what I learned during revisions - Part 1 (of many)
I don’t allow my characters to eat, but I let them drink coffee. Lots of coffee. Someone’s always making coffee or pouring coffee or bringing in take-out coffee or thinking about coffee. My characters must have caffeine poisoning by now. And the thing is, I only drink one cup in the morning, so it’s not like it’s always on my mind. I mean, if anything, my characters would be consuming Diet Coke by the gallon. Which, if you’re reading this, headache doctor, I am certainly not doing anymore. 
So anyway, must go through and stop the coffee drinking. But seriously, Kathryn’s (my Blaze editor!) notes made me laugh because at first they were like, maybe you’re overdoing it on the coffee and then it went to – more coffee??? and finally, every time there’s a mention, she just put !!!.
Poor, poor Kathryn.
Steph T.
June 3rd, 2006 at 8:47 am
Too funny, Steph! When my former agent sent back my first round of edits on the MS she shopped for me, she’d marked umpteen zillion uses of the word “cupped” — as in, “he cupped her jaw” or whatever. I could have died!:oops:
June 3rd, 2006 at 1:24 pm
LOL, Steph
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:46 pm
LOL, Steph!
June 3rd, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Apparently coffee is such a popular pasttime it warranted an article in teh RWR a few months back–I don’t remember what issue. But I do remember throwing a book across the room because of all the coffee drinking in the first 30 pages
It was like sex for caffeine addicts.
June 3rd, 2006 at 11:16 pm
LMAO! Oops. We all have our things we repeat. I just repeat everything. Several times.
June 3rd, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Too funny!:LOL:
June 4th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
This made me laugh! On the other hand, that is probably why having someone read an author’s completed manuscript is such a helpful thing. You get a fresh eye to look over the story and wording.
June 4th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
It’s better than Someone’s always making margaritas or pouring margaritas or bringing in take-out margaritas or thinking about margaritas. Or maybe not …
June 4th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
What’s wrong with Margaritas????
June 5th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
LOL! I think I only have coffee drinking in one of my mss. But my characters eat *a lot*. Steaks, pot roast, prime rib… Hmm. I think my characters are definitely carnivores. And now I’m hungry.
June 5th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Yeah. I just hook my heroines up to a Diet Pepsi IV. Saves time.
Grins*
June 6th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
That’s funny. I wonder why they do that? Maybe they could start drinking smoothies.:razz:
June 8th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Hmm. Now that I reflect upon it, mine drink beer, Diet Coke, and coffee. But only in one book. I can’t recall anybody drinking in the other two books I’ve written. Oh, wait, one character and her “associates” do drink beer as well as Jack and Coke. Nobody else does. In the fourth book, currently stalled midway, some drink but most don’t. Sounds like there’s a drought in most cases.
June 16th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
[…] Stephanie Tyler talks about revisions and what she’s learned (her characters don’t eat, but do drink coffee). Reading her entry makes me wonder what I’m going to find when I start my revisions in about a week. […]