In honor of the free promotion I'll be running this week on Laryn Rising (June 27th-29th), I thought I'd address the most commonly asked question I hear. Namely, "Where did you come up with all of that?" The answer is rather long (and possibly tortuously boring) so instead of going into all of it, I've decided to touch on the first piece: the initial inspiration, so to speak.
Long before I'd thought up Laryn, her sisters, or even the Federation, I was one European History credit shy of my History BA from BYU. I was married, had a one-year-old, and was pregnant, and we had moved to Provo specifically so I could finish up the odds and ends standing between myself and my degree. The only class offered that spring that fit my course requirements was The Spanish Colonization of North America. Yeah, I know - it didn't sound thrilling to me, either.
The class commenced, and the whole first section was spent comparing and contrasting the Spanish, French, and English colonization models used in North America, and I have to admit that I was a little fascinated by all of it. Why? Because even though the French and Spanish beat England to the punch, in the end the English (we're counting those who became Americans here, because it was the same colonization model that led to their independence) walked away with pretty much everything, other than a few pockets of Spanish and French. But that fact alone wasn't what fascinated me. It was the reasons behind it that I couldn't stop thinking about.
You see, while the French sent trappers and the Spanish sent men looking for gold, the English sent families. The Frenchmen owned no land and neither did the Spanish, and the goal of those two colonization models was the same - wealth for their respective Crowns. The English, however, came for the land. They brought their religion, their livelihoods, their women and their children, and they invested everything they had in the search for a better life.
While the Spanish and the French left everything they cared about behind, the English came with it all in tow. Think of it - the English colonists brought their infrastructure with them, complete with traditions, trades, and an actual economy. While the Spanish monarchy funded the men they sent and supported them while they were there, the successful British groups were fairly independent of the Crown. They succeeded or failed on their own merits, and were motivated by their own personal goals - the most powerful of which was a safe place to practice their different religions. (And yes, I am aware that this is a gross over-simplification of this gigantic topic. Now hear me out as I relate this back to my book.)
When we finished that section the class moved on to other topics, like the Spanish missions, etc., but in my head I was stuck on the whole 'colonization' thing. It dawned on me that if at some time in the far distant future the human race needed to establish a colony of sorts, it would be wise of them to do some research. If that was the case, wouldn't they go back and study the different colonization models that determined the creation of the United States of America? I think I would. And if it were me, I'd look at the English model and say, "Yeah, I think I'll pick that one." I would then want to incorporate each element that was critical to the success of that original venture into my own colonization model, including families, land ownership, political freedom, and the values of a moral-based/religious society.
Enter Nequam, and the James Town Venture. It took me a long time to decide where in time these people were coming from and what necessitated their need to set up a colony, and it took me even longer to figure out what sort of protagonist I wanted to put in this setting. Basically, I looked at my colonists and came up with a protagonist who was from the other end of that continuum - she's from a family-less, freedom-less, religion-less, immoral society, and the dissimilarities don't end there. For me, these elements are the foundation stones of my setting. They are not the theme or the protagonist's main conflict, but they provide the setting and situation in which her story is told.
While I could have chosen a protagonist who was born and raised in James Town, I was too intrigued by the idea of melding two completely different societies together to pass up the opportunity. This, of course, meant introducing my protagonist to all the different elements of colonial life - including religion. I really tried to do this in an organic way, without focusing on any sort of conversion or specifics. Mostly, I just needed Laryn to be introduced to the religious-based reality of her new people. Does she become religious herself? Maybe, in a sort of personal, spiritualistic way. I think the idea intrigues her, and she identifies with it a little because of her mother's belief in 'fate', but at no point does she actually become a Christian or pronounce a belief in God, and in the second book this element is left almost entirely alone, as it doesn't really have anything to do with the setting of that book, or her personal story.
The Federation, the genetic caste system, Laryn herself, and even Kieff's role in the book all have different origins and were inspired by separate events or ideas (for the most part). But as for the overall concept, I have to attribute that to a class on Spanish Colonization that I would never have opted to take if it hadn't been absolutely necessary. If it hadn't been for that class, who knows what I would have ended up writing? Maybe some things are just meant to be.
Showing posts with label Laryn Rising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laryn Rising. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Guess What?!?
Now that the book is out and I can relax, I've been looking back over this journey with some bitter-sweet feelings. I admit it, I love Laryn. I wish I were more like her (and no, despite what my mother might say we are nothing alike). Regardless of how exciting it was to finally write 'The End' for book two, it's been hard to say goodbye to these characters. As I've mentioned before, my current project is juvenile fiction and although I'm having a blast writing it, I truly loved the emotional intensity of writing Laryn. With that said, I thought it would be fun to share some of the inside story behind the writing of these two books, so here we go...
