So You’re Gonna Be Startin’ Something…

I have a couple of theme songs running through my head at the moment regarding the revisions, besides the subject header. “Freak Out” comes to mind along with the “Rocky” theme song. Last night let me tell you I was slicing and dicing words, using what Miss Snark the literary agent extraordinaire taught me. No overwriting this time! I am going to trust my gut 100% on these revisions.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have a true test as to when the writing’s good. When I can set my pen down and get caught up in the story without editing, when I’m sucked in, then I know it’s right. When I start nitpicking lines and thinking–this section isn’t working, then I still have work to do. There’s a kind of magic when you find those perfect sections. The trick is sustaining it for 365 pages.

I’m reading Charlotte’s Web to my son right now, and sometimes I get caught up in the language of E.B. White. People sometimes think children’s books are easy to write. Not at all. They’re every bit as complex as adult fiction, but there’s a child as the hero/heroine. Some of my favorite children’s books when I was growing up were: Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. In both cases, the heroine was a writer. Funny how that happens.

Was there a book that influenced you as a child?