Less is More by Patty Blount

 If there's ONE thing I've learned in the last twelve years since my debut novel dropped, it's that editing is where all the magic happens in fiction. 

I did NaNoWriMo once. If you haven't heard of it, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, writers challenge themselves to see if they can write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. The purpose for this challenge is to encourage writers to push past their Inner Editor's relentless pursuit of perfection. 

(And boy, is THAT enough P alliteration!)

While I appreciate the importance of completing a project, I also appreciate the Inner Editor's role in the process. Someone famous once said "You can't edit a blank page!" and that's true for me. Once it's all out of my head and onto paper, it's so much easier to see when a plot is sagging, when a character is two-dimensional, or when an emotional note is falling flat. 

One of the first novels I ever wrote was called Postpartum Deception. When it was finally finished, it weighed in at 170,000 words. It had multiple points of view, including one from a morning newspaper. 

(Hey, don't judge! It was my first try!)

The premise of the story was the enduring power of a parent's love cannot be ended, not even by death. Kate Carter lost her husband and infant in a house fire. When she begins experiencing visions from her husband, everyone tells her it's just grief talking, but she knows it's more. Her husband is trying desperately to tell her something. But what? 

Obviously, it was never published. 

After SEND was released, which was a YA contemporary novel, I decided to rewrite Postpartum Deception as a Young Adult novel. It took me many attempts but that book will finally drop this fall and is now called THE SMELL OF SMOKE AND ASH. The premise remains the same. Only the main character in this version of the story is no longer Kate Carter, but her seventeen-year-old surviving son, Riley. Riley has been hiding visions from his dad ever since he and his little brother died. Riley doesn't believe in life after death or anything supernatural, but after one of his visions actually injures him, it's pretty clear it doesn't matter what he believes. He has to make it stop. He seeks help from a psychic and with her help, soon learns what message his dad has been trying to send him. 

I've loved watching what emerged from the wreckage of the original novel and became Smoke & Ash. I'm also happy to report THIS version of the story is only 95,000 words! The story is paced well, it has depth, and it hits all the emotional notes I'd hoped for. 

Less really can be more.