Revising the Vampire, week 1

No, I'm not trying to reinvent vampires. I see other authors claim the same every day, and it's usually nothing worth talking about, or was better executed over 40 years ago, by Whitley Strieber. Not to mention that there's a wealth of vampire myths being forgotten, in favor of the more European variety. But that's a rant for another day.

The vampire story I'm focusing on today is my paranormal romance WIP, I Think of You Often. I still need to hammer out the final chapter, but I plan on working my way to that one, as the plan I originally had for it might change as I make some sweeping revisions to the story as a whole. I had close to 66k when I decided to let the story cool before getting to work.

I started this last week, and have since edited and revised 13k words and ten chapters. I also condensed several of the early chapters; two to make the average word count 2500, which is consistent with my usual length. For example, I had 44 chapters when I started. I hope to half that by the time I'm done.

There are a few loose ends I want to tie up, things to expand on, and I've made note of that. But they're such minor things that they can wait for my later round of edits. In revising, I'm mostly focused on fixing up and removing outdated plot points, and laying the pipes for future edits.

I'm giving myself a month to do the revising, as there's a lot of material to work with. I think ten chapters a week is a good number—I'm still balancing other stories, after all. I need to draft a few more chapters for Last Train Home, but I'm all caught up on The Threads That Weave. I'm a week ahead, as a matter of fact.

Anyway, I'll wrap this up with a brief snippet from Appetence's first chapter:

“Bonjour,” she said, tossing back her brilliant pink hair. She changed colors often, but this was their personal fave; pink hair and black skin just paired well together.

“Ms. Lane. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Minnie,” she gently protested. “We’ve been colleagues for a while now.” Three years, as a matter of fact. “And no one calls me Minerva.”

“Except your parents.” But they could sympathize. “Evangeline” was their chosen name, but they only used it in full on official documents, books, and when they were feeling especially grandiose. For everyone else, Evan or just Miles would do. “I was in the middle of wrapping things up. How may I help you?”

“Oh I just wanted to drop this off.” She pulled a book from behind her back, some silly thing about love charms and spells.

“You don’t have to personally hand the books to me.”

“I know, but…” She lowered her voice and beckoned them closer, away from Felicia’s ears. “You’re always so busy and I’m not sure how to approach you.”

“I’m not a monster,” Evan said, ignoring their elongated canines. “I don’t bite.”

“Some people are into that.”