A critiquer wondered what I was doing with the minor characters in Overbooked? I think I’ll have short stories for some, and others may be entire novels. Neat idea to tell their stories. I only had them so my MC would have other POVs telling the story, but some of them are rather fun.
I’m starting to run out of room for even tiny images of my novels on my business cards. This is a good problem to have, especially since I’m rather proud of all six of my released novels to date.
I have novels about dealing with loss, trying new things, the importance of family. All themes that I think are important.
One of my critiquing buddies pointed out that a train journey is a good time for reflection for my character. (Who was on a train, but not reflecting.) Which made me think about what my main character should be thinking about—how maybe life with the charming Frenchman she met wouldn’t give her the connection this older couple has. I knew they were supposed to teach the main character something, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. 🙂
I added a bit of reflection, and when I reread and revise this chapter, I’ll give it a good look. My process is to make changes during the week I get the critiques, especially of little stuff, or where it’s clear where to add or cut, but to tackle larger issues after all the critiques are in. I usually revise the chapter, then upload the revision. It does mean that I have often changed things that bugged readers in previous chapters, and I don’t make a point out of telling them since most people are busy, so they sometimes tell me something similar in a later chapter. But it works since I reread the whole novel many, many times.
Another critiquer pointed out what a great line I had where the daughter mentions the hole (physical) in the house, alluding to the hole in the family. I hadn’t paused and thought, what a great line, just knew that it fit. Love it when that happens.