Where Genres Collide Traci Dowe YA Author

I finished my read-through of my first draft. Monday, I began the slow but necessary process of edits. I’m pretty excited and happy with what I’ve come up with so far. I’ve changed one character from male to female and yesterday, I decided to put her in conflict-mode with the hero. I think this will bring many advantages to the story. Not the least is which to add more tension to the scenes and the outcome. My opening setting began with a graveyard in town originally, but I’ve moved it to the mountains and a burial pit to reflect the background of the young protagonist. He’s on a field trip with his classmates during which monsters attack and he gets delivered an ill-fated message. I’ve been working hard on getting subtle details into my story about setting and characters. It’s not easy but I think I’m coming up with the right mix. In all this, I’m not totally changing the first chapter. I’m just opening in a different setting, closer to their village, and tying this scene into what I had originally.  Digging deeper has helped me add so much to the work. I’ve been able to do away with some subtitles in the chapter line-up and shown instead the details of such in the writing. One major thing for me to tackle was fluid body movements. Often, I struggle with them in the story. They seem awkward and stiff at times. I’ve been studying how other writers handle them and I think I’m getting the issue resolved. This is where all that reading we do as writers pays off. Read and learn is really the best way.  Hope your own writing is coming along well. Good luck with your projects.