Although I'd been told, twice, that my fiction continued to sound like a journalist wrote it, I could not figure out exactly what that meant. And if you can't identify a problem, it's near impossible to address it.
I'd heard: tell us what the character is feeling. and Ramp up Alexa's attitude.
But actually accomplishing that had remained elusive.
A girlfriend of mine from my years in New York City, a published author and illustrator (of children's books) visited with me and my husband last week.
Finally, from what she said, I got a clue. Cecile wrote some suggestions in the margins of a printout. I saw them, understood why she wrote this or that. However, that didn't mean I felt like I could replicate what she did on the rest of the manuscript.
I even said to her, "It's like a gray box where I need to put in the character's feelings. And I can't find the door, or figure out how to pry my way into it."
She's known me for 20 years. She said, "Yes you do. You have understood the subtleties of my feelings, and known how others are inside. I've heard you."
Just by someone I could trust telling me, yes, you can do this: That cracked open the gray box.
I think. I hope.
Now feel I'm working on the third draft, the prose is so different -- what with all that emotion flowing all over the place.
Thank you, Cecile!
By Laure Edwards Reminick
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