Why I slashed the first three chapters of my novel
Chapter one of my debut novel Return to Desiree Bay didn’t originally start with the protagonist Skye Summerhayes driving into her home town. I’d always resisted placing my heroine literally in the driver’s seat because, a long time ago, I took to advice from an author to avoid starting a story with a driving scene….
How to edit a manuscript
I wrote Return to Desiree Bay in 2014. Back then the working title was House of the Week. I had planned to structure the novel in the same way as the classic romcom movie When Harry Met Sally. The idea was to intersperse vignettes throughout the main narrative. My main character was a real estate…
Finding a critique partner
I’m starting this post with a story that shows how important it is to find critique partners who are on the same journey and know how to offer balanced feedback. Several years ago, I made a big mistake. I showed a friend the first 10,000 words of one of my novels. It was a first…