This week, I spent a lot of time with “relaxation” music playing in my office. Why? One word. Edits. 🙂
SoothingRelaxation. “3 Hours of Beautiful Relaxing Instrumental Music – Study, Relax, Background ★31.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Mar. 2016. Web. 25 June 2017.
I have decided to give my story His Beautiful Bea one more going over before I send it off to be checked for commas, spelling, word usage, and the like.
I’m attempting to add a bit more emotional depth to the story. This story does not contain an enormous, spectacular conflict. There is conflict, but it’s internal to the main characters.
I would describe the story as a gentle realization of love. Nothing horrible happens. No one faces death or disowning. There are no refused proposals. The setting and the action of the story is all rather pleasant and agreeable. The battle lies in the hero recognizing those odd feelings for what they are while the heroine grows to understand that what she thought was love, was nothing more than infatuation.
In my opinion, this is the sort of story that needs extra attention paid to the emotional details, and that is what I am trying to do on this last pass through my manuscript — give those details the attention they are due. Will I be successful? I don’t know because each reader will have to decide that for him or herself. I can only make certain the story is to my liking before I send it out into the big, scary world. 🙂
All the attention to minute details and being self-critical required when editing tends to leave my brain in desperate need of soothing. However, when you add the fact that both the story I am editing and the one I am writing are “new forms” of stories (one being Austenesque, which I have never done, and both based on Mansfield Park instead of the more comfortable Pride and Prejudice), and you get one very stressed out Leenie! 🙂 Therefore, relaxation music was NECESSARY.
The above composition was what was playing during my last writing session on Friday when I was writing the excerpt below.
EXCERPT from Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy: Continue reading Music Monday: Starlit Dream, Peder B Helland