"Writing is Mostly Solving Problems"

I wish I could take credit for that very wise line, but alas, I'm not the one who came up with it. It's something Montreal author and journalist Joel Yanofsky told my students when he did a talk recently at Marianopolis College. I agreed with Joel at the time, and boy, do I ever agree with him now that I am working on the re-write of Junkyard Dog.

Here's an example. One of Melanie's (Melanie is Melanie Jeffs, one of my editors at Orca Books in B.C.) comments is that the pace of my manuscript needs to be evened out. She suggested I move chapter 12 up some place earlier in the story. It's actually a very good suggestion, but the moving up part (I worked nearly all afternoon on this yesterday) was a little tricky. First, I had to find a spot that worked; then I had to remove any references to things that hadn't yet happened in the story, then I had to find place for those references later on in the manuscript. It was a bit like playing Pick Up Sticks. If you're not careful, the whole thing can come tumbling down!! 

So, I'm slowly but steadily working through Melanie's comments. Which is why I'm going to stop this blog entry right here. Time to get back to work! Good luck solving whatever problems have come your own way. Personally, I like the challenge of this kind of work.  If writing were easy for me, I'm not sure I'd be as hooked as I am on the process! What about you?