Conflicted

Ever since I went through the process of revising & reworking my query a few weeks ago, I've been thinking a lot about the conflict in my book. Some of the main questions I got were "What's the conflict? What's your main character's big decision?" And at first I had a difficult time answering that. Which, of course, is probably not good.

Look, when I set out to write this book, my first goal was just to finish the damn thing. The first draft was an utter mess. After the first two rounds of revisions, I was already sooo much prouder of my work. I think I have a fun, interesting story. Is it an earth-shattering piece of literature? Um, probably not. Will my words inspire and amaze people? Wellllll...no. But will it entertain them for a few hours? I certainly hope so. That's all I can really ask for.

That being said, as I work through the final revisions, I've been thinking about a few more things I want to add. I want to make the conflict Sophie (the MC) is feeling very, very clear. I want people to FEEL the struggle she's going through as she comes to her grand decision at the end of the book. Last night before I fell asleep, I had an idea hit me (as I've mentioned before, I always seem to get ideas right before I fall asleep). It's nothing that will change the overall tone of the story- like, all of a sudden there isn't going to be a pack of angry witches coming after her for her powers or anything. Her conflict will remain mostly internal. But I think I can make it a little clearer what her struggle is. I really want people to get sucked into her story and NEED to know what the ultimate decision is going to be. Something to get them to keep turning the pages.

I think I'm getting there. I know I wanted to start querying this week, but right now it's more important that I have an awesome story. So, hopefully my readers won't mind one more read through...and then I can still start submitting it this spring. I'll say end of March is my new drop dead date. Hey, it'll still be somewhat early in the year...right?