Writing News
This week finishes with one of those rare golden moments where you know that although you tore your story to sheds…it is vastly improved for your fierce attack. I determined that there were four whole chapters in the last 3rd of my Mexico reality TV YA ms. that were not pulling their emotional weight. Sure, lots of plot occurred, but no one was crying or dying or being reshaped into something new. And so I tore them each apart, one by one. First I copied the chapter and put it in a new document. Then I erased absolutely everything that didn’t work and wrote a new chapter around the bits that did, making the plot completely different. I kept the vital seeds of the story that I needed, but other than that, new chapter, boom! Then I cut the chapter out of my ms. and pasted the new chapter in. Then…I did the same thing three more times with those other pesky chapters. Exhausting, but rewarding. Now all I have to do is foreshadow my new plot twist back at the beginning of the book in about six different places and my story is ready for beta readers!
