Fun fact #2 - It didn't sell to anyone except my family and a few friends.
Fun fact #3 - A year later, I read over it and... Oh my gosh, does it need serious help!
My mistake, as an overly excited, inexperienced writer is the fact that I forgot to edit. Or make sure my characters were good. Or make an outline. Or 75% of the stuff you usually do when you publish a book.
So now I'm editing that book, and fixing the hundreds of problems I found! Am I at all frustrated or have any negative emotions about this? NOPE. I'm actually overjoyed, because not only have I learned so much in a year that my previous writing looks like trash, but I get to go back into that world and make it better! Because if I'm honest with myself, I never really left that world.
Anyway, as a useful learning experience to others and because I really feel like writing this right now, here are all the things that went wrong and how I'm fixing them!
!!!!Spoiler Alerts Ahead!!!!!
1. Your Names, Goodness!
Newbie mistake, pointed out by various YouTubers multiple times... Do not let your characters have similar names, or names that start with the same letter!
So guess what my two biggest characters were named? Jenna and Jamie. And guess what else? Jenna is my main character, Jamie is a love interest, and I'm totally attached to both of their names.
Turns out though, that I was more attached to Jamie's name than Jenna's. I renamed Jenna, now she's Sabrina, and even though I still haven't quite gotten over it I'm not as upset as I was at the thought of renaming Jamie (I mean, Mark and Alfred are great names... But they aren't Jamie!)
This leads me on to my next problem...
2. My Main Character SUCKS
Reason #1 that my main character got renamed instead of the not main character? Sabrina sucks. Plainly, she's nothing special. Average teenage girl who happens to have killed people; that's it.She's way underdeveloped, and I realized that both as I was reading the book and as I was making her character sheet. What are her hobbies? NIL What kind of music? NIL. Backstory? NIL. Family life? NIL. Personality? Depends on the situation. Sometimes snarky, sometimes mushy, always open to everyone about everything.
Not only that, but she makes it onto everyone's pet peeves in writing list! Saved by guys all the time? Check! Can't make up her mind between two guys who dote on her in full knowledge of her liking both of them? Check!
I almost hate this girl... But no worries, I'm making some major changes!
What am I doing to fix such a bad character? Firstly, I'm making a list of everything about her. Every single itty bitty detail! Second, I'm showing her through different eyes. (More on that in a second!) And third, since I already changed her name, I'm just making her into a completely new, not as hateble character.
3. Finally, A Guy To Save The Day THE RIGHT WAY
Jamie, best guy ever, he's saving the whole book... As in he's saving the low word count, the fact that Bree is a bland, unlikable brat... Basically solving every big problem in the book.
Basically, as opposed to Sabrina, he has hobbies, a detailed backstory, and a dramatic family life! So he's been hired as main character #2!
I'm adding his point of view into the book, because he's developed, he loves Bree so he's going to act a pink filter to show off all the reasons to like her, and having his thoughts in there will double the skimpy word count!
Plus, he contrasts the new Sabrina perfectly! Bree is sarcastic, Jamie has a lighter, more jokes-and-puns sense of humor. Bree is reckless, Jamie is protective and more rational. Bree is more out in the world, Jamie is more in his head. And yet they have enough similarities that they don't look like polar opposites who don't stand a chance at being together!
4. If English Was My Best Subject, I Must've Sucked At School...
Seriously, even if creative writing isn't taught in school, good lord! Spelling mistakes, clunky sentences, passive voice, so many filter words, not to mention that half of my first chapter (Yes, the beginning half, the most important words in the whole book, my hook and all that!!) were totally uninteresting and unnecessary. Who cares about Bree's friend asking if she can come over?!?!?!
Seriously, I don't know what I was thinking... Even though all these mistakes are easy enough to fix, I can't believe that I didn't see them sooner!
5. I'm Either Melodramatic Or Apathetic
Throughout the book... It's either way too much emotion until it looks silly, or absolutely nothing.
Bree's Mom leaves her at prison? Oh my gosh, end of the world, I can't even breathe or think! I'm gonna die, and vomit, and ooohhh noooo!.... Important person in life dies? Oh well, that's too bad! I guess we'd better run off into the woods so we don't get caught or suspected!
Yeah. Exactly. Better fix that, right? Or like, he was only important for so many reasons like breaking out of prison, keeping us all safe, and being a love interest, but he's dead now so we don't have to be sad because he'll never know?
6. Nobody, At All, Roots For The Love Interest Who Wins
I don't know, do people just all like vampires best? Or what? Because 100% of people who've read the book have said, "Oh, I hope she chooses the vampire!" What's she do? Nope. No vampire.
Yeah, I get that in any book there will be people who root for the losing dude. Or maybe even some random character who is an enemy or already married or whatever! But at least some people should ship the couple who actually is together, right?!
So basically... Both the love interests were too similar. And people just love vampire, so they vote team vampire. Even though in reality, the reality that I failed to write good, team vampire only likes Bree because he's selfish! Not because he loves her or has her best interests at heart.
Yet another reason why I think Bree shouldn't have much of a choice... Not only because any intelligent guy shouldn't waste his time with a girl who can't choose who she likes, and makes no attempt at hiding it, but because there's no way she can be happy with vampire dude!!
So now I have to make that character clearer, until there's not much of a way that Sabrina or anyone else could like him...
7. Ages. And Ages of Ages Editing.
Yeah, I'm a writer, not a mathematician... But even I should be able to get these ages right! If Jamie's born in the 1800's and it's around 2010, why on earth would he be 254? And how does this complicated parents thing that I arranged to make things more awkward for him work? That's totally off... Gees! Too bad! Oh, and Bree's "younger" brother was the same age as her too... Not twins. And she's twenty, why on earth would it be 75 years until she's 100?!I hate math, but it's necessary... Very necessary. Because someday I'm gonna have someone asking what the heck, and I'll have no excuse except, "I'm lazy! Woo Hoo!!"
At least that's easy enough to fix, once I get it all figured out!
8. So... What's The Point of ALL THIS?!
Oh, I don't know... What is the point of the story? Is it the romance, or the family issues, or escaping the vampires? I don't know, and whichever it is, it sure didn't get tied up at the end! We're all just left hanging, and there's no book 2 in sight...
I seriously, still do not know what the point of the book is. What's the main thing to be accomplished and learned? Or is this a bunch of random subplots that nobody will ever know how they end?
I feel awful for all I put those poor characters through, and there isn't even a valid reason... Wow. Great job me.
My first order of business is to create a point to the story. Which I already have a pretty good idea what it is, thanks again, to Jamie... But I'm not going to tell you, so you'll still have to read the book.
9. Title.
That title... That sucked almost as much as my main character! The Bad Ones. Not only did that not describe the book, but it also was a cliche in a different genre that I do not, under any circumstances, want to be associated with!!
Thankfully, I realized that and changed the title. Now it's The Parasites That Live in The Cracks. That title accurately describes multiple aspects of the book, as well as being much more unique!
Moral of that story: Do your research. And think.
That's all for now... I have work to do, which if it wasn't obvious by now, I've been procrastinating been writing about it instead of doing it!
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