Buried in Revisions

I’m currently buried in grammar, plot, and character while I try to finish the second re-write of Alchemist.  I’ve been, in the words of good friend Taylor Anderson, “writing my fool tail off” in an effort to prepare for an impromptu writing workshop that I’ll be attending next weekend. I intend to begin submissions again shortly after.

My hope is that the end result will be a cleaner manuscript, and one that is not rejected so easily by potential agents and/or publishers. 

Among the changes I’ve made is a complete re-write of one of the main female POVs. This is more difficult than I’d thought, because my tendency is to crush women under plot devices until they cry, then provide some sort of resolution. While this can be entertaining if done properly, it has the potential of alienating female readers, especially if there is not a sympathetic female viewpoint upon which to fixate.

I’ve also gone through flip-flop number 583; in this revision, I have significantly toned down the language and tried to use curses/swearing that would make sense within the world as developed. That means fewer f-bombs, less overt “carthartic” cursing, and more dialogue that makes sense without being gratuitous. I’ve had comments before that my writing under-utilized this language device, resulting in dialogue that didn’t feel “real.” Hopefully, I’ve come to a compromise without having to sound like Quentin Tarantino. 

My presence here will be sparse through the end of next weekend, whereupon I’ll hopefully have some decent feedback to share with you guys.