Editing My New Novel.

I had to laugh at Janetta when our writing group met. She was extremely passionate about her experience at the recent conference of the Colorado Christian Writers Conference. She had attended a presentation by Donald Maass on writing the breakout novel, the title of his 2002 instructive guide.

The Amazon product description reads, "A breakout novel is one that rises out if its category - such as literary fiction, mystery, romance, or thriller - and hits the bestseller charts. Maass explains the elements that all breakout novels share and shows readers how to use these elements to write a novel that has a good chance of succeeding in a crowded marketplace. They'll learn to: - Create a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place - Develop larger-than-life characters - Sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish - Weave sub-plots into the main action - Explore universal themes that will interest a large audience."

The thing that got Janetta worked up was when Maass said something like this: "If your character is in trouble, increase it and then increase it again. And when you have increased it, then do it again." In other words, "sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish."

Wow! I wonder if I've done that with my new upcoming novel. Well, we'll have to wait to find out, won't we? Don't look for Freya's Child yet. We're still editing it. I'm certainly glad I have Janetta as my editor.