God Continues to Amaze

God continues to Amaze me and always in unexpected ways.

As you may recall, I spent the last two weeks altering my latest novel for the umpteenth time.  When I was through, I was so burnt out I told myself, “This is it!  I’m done with this novel.  It can get no better through my hands.”  So, I laid it aside, determined not to touch it again.

Well, then I got this wild idea in my head to enter this writing contest.  The suggestions on the contest said to alter the ending to your first chapter a bit even if it wasn’t the true ending in order to keep the judges engaged and wanting to read more.  Well, I discounted this as frivolous nonsense.

Then, an idea kept popping in my head, one that has been coming up again and again throughout my edits that I have been resisting with the fortitude of all of my might.  This idea told me to re-arrange my first chapter to open with a stronger beginning.  I had discounted it because I believed I needed the intro because it contained crucial motivations to my characters.  However, since the idea kept coming up over and over again, I could dismiss it no longer.  So, I figured, “What could it hurt just to play around with it a bit?”

So, over the next two days, I’ve become obsessed with re-working my first chapter.  Nothing has been added.  Just re-arranged and added a past tense to make it all flow.

What amazes me is that I never would have touched my novel again if I hadn’t been researching writing conferences.  As I was researching writing conferences, I came across the writing contest.  Why was I researching writing conferences?  Because a lady at church mentioned to me that I should attend one.  Now, if that’s not a God-thing, then I’m not for sure what else could be?

So, I incorporated my new first chapter into my novel (it can’t hurt?  It’s not like agents are clamoring after my material anyways) and we’ll go from here.