No.....!!!! This is meant to be a final edit.

[whitehawke]

Why?!
Why now of all times, does my main character suddenly scream for renewed life?
Why didn't he wake up and share all these thoughts and feelings with me way back at the beginning?!
Sure I knew they were there, but he refused to let me unvail him and back then if I'd tried to force him to share, he would have seemed like a fake.
Why did he wait til now to suddenly agree to show how deeply he felt?

:eek: Am I alone in this, or have other writers had this happen?

[DrRita]

Am I alone in this, or have other writers had this happen?


No, I've had things happen many many times in "the final edit" which resulted in a new rewrite. But after the rewrite, the character comes across more solid and convincing. Don't be dismayed. I've found that sometimes these things happen because I tried to "finish" the work too soon or I started writing the story too soon and hadn't let it simmer long enough (these may not be your problems just mine) or just the simple fact that things changed. In fact I'm glad you posted this because I was beginning to think I was alone in this. :D

[whitehawke]

DrRita
Thank you :D It's such a relief to know it's not just me.
I think with me, I had all these ideas cramming in at once and had to write them all down so I could get the first draft finished. I knew the character and what made him the way he is, but at that stage his emotions evaded me. And, strangely enough, it seemed almost like he didn't want me to see them. Wierd, eh? :D

[wanabcloser]

I have one story quite long. I thought it had reached the final edit stage. Much to my surprise, the final edit turned into a complete rewrite. The rewrite - edit - not only solidified the original story line and characters, but spun itself into several companion books to go along with the original one(1). One (1) turned into five or six companion stories. Lucky me, I think. Or not, I'm not exactly sure yet.

The second one, a great story I might add, started and stopped and started and stopped at least a half dozen times. Like Dr Rita said, either I started it too soon or the story didn't jel in my overactive imagination, or something. I suppose maybe I wasn't listening to the prompting from God and might have went out on my own in a desperate attemtp to complete the thing. Needless to say, the great story is now in it's fifteenth chapter with a completely new direction. It's almost as though the story is writing itself, using my chubby little fingers to do the work. My fingers are having a hard time keeping up with the thought process.

I can understand about edit and re-edit. Ifind it happens to the best of us at one time or another, again and again.
Is it 'cause we don't listen to that still, small voice within? (LOL) :D

[tbafs]

Am I alone in this, or have other writers had this happen?

How about this? I had one scene left to tidy up my book - a wedding scene. I research wedding dresses on the net for hours before creating a small but perfect wedding for my characters, and a small twist in my tale. Praise the Lord! It is finished!!

So I save my work nicely, take a few days to recover, before printing it off for the FINAL read through.

Wait a minute! Where's my wedding scene? I search on the computer and find about 25 versions of my novel, but none containing this scene. I search my other computer, and there's another 50 versions of this book which I've been writing since 2003, but no wedding scene. I search the internet history on my PC - there's no trace of my wedding dress research. My heart drops. It couldn't be...could it? Ah, but yes it is - on my laptop. Only the connection switch broke the other day, and the battery ran down .

I cannot find the warranty paperwork to get it fixed.... :( :( :eek: :eek:

Excuse me while I take an axe to all things technology-related in my house!!!:mad: :mad:

[paulchernoch]

Congratulations to the rest of you who rose to the challenge of facing this problem. I took the "easy" way out and chose a main character who avoids dealing with his past, avoids thinking about his mistakes until events thrust themselves upon him and he must change. As I have difficulty expressing emotion personally, it inevitably comes out in my work. Late revisions helped me correct this a little, but this is the area I need to grow most as a writer, in my opinion.

- Paul