Ramble Number One

7/21/2013

This is a website about me as an author, so, naturally, my blog posts should be about me as a writer. But guess what! I develop as a writer through these posts, so every single thing I talk about concerns me as a writer. Since right now I'm writing. Duh.

There's a lot of pressure to write this post. It's my first one, and I don't even know what to say.

"Hello, I'm Adelaide, but you can call me Ad. Uhh...I wrote a book?"

Who said writing was easy? Why did you lie to me??

So I've finished The Trace. At least, it's as finished as it's going to be until some higher-up reads it and tells me all the things I can change to make it better. I'm open to change! I used not to be, but I learned that it is only when I'm open to changing the book that the book gets any better. For instance: Ella used to play soccer, and I was so invested in the fact that Ella Kepler MUST.PLAY.SOCCER.

But then, when people would ask me what my book was about, I'd think and say, "It's about a girl who plays soccer." Which it wasn't/isn't about at all, and people would think I was writing some contemporary fiction book about the emotional development of a soccer player.

Nope, not at all. Not that I have anything against that idea. Maybe one day that book will be written. Until then...

Then one day my friend (She's awesome. She's my Kara) tentatively asked, "Does Ella need to play soccer?"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.!

That question pretty much rocked my world. In a good way. At first I had an emotional crisis, and then I realized that if I took out soccer, my book would no longer be about a girl who plays soccer, but about a girl who starts experiencing weird, inexplicable things. And that's what I wanted my book to be about.

Lesson of the day (since I'm clearly qualified to start handing out drops of wisdom): The hardest changes to make are the ones that will turn your book into the story you see in your mind.

Just be careful when you type. Sometimes cats get in the way.