I have been looking forward to today for a few weeks. Had to clear away some things before I could start revising Luke’s #1 Rule for Harlequin. And today was the day. I spent the morning reading my chapters and synopsis and taking notes on new ideas and thinking about how I could best follow every single one of the suggestions the editor made.
I had a moment where I thought “should I do this?” I had a moment where I thought “this is going to be a lot of work.” But most of the time was spent productively focusing on the project. I have a roadmap of where I need to go. I just need to follow it down the right road.
A big issue for me is allowing external forces to dictate my plot. A series of coincidences happen and the characters react to those circumstances instead of initiating actions on their own. I actually thought my series of coincidences was quite clever. It happens like that in my life all the time. Something snags and I have to work with the change that came from outside. It’s what I’m doing right now.
But of course fiction is not life. Too many coincidences piled up too early do not make a great plot. So, I need to get rid of my string of coincidences. It means, I realized this morning, scraping a good bit of my first act. That’s okay. I’m really glad I figured that out so soon!
Cynthia Harrison 