Baby steps

Chapters 1 throuh 4 are largely done! Granted, I still need to have Chapters 3 and 4 evaluated by my two toughest critics. So maybe tomorrow I'll post that they still have massive amounts of editing to undergo, but more or less, they are done. Once I finish this run through of the book, I'll spend some time really honing the dialog. I need to examine the exact choice of words I use - especially between the two main characters. The best books I've read don't necessarily mirror real life.

For example, when I'm uncomfortable, I tend to use words such as "um" and "ah" and "eh". Really great English there I know. But that's how a lot of people really talk when they're uncomfortable. However, when writing, I don't think a reader really wants to read slang such as that. They want to be transported to another time, another place, another relationship.

< begin tangent > Does anyone truly have a relationship like in the romance novels? Of course not. Life just doesn't work that way. Do most people really say things like "It was eating me up inside, Emily, not knowing if you loved me.” His fingers brushed her hair and he pressed his lips to her cheek as he continued, his words softly echoing in her ear, “I knew we belonged together, the first time I touched you. These past days, seeing you injured, scared…you needed me, but that wasn’t enough. I needed it all. I needed you to love me.”

No, absolutely not. No one talks like that. But we (and here I'm speaking primarily of women, though I suspect some men feel the same way - I just don't know any) want someone to talk to us that way. We want a love that's so pure, so strong, that the man and woman can't possibly live without each other. < /tangent >

So I need to hone the dialog. Hell, I need to hone the dialog I just posted above. And if anyone has a significant other who actually talks like that...well, I don't know if I want to talk to him or her for ideas or if I want to tell you to go to hell .

Ok, back to editing.

-Patricia