Third Time's the Charm

Today I'm blogging over at Inkspot, the blog for Midnight Ink authors, about rewriting a crucial scene three times until I got it right and it was neither underripe or overripe. Find out what went wrong each time and why I felt I had to fix it before moving on.

If you're a writer, have you had to rewrite a scene multiple times before you felt its flavor was perfect? If you're a reader, have you read a scene that you felt should have been rewritten until it tasted better? Please share!

Working on a Climax

I've been editing the climax of my WiP (work-in-progress), which is the third book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series, tentatively titled Basketful of Troubles. I handed it out to my critique group and received their feedback at our last meeting.

I was concerned prior to the meeting because the scene included a lot of people, a lot of action, gunshots, a bucking horse, terrible danger, high emotions, people afraid to act or acting inappropriately, and more. And I'd already rewritten the climax a couple of times, to raise the stakes and the accompanying emotion.

I had a right to be concerned.

My critique partners liked the basic elements of my climax scene, but they pointed out many areas that needed to be fixed. These included:

1) A man was sucker punched by someone, but once he got the other party under control, he was content to hold him pinned down and not get a revenge lick in.
2) A woman ran inside a building to call the cops early in the scene, but readers forgot about her by the time the fighting began and kept asking, "Why isn't anyone calling the cops?"
3) Someone was hurt, badly hurt, and I didn't show his pain on screen.
4) I didn't keep the focus of the scene on the bad guy at all times so the reader knew what he was doing.
5) I made the characters' dialogue too long. They would speak more in fragments.
6) I got so wrapped up in describing the action that I called a character the wrong name--more than once.

And 7) There was a logic hole so big you could drive a truck through it. Aaargh! It took me quite a while to come up with a solution for that.

By now, I bet you're wondering how I could possibly be a published author.

I've been busy making fixes the last few days. I'm happy to report that the scene reads better, much better, thanks to the astute eyes of my critique group. What would I do without them?

A Breakthrough on a Final Climax

I had a breakthrough on my Work-in-Progress the day before yesterday. My Work-in-Progress is the third book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series. The manuscript has been drafted, and I've been submitting chapters to my critique group, performing edits before and after each submittal.

I am due to submit the chapter containing the final climax tonight. I had been dissatisfied with it, however, and knew it needed fixing. The stakes needed to be raised, and I needed to "make things worse" for my heroine. I had to give her a bigger test that she could pass and prove that she is worthy of the title "heroine."

As the time approached for that climax scene to be shared with my critique group, ideas on how to fix it stewed in my brain. First came the idea on how to spin the situation more out of control and put a life in danger. Then I had to figure out how Claire was going to save the day!

That idea came a couple of days before the rewrite. Finally, I had a free day with no appointments, and I sat down to edit that scene, vowing to stay off the Internet until it was done. Eight hours and eight new pages of text (plus many rewritten pages) later, I was done.

The scene now has a lot more tension and conflict. I'm pretty pleased with the result. I hope my critique group will be, too!