Delayed again...
For what should hopefully been the last time. I'm shutting the door on short stories for now - not necessarily on writing new ones or continuing to bounce around the stuff I have, but certainly for doing a full editing-and-polishing process on all of them. It takes too much time, and a short story being considered sub-par by my writing group can really wreck my mood and therefore my motivation, I've found. (Not that I'm opposed to learning, but it can still be a real downer.)
Ultimately, One More Year remains my important project - I'm still absolutely committed to finishing it before the end of the year. So I've gotten back on track - until I'm back to being able to guarantee a weekly release, I'm not going to be letting myself get side-tracked. I'm happy I've done the short story thing, but it's time to focus now, and that is that.
After making Jay so in love with Pride and Prejudice, I've been getting back into it myself - with quite a bit of encouragement and co-participation from a very good friend who is also a writer. (And a pretty damn good one, at that.) We've both been obsessed recently - and rightly so, because Jane Austen was a master of her craft, and Darcy was the perfect romantic hero.
I have noticed, however, that either from the deep ingraining of that book on my subconscious, or just my willingness to flow into and play with Romance genre norms, I've actually been pumping this book full of unintentionally full of Jane Austen elements. Honestly, I'm not hating it. If you're going to imitate, imitate the best. (Also, Austen's works being public domain doesn't exactly hurt either, on that front.)
Not that I'm trying to claim some literary brilliance here, or anything. At the end of the day, I'm writing my story and it's coming from my mind, and my heart. If those are both full of Jane Austen's works - among many other things - then hopefully that shows. I'll also add that the real arc of my book is only starting to emerge, so we'll see how well I honour the Queen of Romance.
But ANYWAY...
Notes on Differences: (OMY vs. AD)
So the events of this chapter, as far as I can tell, are completely new. I managed to bring Caitlyn back for a bit of nastiness, which is nice. She's not a major villain, (not sure I do 'major villains' anyway) but she has her role to play, so it's nice to give her a bit of screen time earlier on.
The Jamie's party thing was new, the project with Louis is a new contrivance, and the Eric doing church stuff is new. It's all just new. But hopefully it all works - I have written this as a single work, after all, even if the editing is what's keeping the chapters dribbling out at a snails pace.
Minor comment about Ch 8 about Another Day in a general sense though:
I had a thing about Jay getting mad at Jamie for losing a borrowed book of his. Which is just kind of funny in hindsight - a lot of my characters are hybrid personalities from people I knew in real life, but the person who lost my book and the person who I based Jamie on are just so different that I couldn't imagine what I was thinking with that plot point. I was clearly just ranting about real life, and the book was a clunky metaphor for my unrequited love or something. AH, youth.
Beta Readers:
Instead of tacking a lengthy appeal on the end of each blog post, I've actually made a page for this, so if you want to Beta Read, check it out HERE.
Thanks to my current Beta Readers, including a new one who's joined this week, and has been very helpful.
Thanks so much if you've been reading this story! Hopefully this chapter was enjoyable, and I hope to have another one ready soon - although it might be another two weeks again, but I haven't yet decided on a schedule. Feel free to say hi in the comments, as always.
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