Harder than manual labor - by Sandy Istvan

I swear, no matter how trite, how corny, how boring I find a novel, I will never again speculate on the length of time the author spent writing it, the intelligence of the author, or the wisdom of the editor who accepted it for publication. It’s damned hard work to write something people will actually enjoy reading. Too bad every aspiring romance writer doesn’t get the ‘Nora Roberts gene.’

The earliest draft of my story has a date of 08/02. At that time it was a horror tale, and the narrative was all over the place – lots of side stories, unimportant conversation, too many characters; you get the drift.

I’ve loved to write since I was a kid, but I never developed any discipline – actually didn’t know there was a formula to follow. Since submitting my manuscript was the farthest thing from my conscious mind, I had a great time – threw in everything but the kitchen sink.

Then it dawned on me: my manuscript had a female bank officer and a very male lawyer. I snatched the idea of a love affair between my two major characters. What took me so long, I wonder? Wired and still completing winging it, I tore apart my story and began trying to add little romantic vignettes without destroying the plot I’d labored over. I decided I needed a back story for at least my major characters so I could throw in interesting little conflicts between the potential lovers. But how would I blend in their stories? And when at last he takes her to bed, how would I describe that? What if my grandchildren happened to sneak a peek at the ever-present manuscript?

While I struggled with the issues mentioned above and constantly had to read and re-read my life’s work, I noticed that my sentences were stiff, boring to tell the truth. So I began to substitute more interesting words, better phrases; I even inverted sentences or cut them into segments and tried various arrangements of the words.

Do you get the feeling that I never clean my house or cook dinner? Fortunately my husband’s current hobby is cooking, so we’re all set there – we won’t starve. Not sure about the dust bunnies, though.

The conversion of the story from spooky horror novel to novel of romantic suspense took on a whole new aspect when I learned the LCRW members met, of all places, in the Gates Town Hall. I could walk there from my house if I had car trouble. Finally, finally I could talk to real published authors and pick their brains, learn their secrets, hear their critiques. Of course, all my newfound knowledge necessitated complete revision of my manuscript.

In July of 2008, I submitted my novel,Damned Liaison, to the Wild Rose Press. It took three editors and six months to get to the rejection, but the rather terse email did say the story had an interesting premise, so I latched onto that thought and started in again.

I’ve finished revising the entire manuscript and given it a new title. Currently I’m going chapter by chapter catching errors, dull paragraphs, dangling participles (and maybe other dangling things), and as many other glitches as I can find, to correct. Expect to resubmit by mid-July.

Hope it goes because I’ve started two other novels, and I’m eager to see what happens in them. You got it; I’m a ‘pantser.’Bottom line? This stuff is hard work. It’s harder than manual labor, and it takes dedication, flexibility, and the ability to accept rejection.

But think of the pleasure of having your labor of love published at last.

It’s worth it, don’t you think? Can’t wait to find out!