Ten Random Facts About Finding Shemballah:
1. I never intended for Laryn's story to take two books.
2. You know the 'Big Decision' Laryn has to make in Laryn Rising? It was never part of the original storyline. When I realized there was no way Laryn and her sisters could assimilate fast enough to get them off the ship according to plan (i.e., without ending up with a giant, doorstop-sized tome), I had to scramble, rethink, and risk ruining everything in order to split the story into two books and make a complete story out of their journey to Nequam. In the end, I think it was the best decision I made.
3. Inventing a new planet is kind of hard. Don't believe me? Stop right now and see how long it takes you to design, AND NAME, three alien species. Go ahead and try it. If you have any success, leave your new creations (with full details) in the comment box because I'd love to see them. Let's just say I have a whole new respect for the writers of Star Wars, lol.
4. Plymouth was originally named Republic (hence the name for the colonial money being 'pubs', which is short for publicans), but then some astute readers pointed out that I had 'Republic' and 'The Federation', which was a bit too Star-Wars-ish. I still like Republic better, and I never did get used to calling the people of Plymouth 'Plymouthans', although that is the accepted name for 'People from Plymouth'. Who knew?
5. Alistair is my favorite character in Finding Shemballah. (Aside from Laryn, of course.)
6. When I realized I could no longer call book two Republic (see fun fact #4) I almost named it Promise Bound. But despite the great reviews I got on that option, it sounded too much like the title of a cheesy romance to me, and every time I considered it Fabio appeared in my head...
7. I have eleven full revisions of Finding Shemballah. Seriously.
8. The first draft was almost 250,000 words long. The final is around 170,000, which means I cut EIGHTY THOUSAND WORDS!!! out of this manuscript. (I hope all my editing clients read this. It might make them feel better, lol.)
9. There is a map for this book, but since I drew it myself it kind of looks like a 5th grader's geography project. Needless to say, it isn't currently included. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to go to find a map drawing person (cartographer?), so until I figure that out this book will remain mapless. This kind of makes me really sad because I LOVE maps! I even have a whole pinterest board dedicated solely to really cool book maps. (Does that make me weird?)
10. The inspiration for this entire series came from laziness. I love historical fiction. I love stories about American colonial life and all the challenges and adventures that went along with leaving the known for the unknown, and I always wanted to write historical fiction. Then I went to college, majored in History, realized how much research a person would have to do to write successful historical fiction, and promptly started trying to figure out a way to write history without all the research. Besides that, the idea of people from the future having to live in a pastoral world kind of captivated me. In the end, however, creating a whole world and all the creatures and places in it wasn't nearly as easy as I thought it would be, and there were days when I was absolutely positive that there wasn't another name, description, or 'fun fact' about Nequam in my head. Period. But in the end, I managed to come up with a story that, to me, illustrates that when push comes to shove human beings are amazingly strong and resilient, and as a society they will nearly always rise to the occasion.
Thank you to everyone who has shared Laryn's story with me, and to all the people who helped me along the way! I appreciate every time my books are reviewed, pinned, shared, tweeted, emailed, or talked about, because without all of that no one would even know they exist. Such is the world of the self-published, but I truly believe that if a book is good enough the world will find it.
Monday, February 3, 2014
People regularly ask me if I'm going to try to get Laryn Rising traditionally published (aka, query an agent, have them sell it to a HUGE publishing house, and ideally rake in the dough with a rare-in-this-day-and-age $100,000 advance). That would be awesome. And if I secured such a deal (even if they didn't give me the life-changing advance) they'd design my book cover, edit my book, proofread my book, print my book, and distribute it to bookstores. Where it would sit on a shelf that millions of readers flocked to with like-minded books.
And therein lies the problem. My book has no genre, and in the publishing world no genre means 'no shelf'. End of story for the first time author (most of the time).
For those of you who have read Laryn Rising and are tempted to disagree with me, let me put it to you this way: it's dystopian, but only for the first three chapters; it primarily takes place on a space ship, but other than that there's nothing scifi about it. (Seriously, hardcore scifi junkie's would tar and feather me if I tried to sell it under that genre. They would be up in arms. They would cry out in reviews that there was no science, no technology, and no alien invaders, and my book would be mud.)
