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[Disclaimer: Hopefully this blog makes sense. I have Covid brain right now and thought it was a good idea to write a new blog...😂]
I was writing last night. I've been working on this scene for a few days and drawing oh so close to finishing up this first draft.
But I got to a point in the scene where it wasn't working for me. I very rarely backtrack or delete words. I mostly know where I'm going and what I want to happen. I like to let things play out and re-read everything as a whole to see if it works.
But the more I wrote, the less I liked it. And the more I realized I was turning my secondary love interest into a villain, which was not my intent at all.
Without getting too spoiler-y my Female Main Character is Addie (short for Adelaide). The main love interest is Jace, but--because tension--there's a secondary love interest named Tyler.
Addie has a history with both of them, but she's going to end up with Jace. Tyler's a good guy though. I've set him to be this wholesome--but hot--divorced dad. They've had their little moments of sexual tension throughout the story. There's obviously a bit of a "fight" going on between Tyler and Jace for Addie's affection. They're both good for her in different ways, and she could see herself having a future with both of them. But the futures are night and day.
If Jace hadn't appeared on the scene, this would've been an entirely different romance novel!
That being said, I was working on this scene where Tyler and Addie are alone *duhn duhn DUHN* and boy, Tyler was coming off like a royal douchebag! He was being all "I'm better than Jace." and "Jace isn't good for you." and putting Addie in a literal corner. (And nobody puts Addie in a corner.)
I stopped writing and was like "WOAH. This does not feel right! Not at all!"
It wasn't Tyler. I was turning him into a villain and that was not my intent at all. Falling into some stereotypical, and honestly kind of slimy, actions. He's not the villain of this story. And I have a satisfactorily happy ending planned for him, and maybe a storyline for a book set in the same town, but it can't happen if my readers think he's a total jerk!
So, I stopped writing, I reread what I had, I brainstormed for how I could rework the scene to make him more of the sweet guy that he is and deleted words.
Backtracking kind of hurt, honestly. Deleting words hurt. Especially this close to the end when we're heading towards the HEA with one final little blip between Addie and Tyler to help Addie solidify her choice, but I had to stop it before I got much farther because it wasn't true to the character or the book.
The scene wasn't that long, yet. I only really had to rework about 500 words. But it also showed me something about my progress as a writer.
I've reread some of my early writing from around a decade ago. There was no litmus test for my characters. They did what they did and I left it like that.
And I probably thought it was great, at the time. And for me, then, it was. It wasn't until after I read the drafts back at a later date that I realized how much work would need to be put into really making my characters, and their respective arcs, make sense. I'm glad that my writing has grown enough to recognize this while writing, instead of having to wait until after I'm done.
I'm sure there will be things I've missed that Alpha Readers will pick out, but I hope that I've written some characters that have depth and good relationships with each other and that aren't douchebags!
Except the actual villain of course.
She's a total douchebag.
I'm so excited to write "The End" on this WIP, hopefully before the end of the month, and I can't wait to update you all!
As for the website, I'm working behind-the-scenes on the "Works in Progress" page and generating some ideas for things to blog about (as well as ideas for my next projects).
I want to work on Kindle Vella next.
Also, don't miss Friday afternoons, from 1pm-4pm Eastern on my Twitch channel, I'm hosting Productivity and Writing Sprints!
Come write, edit, art, do the day job, or focus on something else entirely!
Find me at RoseEvenstar21 on Twitch!
Tell me, do you think you might join me for some sprints on Twitch? Or tell me about a way your writing has grown or a way you've been surprised during your writing process.
For now,
Rosie J.
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Links to Holiday Romance WIP related blogs:
Link | Rosie on Twitch!