Of Writing, Plotting, and Editing

As I've mentioned in my last few posts, I've been working on a new project called Eden.  It's my first scifi/dystopian.  It's been such and interesting experience for me.  I have mixed feelings about it.  While I am excited to work on it and I already love it, I worry that I'm not going to be very good at this genre.  I have only read maybe 4 books in either of these genres as far as I can remember.  When picking books to read I never think to grab anything in this area.  But I talked to a friend who suggested some new stuff for me.  So a few days ago I stopped at the library and grabbed Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, Life as we Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and The Children of Men by P.D. James.

The thing with this new book is that even though its this weird subject for me, it's still true to my style because it will involve romance.  I am a sucker for a good love story so of course it has to be involved in my own work.  The thing is, I'm not sure who I want my MC to eventually end up with.  The two choices are very different in every single way.  This is an interesting delima.  I love the one character more as of right now but know she should probably end up with the other one.  I've never had this problem when even I didn't know how it was going to end.

If you're interested, I've started posting Eden as I go along on my website.  So if you're interested check it out on www.kearytaylor.com/eden.  I'd love to hear what you think of it so far.

On another topic, I've stalled on editing Forsaken again.  I've actually been going over Branded again, trying to figure out what is missing from it that is keeping an agent from feeling strong enough about it.  I've had about 6 agents look at it.  All of them have said they like the idea, think it's really unique.  But what a few of them have said is that they just didn't connect with Jessica, my MC, enough.  One of them said that she didn't feel like she really knew Jessica enough at the end.  So I've been thinking about this, trying to decide how to fix this.  I think I've come up with a solution. 

Jessica had a really rough time growing up.  She has lived through hell her entire life with no one understanding what was going on and no one to talk to.  So I've decided to add in a few memories of things that have happened to her.  Things from when she was a little girl, her mother's reactions to her, a scene from after she ran away from home, a few things like that.  Hopefully this will give people a little more insight into Jessica, help people understand why she is the way she is.

And ultimately the goal is to contact those agents who liked Branded but eventually decided to pass, and see if they would be willing to take a look again.  And hopefully all you fans out there will help.  It will help my case if I already have a built-in fan base.  So thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have been there for me.  Who have given me words of encouragement when I thought about giving up.  And thank you for helping to spread the word.