Some people might consider that achieving the holy grail of a publishing contract means that you know everything. You’ve got the craft of writing mastered. Well, that’s not true. Sure, you’re at a point where what you’re writing is good, but there’s still loads of things to learn, skills to be polished, ambitious ideas around the corner.
Sometimes, the things you have to work on are quite obvious to you. For example, I know that plotting is a weakness, but each book I write it’s getting better and better and I’m learning the things I need to do to fix problems when they arise.
Othertimes, you realise you’re doing things wrong too late in the piece and you just have to swear to fix them next time. To whit – I’ve realised, after some reviews and a bit of thinking, that my pov characters are getting away with things a bit too easily.
Around them, people are getting horribly injured, terribly sick, even dying. But the guys and girls I’m writing about – not even a scratch. Now, the fact that these are romances means I can’t go too far down the maiming them trap – romances mean that the pov characters come through scrapes relatively easily cause they’ve got the whole falling-in-love, living-happily-ever-after thing to accomplish by the end of the book. However, I can kinda make my guys pay a bit more for what they’re doing.
Problem with that – I set up in book one that it’s damn easy for them to heal themselves. I read the line where I did it at the launch and cringed as I realised how stupid I’d been. Despite that, I think I need to find a way to make them feel the bumps and bruises more.
There’s a couple of places in book two I can add a few lines – hopefully I can do so at the proof stage without upsetting the pagination (and having to pay a fee). However, I’ve got the perfect solution for book three. Once again, it’s one of those natural things that I’ve built into the world and the storyline that when you take it to it’s conclusion, provides you with the answer you need.
Hopefully by the end of the book three, I’ll have hammered into my skull that my pov characters have to face physical and emotional consequences of their actions, just like everyone around them.