Thinking of craft

I have some great CP's. They not only tell me (in detail) what is wrong with my writing but they tell me how to fix it. We just finished having a discussion on deep POVand what it means. Since I have finally decided to go third with my WIP, they told me to go deep. Add sensory elements to fix the reader firmly in the characters head. One of them found a great link to show the difference between deep POV and shallow or limited POV. Check it out... it was a lightbulb going off in my head. I think one of my daily exercises before I begin writing will be to read this:)
I even made my husband read it in case he thought that what I do is ridiculously easy. HA!

One of the things my agent told me was that I am a natural at dialogue. About seven years ago I wrote a YA book. It was pretty bad, but one of the things my writer friend told me was that my dialogue rocked it. It was everything else that needed help. Part of me wonders where I would be if I hadn't stopped writing fiction to working at nonfiction, but on the other hand, I think it was a good training ground. And even my dialogue takes work to make it sound not just natural, but naturally teen-like, as well. Before I send my chapter in for a crit I will go over my dialogue and ask myself, is it young? Does it sparkle? Trust me, my cp's let me know if it's not. I think that's what second and third drafts are for... adding the sparkle.

Sometimes in order to do that(add the sparkle) you need to kill your darlings because sometimes those are the very passages that keep you from thinking of the big thing, the thing that will make the difference between a scene that works and one that doesn't. I think of them as concrete... they keep my mind focused in the mud and won't let it free to entertain other ideas. My prologue was a perfect example. My CP's didn't really like it even though they thought it added a lot of tension to the plot of the book. My agent felt the same way... you may remember me sweating over the prologue last week. In my desperation to come up with something that worked, I threw out all the rest of my preconceived ideas of what it should be. Only in letting it go was I able to come up with something completely new and fresh. Something that sparkled.

So what will the week bring? I dunno. Probably not a sale, though a woman on a list made a sale last week. YA. The market is definetly out there. But I am looking forward to the New Year. After last weeks pitch it was sent to ten interested editors. I think that is one of the perks for having a big name agent. You have editors dropping stuff to listen to them and read what they have to offer. No doubt it is because they offer quality. Hee. I like the sound of that. Someone thinks my stuff is quality! Will keep you updated!