It's the nature of the beast, really, because the whole point of Laryn (and her sisters, and the 500 other Fed girls) going on the ship is to join with a civilization that has no technology. They just use the ship to get them from Earth to Nequam, and let the hired crew do all the sciency stuff. It's almost anti-scifi, if you think of it that way. They grow vegetables, learn how to use paper, tend animals, cook their own food, and about the only technical aspect of their lives are the sliding doors. The ship probably does use 'warp drive' and cool things like that, but my characters certainly aren't aware of it.
And it's not fantasy either. There's no magic. No other-worldly creatures. No fantastical elements at all, other than the idea of space travel and inter-galactic colonization which really fit much more neatly into the scifi category anyway. (Although, if inquiring minds want to know, once they get to Nequam it's a whole new deal - and genre. Nequam is a different world with it's own creatures and-- well, I'd hate to give too much away before Laryn actually gets there...)
Technically, Laryn Rising would be considered speculative fiction, ie, not fantasy, not sci-fi, but out-of-reality in some other vague sort of way. (Consequently, this is also where vampires and werewolves belonged until Twilight). But when was the last time you walked into a bookstore and said to yourself, "Hmmm, I think I'll go check out the Speculative Fiction shelf today,"?
That's what I thought. And that's what the traditional publishers thought as well, which means that more than likely even if they read my book and loved it (which of course they would), they would hand it back to me (with great sorrow in their eyes) and say, "Although this is the most astounding work of fiction any of us here at [insert name of giant publishing house] have ever seen, we regret to inform you that there is no shelf for you. You are unmarketable."
And this, Dear Reader, is why I have chosen to self-publish. Although there is always an exception to the rule, let's face it - the odds are stacked against me on this one, and I have decided that rather than spend the next decade of my life querying every publishing house in the world with the vague hope of becoming 'The Exception', I will accept my place as 'The Rule' and write something else next. Something that has a shelf.
A big shelf, that millions of people flock to, and that publishers like [insert name from above] love to fill.
With that said, since Book Two in this current series finishes Laryn's story, the project I've decided to work on next is juvenile fiction of the very, very, very fantastical sort. And I am so excited, because I have come up with the coolest story ever - and my kids each get a starring role. It's already titled The Gift of the Cornesh, and it involves large, silver eggs that hatch out mythical, magical creatures to the rare and very lucky person who finds them. For a glimpse of pieces of what this world looks like, go here and check out my pinterest board for this next adventure. I've only just gotten started on it, but I'm already in love with the world of Kylandria and all the amazing things that are possible there.
Any thoughts on this latest decision? I'd love some feedback...
And therein lies the problem. My book has no genre, and in the publishing world no genre means 'no shelf'. End of story for the first time author (most of the time).
For those of you who have read Laryn Rising and are tempted to disagree with me, let me put it to you this way: it's dystopian, but only for the first three chapters; it primarily takes place on a space ship, but other than that there's nothing scifi about it. (Seriously, hardcore scifi junkie's would tar and feather me if I tried to sell it under that genre. They would be up in arms. They would cry out in reviews that there was no science, no technology, and no alien invaders, and my book would be mud.)
It's the nature of the beast, really, because the whole point of Laryn (and her sisters, and the 500 other Fed girls) going on the ship is to join with a civilization that has no technology. They just use the ship to get them from Earth to Nequam, and let the hired crew do all the sciency stuff. It's almost anti-scifi, if you think of it that way. They grow vegetables, learn how to use paper, tend animals, cook their own food, and about the only technical aspect of their lives are the sliding doors. The ship probably does use 'warp drive' and cool things like that, but my characters certainly aren't aware of it.
And it's not fantasy either. There's no magic. No other-worldly creatures. No fantastical elements at all, other than the idea of space travel and inter-galactic colonization which really fit much more neatly into the scifi category anyway. (Although, if inquiring minds want to know, once they get to Nequam it's a whole new deal - and genre. Nequam is a different world with it's own creatures and-- well, I'd hate to give too much away before Laryn actually gets there...)
Technically, Laryn Rising would be considered speculative fiction, ie, not fantasy, not sci-fi, but out-of-reality in some other vague sort of way. (Consequently, this is also where vampires and werewolves belonged until Twilight). But when was the last time you walked into a bookstore and said to yourself, "Hmmm, I think I'll go check out the Speculative Fiction shelf today,"?
