Revising the revisions and brave teen volunteers

As I've shared a few times the past two weeks, I'm doing a major revision as suggested by an agent who read my partial. All good and fine since I really felt it would clean up the story and add some character development, you know all that good stuff. Yeah. That was until I had my super awesome beta reading big sister read it. (she really is my sister by the way)

She was into the first half with revisions but no so much the second half. See, it brought another guy too much into the mix and actually took away from MC's girl power. Not good. At first I wanted to bang my head off the wall several times, maybe even for a few hours, but that feeling quickly passed and I snapped the trusty green laptop shut and went to bed.

Welcome in the new plan. Revise the revisions. I actually like the new stuff better because Abbey is back in the spotlight and the other guy is downplayed once again, right back where he belongs! And to think he tried to work his way in there, geesh, don't these characters know anything?

I worked a couple hours on this daunting task of revisiting the very same section I'd just torn up, but had a little bit of a tough time staying focused. Luckily Nate's nap time writing fared better and I'm itching to get back to it even as I write this. So it's full speed ahead the next couple days.

I'm also super excited to have four brave teen readers ready to go! Thanks ladies!!!! I'll be in touch very soon, I plan on sending you the first half by tomorrow since my revisions lurk at the tale (get it?) end of what is back up to an 84,000 word story. I can hardly wait to see what they think of Sage since it's a YA novel. Of course I'm hoping they like it but in the event they don't, I'm way into the idea of feedback that can help me fix that.

Call me crazy, but I happen to think the opinion of 17 yr old who curls up on her bed reading is just as valuable as a 40 yr old guy sitting at a desk. (by that I mean an agent!) Of course the challenge is pleasing them both and without the assistance of the professional sitting behind the desk, I won't get my story in the hands of very many teenagers, now will I? For now I'm thrilled to share it with those that volunteered. You rock!