New Year - Fresh Start

Happy New Year to one and all!

Enjoyed a very productive day with Pam today – well it was productive after we spent some time organizing files and folders.  Once that was out of the way it was down to business.   Earlier this week we received some writing advice from Melodie Campbell and after some discussion Pam and I decided to go with a couple of her suggestions.  One, and its a major one, is to rethink the names we have given our main characters, Paul and Dorothy.   

Ironically Pam and I had just recently been wondering whether to make a change in Dorothy’s surname to better reflect her Irish background, but a whole new name?  Today we mulled over some names, liking some more than others, but waiting for the one which would jump out at us.  Eventually we decided on ......Caitlin Dennehy – “Cat”.  The more we spoke aloud Cat Dennehy the more we liked it and so as of now we say good bye to ‘Dorothy Del Rio’ and hello to Cat Dennehy.   And as for her partner, Paul?   A fresh start for him seemed appropriate and therefore -  we introduce  Gavin Steele of Steele & Associates.   Of course one name change leads to another – but you’ll have to read the book to find out who else has had some renovation!

As well the first four or five chapters are in for some major revising, not changing the gist of the story, just the layout.  From there we decided it was time to add some more depth to Paul’s, er Gavin’s, character; so we added some more details to the man and his life.  Hopefully once we incorporate some of these revisions the tale of Body Perfect will be the better for it.   We have four pages of typed up notes that Pam and I will be using as we both, individually, go about making some changes to the beginning of the story.  We will compare our progress in a week or so and see how close we are to what we discussed and then merge both sets of revisions into the opening scenes of the next draft.    Sounds like a lot of work perhaps, but I for one, feel totally energized by the prospects of reconstructing what we already have!

As well, Jamie Tremain has decided to definitely attend BloodyWords 2012 in Toronto this year; hotel registration is on my to do list before the weekend is over, and we will apply for associate membership with Crime Writers of Canada – indicators of our intention to continue our quest towards becoming published!  We’ve also received some great comments on LinkedIn after Pam requested comments from other writers who have worked collaboratively on their work with other writers.

And so now it will be time for some disciplined writing sessions; not having the luxury of some retired writers, who shall remain nameless, I’ll need to carve out some precious time each day for Jamie Tremain.   Some upcoming vacation time in February will be spent in front of the computer no doubt – vying for time I want to spend cleaning out closets and drawers.

So the day may draw to an end, but it marks the beginning of a new focus on Jamie Tremain and in particular Body Perfect.  The New Year is always a good time for fresh starts!

Cheers!

Liz