That's what I thought. And that's what the traditional publishers thought as well, which means that more than likely even if they read my book and loved it (which of course they would), they would hand it back to me (with great sorrow in their eyes) and say, "Although this is the most astounding work of fiction any of us here at [insert name of giant publishing house] have ever seen, we regret to inform you that there is no shelf for you. You are unmarketable."
And this, Dear Reader, is why I have chosen to self-publish. Although there is always an exception to the rule, let's face it - the odds are stacked against me on this one, and I have decided that rather than spend the next decade of my life querying every publishing house in the world with the vague hope of becoming 'The Exception', I will accept my place as 'The Rule' and write something else next. Something that has a shelf.
A big shelf, that millions of people flock to, and that publishers like [insert name from above] love to fill.
With that said, since Book Two in this current series finishes Laryn's story, the project I've decided to work on next is juvenile fiction of the very, very, very fantastical sort. And I am so excited, because I have come up with the coolest story ever - and my kids each get a starring role. It's already titled The Gift of the Cornesh, and it involves large, silver eggs that hatch out mythical, magical creatures to the rare and very lucky person who finds them. For a glimpse of pieces of what this world looks like, go here and check out my pinterest board for this next adventure. I've only just gotten started on it, but I'm already in love with the world of Kylandria and all the amazing things that are possible there.
Any thoughts on this latest decision? I'd love some feedback...
Friday, December 27, 2013
Invisibility. It's Such a Drag.
Don't you think? Well, thanks to Amazon's free promotions, for the next 48 hours Laryn Rising will be blessedly visible as a free book on Amazon. I really don't know how readers find books on promotion. It's like this big, magical mystery that completely evades me. If I were to go on Amazon right now and try to find my book listed as free-for-today, I would be lucky to find it.
Yet there are all these Amazon wizards out there who will not only find it, but download it. And they'll do it at all hours of the day and night. It's crazy, they're crazy, and I love them.
I've had a lot of people ask me lately about marketing my book, and how my sales are going. When I tell them that I'm getting ready to run another free promotion on Laryn Rising they always look at me a little funny and say, "Free? Why would you want to give it away for free? What can you possibly get out of that?"
I can totally understand why someone would ask this question - especially when you tell them that you hope to give away not just a few books, or a few hundred books, but a few thousand books. Seriously, the more the merrier! And the reason? Because out of every 500 people who download my book for free, about 450 of them will put it in their kindle archives with all the other (hundreds) of books they regularly download for free (because remember, these people are the Free Book Wizards who do this all the time) and hopefully they'll get to my book someday. Statistically speaking, only about twenty of them will actually buy it and read it right away, and should all twenty of those wonderful people recommend it to five people (even if they tell them that it is the most amazing and life-changing book they have ever read), only a few will actually remember the name of the book once the conversation is over - and even fewer will take the time to find it and buy it while the recommendation is fresh in their head.
If you do the math you'll quickly realize that you have to give away a LOT of books to get any sort of immediate return in your sales. I think most of us know that generally we read a book because someone we know read it and recommended it to us. Even if you hear about a book that sounds interesting, aren't you way more likely to buy it if one of your friends says, "Yeah, I read that book and it was amazing!"? So if you consider the fact that virtually NO ONE will ever hear about my book unless they stumble onto it through a random amazon search or hear about it from a friend who read it, my future sales depend on these free promotions - and on the people who read my book and pass it on.
So yes, it is with great relish and anticipation that I offer my book - FOR FREE - to the world for the next 48 hours. So if you know anyone who got a new Kindle or Ipad for Christmas (I'm not on the Nook at the moment) then by all means tell them to get my book while it's free! Then tell them that if they're super awesome they'll read it (starting tomorrow), review it (probably the next day, because obviously they won't be able to put it down), and share it with everyone they see for the next week. (Or month.)
Oh, and if you want to read my first author interview, check it out here on my sister's hilarious blog (but be warned, it can be rather addicting once found - particularly if you enjoy comic realism) and find out all sorts of things you'll never learn about my book anywhere else (because only my sister would ask those questions).
Yet there are all these Amazon wizards out there who will not only find it, but download it. And they'll do it at all hours of the day and night. It's crazy, they're crazy, and I love them.
I've had a lot of people ask me lately about marketing my book, and how my sales are going. When I tell them that I'm getting ready to run another free promotion on Laryn Rising they always look at me a little funny and say, "Free? Why would you want to give it away for free? What can you possibly get out of that?"
