So, for my own benefit, I have started working with my characters, scenes, and plots outside of the story line. It's been - interesting, to say the least. I wrote out little things that may have happened in their pasts and how they reacted. It help solidify them in my head, what they are thinking during key moments of the book and how they are feeling. I actually had to draw out some of the places in the book as well (i.e. the hospital, Ella's apartment, and some places that are coming in book 2). And I did it, I moved the first 3 chapters from book 2 to book 1. It needed to be done for climax purposes, and it make much more sense this way. I also had to write in some characters that I had not included and some people that read the book asked about them. SO...rewrites, rewrites, rewrites.
I am amazed that this has been happening this way. I never thought there could be so many exercises involved in the process. I now know why people quit their "day jobs" to pursue their writing career. I would love to have the quality time to spend on the book, instead of working on it at night when I'm exhausted from the rest of the day. Maybe sometime in the future. I just have to keep reminding myself of why I started writing this in the first place, my love of the characters, how I want the reader to feel about the book (plot, characters, action), and Keep Moving Forward.
This has also given me some sort of permission to becoming "unguarded". My editor pointed out that I seemed restrained. "Ella isn't talking with her mother!"- I believe was the statement. It made me realized that I was constricting my characters and constricting the plot by not expressing myself as a writer. That I was afraid of something, I guess I'm not sure what I was afraid of, but not anymore.
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