Writing and a Wrapper

And so I wait to hear back from my sister/editor believing that what I have written is actually better than what I read before I sent it to her. It is like taking pictures. When you download them onto your computer days or weeks later, they seem a trifle less spectacular than when you snapped them.

Writing and another Wrapper

Another chapter came back from my editor asking for major changes. It is the first ball and so things that happen at a ball have to happen. I'm so interested in getting to the story that I'm not allowing for specific things I want the reader to know to come out naturally.

 

I've never been good at keeping secrets and it shows in my writing. I want to blab what I know instead of letting it unfold and let the reader discover it on their own. The motto of all good writers is to show instead of tell. I show and then tell. I see a lot of re-writes in my future.

Here's another wrapper along the same lines as the other two. It is not as vibrant as the other two. But to me it looks to me cozy and comfortable. 

Writing and a Wrapper

Below is another wrapper, I think I like the green one better, but pink always feels comforting to wear.

Something that I am learning is that a story has to have structure. A lot of writers use the large W format.

The first event is at the top of the first line of the W. Then matters seem to go downhill. The next big event happens that changes the trajectory of the story and you are on the first upswing of the letter.

        

  

                        W

I feel like I'm getting somewhere. That the main characters are set 

with personalities and backgrounds. Now I just have to keep up 

those same personalities throughout the story. Sometimes even 

giving them a specific habit or way of speaking so the reader always 

knows who they are.

I

Green Wrapper

On the left is a wrapper, which is the term for a thin robe worn for modesty. They usually covered up a nightgown. I asked my daughter to make something elegant to wear over a plain cotton nightgown.

Still plugging away at writing. If it weren't for my editor pushing me to turn in a chapter each week, I don't know what I would do. I can spend literally hours on three pages of print. Changing a word here, re-doing a section there. I don't know if I'm making it better or worse.

What I really like is to turn in a Chapter and then get it back with lines cut and prompts asking me if this or that is what I meant. Then I can really dig in and see if that is what I wanted or at times what I really didn't want.