I can totally understand why someone would ask this question - especially when you tell them that you hope to give away not just a few books, or a few hundred books, but a few thousand books. Seriously, the more the merrier! And the reason? Because out of every 500 people who download my book for free, about 450 of them will put it in their kindle archives with all the other (hundreds) of books they regularly download for free (because remember, these people are the Free Book Wizards who do this all the time) and hopefully they'll get to my book someday. Statistically speaking, only about twenty of them will actually buy it and read it right away, and should all twenty of those wonderful people recommend it to five people (even if they tell them that it is the most amazing and life-changing book they have ever read), only a few will actually remember the name of the book once the conversation is over - and even fewer will take the time to find it and buy it while the recommendation is fresh in their head.
If you do the math you'll quickly realize that you have to give away a LOT of books to get any sort of immediate return in your sales. I think most of us know that generally we read a book because someone we know read it and recommended it to us. Even if you hear about a book that sounds interesting, aren't you way more likely to buy it if one of your friends says, "Yeah, I read that book and it was amazing!"? So if you consider the fact that virtually NO ONE will ever hear about my book unless they stumble onto it through a random amazon search or hear about it from a friend who read it, my future sales depend on these free promotions - and on the people who read my book and pass it on.
So yes, it is with great relish and anticipation that I offer my book - FOR FREE - to the world for the next 48 hours. So if you know anyone who got a new Kindle or Ipad for Christmas (I'm not on the Nook at the moment) then by all means tell them to get my book while it's free! Then tell them that if they're super awesome they'll read it (starting tomorrow), review it (probably the next day, because obviously they won't be able to put it down), and share it with everyone they see for the next week. (Or month.)
Oh, and if you want to read my first author interview, check it out here on my sister's hilarious blog (but be warned, it can be rather addicting once found - particularly if you enjoy comic realism) and find out all sorts of things you'll never learn about my book anywhere else (because only my sister would ask those questions).
Sunday, September 1, 2013
What Am I Thinking?
Remember how I keep saying I'm going to publish Laryn Rising any minute? The goal has been September 1st for quite some time.
Newsflash: That is today. Needless to say, my book is not quite ready due to a little thing called cover art (which could come through ANY MINUTE!) and I've been waiting around with my revised, copy-edited, totally-perfected final version, just waiting to go. And apparently I've been waiting around too long, because I was suddenly struck with a kind-of significant addition/revision that I now feel compelled to make. Could it complicate things? Possibly. Could it cause me to have to reread the entire second half of the book AGAIN in order to make sure the new addition fits in seamlessly? Definitely. Could I lose my mind if I actually have to go over all of that for the seven millionth time? Very possibly. So why am I going to do it?
Because this is such a no-brainer that I really can't believe I didn't see it in the original write. Seriously. I have this issue with this character that has been a problem since the first major shift in my original plotline. I have spent many hours trying to come up with a way to resolve this issue with no success, while all the time the answer was so obvious! So now I have to do it. There simply is no choice, because if I don't I'll always know that I should have. *sigh*
And so, the moral of this story is that sometimes being forced to step back and ruminate over something you think is perfectas good as you can make it can be a good thing. I've done quite a bit of freelance editing, and one thing I have learned is that while there is definitely such a thing as over-thinking, there is also a time and place for re-thinking. The trick is deciphering between the two. Every author knows that there are an infinite number of ways to write a story. At any point in any plot, you could turn your book over to someone else and more than likely it would end up looking a lot different than your version. An editor, for example, constantly has to examine the difference between structural suggestions and opinion suggestions - otherwise the editor is simply trying to create their own version of the author's story. It can be a hard call to make, and I think every editor - and consequently every author - has dealt with some frustration in drawing this line.
For me, I have a simple little rule I use to help me decide when to rewrite/revise, and when to step away and call it good enough. If the scene/chapter/story is already working but I'm agonizing over whether or not it's 'good enough', I ask myself this question: Will changing it make it better? Or will it simply be a different version of the same? Often times the answer is obvious - as with this current change that I'm about to institute. It will tie off a loose end, pull together two threads that need another connection in the story, and it will add a definite level of intensity and emotion to a pinnacle moment in my main character's personal evolution. It is a vertical change that will definitely make the scene/book better.
The scene in question has to do with my character receiving some critical information that changes the course of the entire story. Currently she gets the info from a group of nameless women in an overheard conversation. The transfer of this info has always been a fairly week point, but up until my grand inspiration it seemed as good as anything else. Were I to consider changing it so that she was in a different location, or heard it from a different group of fairly neutral people, the change would be lateral - and therefore kind of pointless. But now the bearer of the said tidings will be my character's nemesis rather than some neutral party, which gives me confidence that this move will be vertical - not lateral.
