Today I've been going through the second round of edits for THROUGH HER EYES. The first round I did last week, but my wise editor suggested I could make the story stronger with a few tweaks. So today I tweaked. THROUGH HER EYES is something of a upcycling project for me. I started writing it a few years ago (2011, I believe), and I did finish a much shorter version of it then. The characters were completely different and the ending was...gloomy, to say the least. Then last year, I was going through my old laptop before trashing it, and I rescued a few projects. This was one of them.
After re-reading it, I fell in love with the concept and some of the themes (serial killers! Weird paranormal stuff!), but knew that the story as it was (downbeat ending, low word-count, rough-round-the-edges writing) wasn't going to cut it. I started re-writing. I changed a couple of really big things and polished the prose, then stalled about 1000 words from the end. For some reason, I just couldn't make it work. I couldn't get my head in the right place for a romance, which is what this story needed to be. So I abandoned it again.
And then, earlier this year, I went back. Knowing there was really only one scene to fix before the story met my expectations, I waded in and beat that sucker into submission. And then I submitted it. And it was accepted. Yay! Only five years in the making.
Going through the edits over the past few days, I'm really glad I A) decided to finish THROUGH HER EYES and B) decided to make the changes I have. The story in it's original incarnation now feels very shallow and a pretty poor representation of the kind of writing I love to do. I'm not sure yet whether the second round of edits will be the last, but either way we're getting closer to THROUGH HER EYES being out in the world, and it's going to be great to see the finished product and know that ripping it apart and putting it back together was the right choice.
After re-reading it, I fell in love with the concept and some of the themes (serial killers! Weird paranormal stuff!), but knew that the story as it was (downbeat ending, low word-count, rough-round-the-edges writing) wasn't going to cut it. I started re-writing. I changed a couple of really big things and polished the prose, then stalled about 1000 words from the end. For some reason, I just couldn't make it work. I couldn't get my head in the right place for a romance, which is what this story needed to be. So I abandoned it again.
And then, earlier this year, I went back. Knowing there was really only one scene to fix before the story met my expectations, I waded in and beat that sucker into submission. And then I submitted it. And it was accepted. Yay! Only five years in the making.
Going through the edits over the past few days, I'm really glad I A) decided to finish THROUGH HER EYES and B) decided to make the changes I have. The story in it's original incarnation now feels very shallow and a pretty poor representation of the kind of writing I love to do. I'm not sure yet whether the second round of edits will be the last, but either way we're getting closer to THROUGH HER EYES being out in the world, and it's going to be great to see the finished product and know that ripping it apart and putting it back together was the right choice.
