You see, my characters keep asking me the same question, over and over again: What’s my motivation? And sometimes I just blank out. Not a thought comes up, not a motivation is found.
I fight it, particularly if the character is as adorable as Godzilla, but in the end I know it’s my cue: time to ditch the character, time to kill another darling…
Tagged: characters, kill your darlings, Motivation, writing
Today, I finished my manuscript, a middle grade adventure. Hurray! A load off my mind.
The final tweaks and refinements are always the hardest. It demands ruthlessness in killing your darlings and a scrupulous attention to detail. I’m good at killing my darlings, but the scrupulous attention to detail isn’t my forte if it concerns my own work. I don’t see the mistakes and typos as I do when I’m editing someone else’s work. I read what I think I wrote and I know that — particularly in those passages that are packed with action (and usually written at the same speed) — my mind outruns my typing. Thankfully, we have editors. Writers rely on editors. They are one of the most essential links in the publishing chain.
But the hardest part of finishing a manuscript is hitting the send button. I always hesitate, have to force myself to let go of the manuscript, place it in the hands of others. It feels like that moment dangling in mid-air when you are not sure yet where and how you will land. How appropriate was it that my son published a photo of himself in mid-air at the exact time that I hit that send button.
Isn’t life full of sweet coincidences?
Tagged: coincidence, editor, kill your darlings, manuscript, middle grade, tweaking, writing
Mina Witteman 