Writing Wins

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of my work in progress. I had a goal to finish it by the end of September. The plan was to work on the edits I had received from the developmental editor, critique partner, and MFA professor at the beginning of October, and then use the end of October to draft an outline for book three. Now that I'm ahead of schedule, I can choose whether to start working on edits now, or take a bit of a breather from writing/editing, since I've been doing a lot in the last several months. That is a very tempting option as we are moving into my favorite season, and my weekends may become filled with autumn activities like apple picking, renaissance faires, and the like.

I also might take a break from edits because some of the feedback I've received lately has really rubbed me the wrong way. Most of it has been constructive and helpful, but I think I need to put aside the criticism about my teen character, or at least, some of it. I agree with the advice that I need to make her more consistently a teen, but I disagree with the stereotyping about teens in general. Having a teen daughter myself, I don't think teens are as indifferent and self-absorbed as others appear to think of them. And even if they are that way in popular fiction, in the specific type of romance I am writing, which is heavily influenced by Hallmark movies, they aren't that way. To research how teens are in Hallmark, since many of the books I've read that they've published don't include children, I've started rewatching movies I know have teens in them. Besides being obsessed with their phones/social media, the teens in the movies are kind, considerate, and even the one that was portrayed initially as being dramatic/self-absorbed did care about her mother and the romantic love interest by the end.

As a fan of the show the Gilmore Girls, I also was using their close knit relationship as the basis for my mother/daughter relationship in my first book. I know the show is a bit dated as it's been off the air for a while and the Netflix miniseries wasn't as popular as some might have hoped, but I was surprised that my professor had never heard of it and that my editor didn't seem to grasp my aims. I also received feedback that the teen wouldn't be excited over little things, despite the fact that she's a "new" teen. My own daughter, who is fourteen and whom the character is heavily based on, does look forward to simple pleasures in life, like hot chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes, and holiday decorating, whether its Halloween or Christmas. And, again, the teens in Hallmark movies were similar. 

My second novel has no children in it as the characters are mostly in their twenties. When I edit it later on, I will have to make sure they are consistently portrayed as their age group, though I'm hoping that might be a little easier for me than the teen was. Overall, I think I like my second book more than my first. Not only has my writing improved, but I came up with the idea for this book all on my own. My first book, quite honestly, started out as a bit of a joke. My husband always says that Hallmark movies remind him of Mad Libs, that old game where you fill in adjectives and nouns and then it creates a weird story? I used a plot generator on Reedsy and it gave me two characters: a marine and a flight attendant. The rest I came up with on my own.

For the next day or two, I plan to bask in the joy of completing another book, and then I'll figure out when I want to dive back into edits on my first one. What does your editing process look like? How long do you wait between each editing cycle?