The editorial process for my current project is still underway. As I mentioned before, I finished the first round of edits, called the substantive edit. That’s when the editor gives the writer the bigger-picture feedback and I make changes according to that input (see October posts if you want to read more about how that went).
Right now we’re talking about a new title and cover art. My editor asked if any famous faces came to mind when I thought about my characters and to be honest, I didn’t have a particular face in mind this time. I often do. For On Sparrow Hill the contemporary heroine had curly dark hair like Minnie Driver in Return To Me. For My Sister Dilly the hero looked like Dermot Mulroney. Do you remember him? He’s the guy who played the male lead in My Best Friend’s Wedding (and the sound track was so appropriate to my book!). He was also the sincere (but sincerely wrong) husband in the film version of Memory Keeper’s Daughter. The heroine I’m working with now looks like a young Grace Kelly – blonde, wealthy, elegant.
But for this book, I had no such faces swimming through my mind as I wrote the novel. I did know their basic descriptions, of course, so I googled “blond male actors” and “auburn haired actresses” and immediately a plethora of images came up. I saw an actor who reminded me of Jude Law and thought – ooh, yes, a blond Jude Law would be the perfect inspiration for a cover. And for the heroine? Emmy Rossem who played Christie in the 2006 film version of Phantom of the Opera.
It’s still too early to know what will be on the cover, whether we’ll see faces or not, one or both main characters, who knows? I’ve been blessed with lovely covers so far (as you can see if you visit my website!) so I’m hoping that trend continues.
We’ll be deciding on a new title soon, too. The working title “Brother’s All” doesn’t have a very romantic feel to it, does it? It’s from a poem of the same name reminding the reader of the underlying unity we should all have despite our various differences—something sadly lacking in the characters and setting of this book! Once we have a few narrowed down I’ll talk about that here.
The next step will be the line edits, where my editor and I will go through the book in its entirety (again) and look for repetitions, clarity, consistency, general tightening. By the time a manuscript goes to typesetting most authors are more than happy to say good-by to the editing phase because we’ve been through it so many times in succession. I don’t mind editing, though. I’m one of those cheerful writers loving just about every aspect.
I have had a little time away from this project, though, so I’ve been looking at my next novel. This new story will be a challenge I’ve never undertaken before—rewriting (or should I say resurrecting?) an old, unpublished manuscript that has a plot too solid to let go. There are lots of pros and cons to revisiting an old story, starting with the basic question: revise or rewrite? I’ll talk about that next time!
Oh, I have a few of those manuscripts, too, Maureen… One of them I’m still attached to (even though it’s a disaster!) because I love the characters. They just need to find themselves in a new and better plot :). Looking forward to reading about what you’ll chose to do!
Brother’s All is a title that piques my curiosity, but yes, maybe doesn’t imply romance.
I am rare I believe, in that I cannot remember the titles of most modern books. The classics, yes. They’re usually simpler. Often just the character’s name or the location (thinking “Jane Eyre” or “Mansfield Park”). I love my Christian fiction and I have shelves full of them. I could rattle off a basic plot synopsis if asked, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you what most of them are called.
That’s why I really liked the title and corresponding imagery of your book “The Oak Leaves.” It took reading a little bit to see that it was a reoccurring image throughout the story that was directly related to the mother-son and other family relationships in the book. That’s a book title I remember, because it’s simple and makes sense to me.
There are some great books with titles like “Another Tomorrow” or some such thing. But I can’t remember which ones they are…. 🙂