In this particular instance the answer to my question was very clear, but sometimes that is not the case. Sometimes you really can't tell what changes a revision/addition will bring about without sitting down and trying out your idea. In this case I think it's good to remember that just because you're considering a change - and even taking a stab at it - it doesn't mean you have to commit yourself. In every manuscript I have worked on I have made at least one major change to my story line at some point... And I've attempted several more, only to decide that what I had in the first place was better.
I could probably go on for about four more pages on the subject of how-to-tell-where-a-revision-will-take you, (which I consider a kind of fascinating subject) but, as that is not the topic of this particular post, I will spare you. For now. Suffice it to say that I'm thrilled with this latest burst of inspiration, I have no doubt it will make my book better than it was, and I am now officially glad that my book wasn't ready to go out because otherwise I'd have felt like it was too late to make the change - although I'd never have thought I'd be happy to be revising this late in the game...
Newsflash: That is today. Needless to say, my book is not quite ready due to a little thing called cover art (which could come through ANY MINUTE!) and I've been waiting around with my revised, copy-edited, totally-perfected final version, just waiting to go. And apparently I've been waiting around too long, because I was suddenly struck with a kind-of significant addition/revision that I now feel compelled to make. Could it complicate things? Possibly. Could it cause me to have to reread the entire second half of the book AGAIN in order to make sure the new addition fits in seamlessly? Definitely. Could I lose my mind if I actually have to go over all of that for the seven millionth time? Very possibly. So why am I going to do it?
Because this is such a no-brainer that I really can't believe I didn't see it in the original write. Seriously. I have this issue with this character that has been a problem since the first major shift in my original plotline. I have spent many hours trying to come up with a way to resolve this issue with no success, while all the time the answer was so obvious! So now I have to do it. There simply is no choice, because if I don't I'll always know that I should have. *sigh*
And so, the moral of this story is that sometimes being forced to step back and ruminate over something you think is perfectas good as you can make it can be a good thing. I've done quite a bit of freelance editing, and one thing I have learned is that while there is definitely such a thing as over-thinking, there is also a time and place for re-thinking. The trick is deciphering between the two. Every author knows that there are an infinite number of ways to write a story. At any point in any plot, you could turn your book over to someone else and more than likely it would end up looking a lot different than your version. An editor, for example, constantly has to examine the difference between structural suggestions and opinion suggestions - otherwise the editor is simply trying to create their own version of the author's story. It can be a hard call to make, and I think every editor - and consequently every author - has dealt with some frustration in drawing this line.
For me, I have a simple little rule I use to help me decide when to rewrite/revise, and when to step away and call it good enough. If the scene/chapter/story is already working but I'm agonizing over whether or not it's 'good enough', I ask myself this question: Will changing it make it better? Or will it simply be a different version of the same? Often times the answer is obvious - as with this current change that I'm about to institute. It will tie off a loose end, pull together two threads that need another connection in the story, and it will add a definite level of intensity and emotion to a pinnacle moment in my main character's personal evolution. It is a vertical change that will definitely make the scene/book better.
The scene in question has to do with my character receiving some critical information that changes the course of the entire story. Currently she gets the info from a group of nameless women in an overheard conversation. The transfer of this info has always been a fairly week point, but up until my grand inspiration it seemed as good as anything else. Were I to consider changing it so that she was in a different location, or heard it from a different group of fairly neutral people, the change would be lateral - and therefore kind of pointless. But now the bearer of the said tidings will be my character's nemesis rather than some neutral party, which gives me confidence that this move will be vertical - not lateral.
In this particular instance the answer to my question was very clear, but sometimes that is not the case. Sometimes you really can't tell what changes a revision/addition will bring about without sitting down and trying out your idea. In this case I think it's good to remember that just because you're considering a change - and even taking a stab at it - it doesn't mean you have to commit yourself. In every manuscript I have worked on I have made at least one major change to my story line at some point... And I've attempted several more, only to decide that what I had in the first place was better.
I could probably go on for about four more pages on the subject of how-to-tell-where-a-revision-will-take you, (which I consider a kind of fascinating subject) but, as that is not the topic of this particular post, I will spare you. For now. Suffice it to say that I'm thrilled with this latest burst of inspiration, I have no doubt it will make my book better than it was, and I am now officially glad that my book wasn't ready to go out because otherwise I'd have felt like it was too late to make the change - although I'd never have thought I'd be happy to be revising this late in the game...
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