Shaken Not Stirred

Life - Like a good martini - sometimes you have to shake and not stir.  It's the same with a story.  A great premise might start out too slow, maybe the characters aren't threatened, their world is too secure.  Maybe the romance has been forgotten as they wrestle thugs with machine guns.  Okay, that is all pretty out there examples - or maybe not, it is romantic suspense - but you know where this is going.  Revisions.

What does it take to get a good story out there?  It's not just the work of the author that brings the story to fruition but all those helping hands who made suggestions here and there.  Sometimes it was one suggestion, a quick fix that is the catalyst to placing a landmine amidst a few chapters and doing some drastic renovations.  In the case of my current story, stirring the plot up a bit evolved to shaking the first half within an inch of its life.  Not necessarily the makings of a great martini but I'm seeing a stronger story - one that will be worth a martini in the end to celebrate where all those revisions took it.

Shaken not stirred - rather like life.  Sometimes you just have to shake things up.  Don't just change a routine, turn it on its head.

So about today - any ideas for shaking up your routine? 

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com