What is your book really about?

  Hi everyone!

     In this posting I want all the writers out there to consider a question. What is your book or short story about? I know it’s a space age YA western, but what is it really about? There are 7 deadly sins, which ones are in your book?  That is today’s topic. But first, let me tell you about my trip to the Florida Keys.

     Our stay in Hawks Cay resort on Duck Key, mile marker 61, reminded me why the protagonists of my book end up living in the Keys. It has been four years since we‘ve been there and they are still pristine. I also had alot of fun hangging out with my nephews, and showing my older brother Key West. Hemmingway’s house was beautiful; I’d write great novels too if I lived in a colonial mansion surrounded by walking gardens and tall trees. When I die, and God asks me if I want to enter heaven, I’ll say “No. Send me to the Florida Keys.”

     My brother Anthony is also a writer, and it was nice to have someone to talk shop with. It was one of our discussions that led me today’s topic. What is your book about?

     Jaws was a movie about a killer shark terrorizing a small sea side town, right? Or was it really about one man’s obsession and another’s sense of duty. It made me wonder what my book was about, and I think the first part of my book is about desperation. Jose’s desperation to get his family out of the inner city and into the suburbs. But after he becomes successful, his need changes to greed. He wanted a house, now he wants a mansion.  

     So what is your book or short story about? Is it a story about a Civil War soldier enduring the hardships of battle - or is it about lust, fear, regret, the perils of blind faith? And don’t forget, make the actions of the characters in your stories do things that reflect the sin, sorrow, or vice you are trying to display. Good luck!   

      One last thing about the Florida Keys. I saw a real sea turtle swimming in the water. It was just swimming along slowly, below my hotel balcony. It was brown and dull green with flippers the size of canoe paddles. It dove into the canal when a boat came and disappeared. It was beautiful, and big! 

     Until we speak again, I will continue writing into the wind.

Love,

Lucho

Is your novel ever really finished?

Hi everyone!

     I write this the morning as we prepare to leave for The Florida Keys, Isla Mirada to be exact. The book is almost done and the Keys sound like the right place for more inspiration, and a little celebration. Jose and Rachel Torres, the main characters in my novel Confessions of an Internet Pornographer settle in the Florida Keys at the end of the book. It is a special place for my family, and I hope to live and write there someday. 

     I am currently editing my novel for the 23^rd time, from start to finish. My wife has read it twice, Elayne my editor has read it four times. Marcella Landres, my proffesional editor dissected it once. But even at the eleventh hour I’m adding and subtracting sentences. I thought it was finished. I certainly thought it was ready when I took it to New York for the 2011 Writer’s Digest Conference. The problem is the changes I'm making are great, and are making he wtory stronger. Much to my shock changing the ending of Chapter 6 made it better. Adding a new scene with dialogue to chapter 7 really worked.  Maybe it's not until you read your own novel dozens of edits that you begin to find the true gems of prose in your writing.

    My biggest fear is editing it too much. I think there will always be a sentence that can be tightened, endless what if’s. But I believe that if I use the minimum amount of words to tell the story, it will be perfect. It will tell the story I want to tell with brevity, brevity, brevity! That is what will keep me on track. One of the problems of onstant editing is that you can write yourself down paths that lead to nowhere.

     What is frustrating, is that as I read on, I find new ways to say or show something. When will it end? In the meantime I will read-on, and continue to write into the wind.

Love,

Lucho

P.S.

I just asked my wife to read it for (only) her third time