My eyes are burning, my legs are numb and my dogs are mad at me. I've been sitting at my desk since Monday afternoon, editing. I love the writing but oh my the editing. And, why am I have such difficulty with it this time? It's not my fault. It's Detective Karst's fault. It's his job to read through and check my police protocol and to double check his dialog.
For those of you who don't know. My sleuth in my books is a real live detective. He's been a great character and loads of fun to take on tour. When we have a debate about plots, I always win unless it concerns the police stuff. I mean really, does it truly matter that I didn't have probable cause to arrest the guy I arrested in my new book? What does he mean I can't put the guy in jail even for one night. Sheesh! I had to take my character out of jail, find a motel room for him, and rewrite several scenes where his daughter is concerned about her dad being locked up when he's not really locked up.
I keep telling him someday I'm going to write him in as a villian...or on the days he really gives me a bad time I remind him, I've nearly poisoned him, I've shot him twice, he's torn his arm open jumping through a glass door to save a fellow female officer, and I sent him into a burning house with his arm in a sling to save three women, so maybe one of these times he won't make it out of the book alive...but then he'd proably just come back as a ghost. I think he's here to stay.
We've made it through 8 books in the Elusive Clue series together and then I wrote him into my middle grade book SECRET OF DRAGONFLY ISLAND without telling him....still not sure if he's read that one!!
Anyway, I quit for the day. I'm going to eat, watch SURVIVOR and crash. Tomorrow's another day and hopefully, I can finish the edits and send the manuscript off to New York and celebrate. I guess even if I don't get it sent off, I'm close enough for celebrating with ice cream tomorrow evening. I deserve it, I want it, I need it.
For those of you who don't know. My sleuth in my books is a real live detective. He's been a great character and loads of fun to take on tour. When we have a debate about plots, I always win unless it concerns the police stuff. I mean really, does it truly matter that I didn't have probable cause to arrest the guy I arrested in my new book? What does he mean I can't put the guy in jail even for one night. Sheesh! I had to take my character out of jail, find a motel room for him, and rewrite several scenes where his daughter is concerned about her dad being locked up when he's not really locked up.
I keep telling him someday I'm going to write him in as a villian...or on the days he really gives me a bad time I remind him, I've nearly poisoned him, I've shot him twice, he's torn his arm open jumping through a glass door to save a fellow female officer, and I sent him into a burning house with his arm in a sling to save three women, so maybe one of these times he won't make it out of the book alive...but then he'd proably just come back as a ghost. I think he's here to stay.
We've made it through 8 books in the Elusive Clue series together and then I wrote him into my middle grade book SECRET OF DRAGONFLY ISLAND without telling him....still not sure if he's read that one!!
Anyway, I quit for the day. I'm going to eat, watch SURVIVOR and crash. Tomorrow's another day and hopefully, I can finish the edits and send the manuscript off to New York and celebrate. I guess even if I don't get it sent off, I'm close enough for celebrating with ice cream tomorrow evening. I deserve it, I want it, I need it.
I agree Patti, what's up with having to get all those pesky little details 'just so'? Why can't people just assume that things are exactly the way we invision them? What's the point of having a vivid imagination, if we have to bleed actual facts and protocal into a story that would have sounded so much better writtin the way we invisioned it in the first place? lol Geesh! Did Agatha Christie have to do all this research? I bet Miss Marple did just fine without microscopes, computers and DNA and still managed to figure out 'who did it'. :) Why oh why did I have to be born in such a 'techy' century?
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, enjoying your new blog, Patti! I'm hoping it will motivate me to quickly wrap up some of my other time consuming projects and focus more earnestly on finishing my own book! ;)