Strange Changes

So, having spent a very long time trying hard to not only like my book's manuscript (apparently colloquially known as an MS... Easier to write, to be sure), and to also make it entertaining, I got last-minute inspiration over the weekend to hack up a key scene near the end and completely change it. I don't know why...

Though I thought the original one was fine, something about it always nagged at me, and now I wonder if maybe this new idea's got it right...? It does change the dynamic of not only the story, but also the dynamics between the characters, and I think maybe it really does work better. I've hacked up the book and the characters as a whole in the last few months - developing them, maturing them a little more and bringing their dynamic to a more preferable and smoother pace, and getting the pacing as a whole much better too (or at least I hope I have, and the work I've put in hasn't been for nothing).

I'm hoping this latest edition is also a more positive change to it, especially since I've been trying to obsessively get it out of head and onto the Word doc for the last 2 days. Once finished I'll then have to go back and edit it, which is always irritating because you have to be faced with all the daft mistakes you made when sketchily trying to touch-type your ideas as fast as they get into your head. And all whilst the wireless keyboard that is the bane of your existence insists on continuously skipping out not only odd letters but also entire bloody words -because heaven-forbid the damn thing should work properly. Or at all. Ever.

Unfortunately, this will also change the dreaded Synopsis - but hopefully for the better. It streamlines the story more effectively (or so is my humble opinion) so maybe when I amend it, the Synopsis will also read better and make a bit more sense. And be shorter. If I'm happy with it, then I might finally have the guts to send it off to a couple of people - obviously one will always hope that one day someone will read it, think its utterly marvellous and cheerfully offer you whatever you want for the rights to flog it to every publisher that will offer a small fortune for it. Of course in real life, one must deal with people reading the first three lines and returning it to you with the dreaded Rejection Letter and letting you get on with weeping into your morning coffee as you grieve for the lack of love that thick-headed agents have for your "baby". Always the best part... Can't imagine why I haven't done it yet.

I will, however, continue to comfort myself with the reality that even JK Rowling and The Beatles were met with many a rejection before a sensible and clever person spotted the diamonds in the rough and the genius in what they had to offer, leaving those who had the audacity to infamously reject such treasures crying into their own coffees whilst the sensible ones went laughing not only all the way to the bank but also into the history books of creative arts and entertainment.

I will always love the irony that Decca records will always be infamously known for brutally rejecting The Beatles, whilst EMI went down in history as being the ones who saw their potential and became their recording label. I'll also bet all the publishing houses and agents who rejected Harry Potter will always regret the day they decided to be small-minded and turned down the chance of a lifetime, and the money that obviously went with it.

Ironically, they told her there was no money in children's books. I somehow doubt they think that now...