Second Guessing Myself
I’m struggling with a new proposal I’d like to mail out soon. It’s a revised one, and really it’s my first book remade. It is such a Frankenstein at the moment. I *thought* I was rewriting it and basically doing a new book with old character names. Not so much. My heroine’s motivations are still uneven, and I know my critique partners nailed the flaws. Man. 
I’m toying around with ways to steady the heroine, to make her come across as believable and sympathetic, but her emotions are very erratic. I’m starting to turn into Soap Opera Queen. Imagine the brainstorming, if you will:
“Hey! I know. I could make her pregnant with another man’s child. And the hero marries her without knowing it, and she’ll lose the baby, and then they’ll eventually fall in love and live happily ever after.” 
Oy. Sometimes my bad ideas amaze even me.
One of the worst storylines I ever saw was on “Days of Our Lives” when they actually made one of the heroines possessed by the devil. Okay, at least I haven’t stooped to that. But I do need a way to make her come across better. I’ve ruled out Secret Baby and Possession. That’s progress, isn’t it? 
My method is to rule out all the bad ideas before the good ones come out.
In other news, my daughter still hasn’t forgiven me for sending her back to daycare. She started in the new room, the one where they begin potty-training the kids. There was major backsliding the first day, which I expected. Today was better–only one accident. But the teacher asked my opinion of Pull-Ups. I told her a resounding, “NO!” If you have a kid who has successfully been trained for going on two weeks, with only minor accidents here and there, you can’t go back like that. Not going to happen. I told her, if I have to do laundry, I’ll just do laundry. Not a problem. But I will not revert back to diapers. (Insert primal scream here) Good Lord, the kid has only been there two days! Cut her a break.
I did have one exciting moment tonight. My son made some major progress on learning to read. He started remembering his sight words, and it went SO MUCH FASTER. Though I love him dearly, hearing him sound out the word R-E-D and D-O-G for the fifteen millionth time made me want to scream. He would read the word on one page. Then the next page, it would be there again, and he’d sound it out again. By the fifth page of seeing the same word, I was about ready to yell, “It’s the word THE! It hasn’t changed since you read it the last time! Gaaaahhh!” But I restrained myself. Tonight when he started to show some recall memory, there was major cheering and screaming and high-fiving. Poor kid didn’t have a clue why Mommy had lost it. But oh, it was so exciting to see him start to recognize sight words and read them without having to sound them out. What a major step. So cool.
Okay, I’ll sign off to try and find another reason why my medieval heroine would not want marriage, but would want the power of being able to control estates. Maybe she wants to be like Anna Nicole :loser: and marry an old geezer. Major ick factor there.
Michelle posted in Writing @ 9:46 pm | Viewed 1003 times
Bonnie Ferguson Says:
(((Michelle))) on the proposal struggles. I’m sure you’ll find a great reason why your heroine doesn’t want to be married but wants to control estates.
Kelly Says:
Too funny, Michelle! I usually end up doing the same thing when I’m brain storming - soap operas and fairy tales or some weird combination of both!
kacey Says:
yes, let’s see if we can get this proposal written without twisting it into a pretzel, shall we? That way maybe you won’t pull out all your hair this time :coffee2: (though really, I seem to make it more complicated than it needs to be too, until I finally figure it all out)
beth Says:
Hugs, Michelle. I’m sure you’ll get her motivations down. I know - secretly she’s really a man! Oh wait. You probably don’t want MY bad ideas on top of your own.
Hang in there! And major woohoos on the reading. Go, kiddo!
Mary Says:
Keep writing and planning. It all comes together and that’s a wonderful feeling.
Robyn Says:
If it isn’t secret baby or possession, you can always go for the old standby of idiot thinks she’s in love with another man who for some reason won’t commit. :loser:
Melissa Says:
My daughter is starting to recognize words, too. I’ve been worried about her because she is struggling to remember her letters. Her kindergarten teacher is terrific, however, so I have faith that between the two of us, my daughter will be fine.
It’s actually amazing when you think of the whole reading and writing thing - we take it for granted now because we’ve been doing it for so long. But to someone just starting out, it’s HARD.
Stephanie Says:
Ok, I’m chipping in, and hope everyone doesn’t think I’m a downer.
I’ve re-written 2 books now, both of which were my first completed novels. And I would NEVER do it again. They are both, as you term it, Frankensteins. And they both got rejected.
Personally, I found that your writing ability changes so much from an early book to a later one that the idea you once had just doesn’t fly anymore. Now, I suppress temptation to go back to an old idea, unless I’ve really analyzed it and think it’s unique. If it’s only half developed or problematic, I drop it. I spent more time re-working a short book as I did a 150K novel.
Fresh ideas are best. And they give you the most inspiration. When you start with an old idea, you’re already at a point where you’re saying, “OK, sigh, here we go…”
I am such a downer, I know, sorry!
Bosey
Rene Says:
You have my sympathy on the proposal problems. Those pesky heroines and their motivations. Grrr….
My son and I used to go the rounds over reading. I spent the gazillion dollars for Hooked on Phonics and it was battle royale for a year or so. The situation was exacerbated by the fact his cousin was reading at a 4th grade level before kindergarten. But something clicked when my son started kindergarten and now in 4th grade he is reading at a high school level. My daughter insists on reading “Hop on Pop” out loud over and over again. I can’t take it.
Ms Janice Says:
I work at a daycare in the room that starts the potty taining process. I agree with you; do not ever go back to pullups once a child is out of them. We don’t even ask parents to bring pullups. Whenever a new child comes to our class we give them time to get to know us and give ourselves time to know them. We also give the parents a letter of what we do in our class and what the child will need to bring with them.
pottytrainingsite.blogspot.com
Stacy Says:
Hugs Michelle, new ventures are never easy even though you would think so with an old ms.
As for reading, I’m happy to say my little guy is doing well, as for potty-training..yeesh! Not so good.:duh: