young Adult coming of age story with a romance subplot (of course!). I really like my main character, Rachel, and her parents. Even though all of them are flawed, childish, temperamental, and whiny. Rachel was so much fun to write. She’s creative, scared, hopeful, sarcastic, and trying to grow up. Along with that comes problem after problem after problem that she has to deal with. Some she handles better than others.
I didn’t shy away from the problems either – poor thing – doesn’t get much of a chance to breathe before something else falls on top of her. I was proud of myself with this during the first draft – I wasn’t too easy on my beloved main character, I liked watching her struggle.
With revisions underway, I’m making her even better. More witty, more sarcastic, and more…well brave. Yes, she’s scared – growing up isn’t easy – but she was a bit too whiny first go round. I’m taking most of that out. Not all of it because 18 year olds whine (hell, 36 year olds whine – trust me!).
I’ve been working on revisions for a full week now and I’ve made really good progress. I realized snacks weren’t helpful, they were more distracting actually. Except the fizzy water, that stuff is awesome – this week’s flavor is Peach. I’m moving ever forward – cutting, adding, making changes, moving stuff around. It’s exciting. I’m about a quarter of the way through so I’m on target to hit my goal.
So, my fellow creative peeps? I’ve shown you mine (as it were) now show me yours. What are you working on? Novel, poem, short story, song, scarf, painting, what? Let me see!