The Soul Factor

I've been reading over my manuscript, getting ready to do last minute rewrites and editing. I'm starting to see more emotion coming out in my work.

More soul.

I was thinking about this while at the gym last night. I wrote up my story idea, sent it to my editor and she bought it. I wrote the first three chapters and they looked fine. They followed the story idea, they moved the plot along, the developed the character but...

No soul.

All the technical points were there, but the story was still flat. Soul is a quality that's hard to describe. I think it's the core emotion in a book that makes the reader care about the character and brings them off the page and into the reader's heart. It's being ruthless enough to force your character to admit their mistakes, to face their deepest needs, and to rise up to meet their darkest fears. And at the same time, it's showing their other side, the humor, compassion and ability to love another flawed human being. It's giving your character the tools to leap off the page and grow. But finding those tools is hard work.

So I ripped apart the entire book. I redid the characters back stories. I made them MORE human with flaws and mistakes and I was ruthless (I think) in exposing both their strengths and weakness.

And as I'm reading over this book, I can see the improvement.

Of course, I still worry the book isn't good enough…but that's never going to change!