I decided I had to be a writer as a profession when I walked into a Creative Writing class at my local community college and met people who just "jived" with me. Each person who volunteered took turns reading a chapter of their work out loud and everyone else listened and critiqued. During the class itself, I came up with a *great* story idea. I was shy, but the people in that class encouraged me to write down the idea at least. The next class, I breathlessly read the chapter out loud and was encouraged when I heard people laughing out loud.
And OREOS WITH CHAI was born.
Unfortunately it was crap. The story was about 22 year old "Maya" who moves to Seattle and falls in love with a boy named "Ajay" and they fight in chapter 3, then make up in chapter 4 and they have a great time amd live happily ever after by chapter 6.
That's it. No conflict, no goal, no motivation, no nothing. Red Dress Ink did request a full based on how hot the ethnic market was at the time (and hoping it would get better after 50 pages!) but that book did not deserve to get published. It deserved exactly what it got, a slow death and a complete re-write.
Three years later, I re-wrote that book. Same title, same characters. Completely different story. It didn't sell, but I still love that book.
Maybe someday... =)
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4 comments:
Dona, with a title that good, I can see why you reworked it. And I hope we see it on the shelves some day. Thanks for sharing that with us!
I can't imagine reading a chapter out loud, even now, it practically gives me hives just thinking about it! I bet that book will get sold someday, Dona! :)
Steph (who is off to find some Oreo's in the cabinet, yum)
I think we've all written one of those stories...
Yeah, I have a couple of those, "Um, it seemed like a good idea at the time" ones. But they're all a step on the path to figuring out what works and what doesn't.
Hugs,
TLC
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