Reworking and Rethinking

Today, I watched this really awful Hilary Duff film called Raise Your Voice about a girl who goes to a summer music program in Los Angeles. It's sort of a fish out of water story, since Hilary's character came from the backwater of Flagstaff, AZ (this is the movie's contention, not mine). As I said, the movie was pretty horrible, but it did get me thinking about the YA that I'm in the process of outlining.

Right now, my heroine Jessie, has been accepted as an intern at the Ardsley Theater Festival. She's having to deal with other interns who have more experience than she does, an agents etc. Right now, she lives in the same town as the festival, in fact, it's on the campus of Gillette College which is where her mother works, and where she's planning on going to college.

My plan was that both she and her mother end up getting involved with actors at the festival, but that might be a bit much, and totally unnecessary. I thought that might be a neat twist, having to deal with her mother dating again, but I can always save that for another book. Somehow it doesn't quite fit.

But I've been thinking that maybe I need to take away, and have it that she's away from home at this festival, and doesn't have that support system readily available. Something also happens to her at this festival, that she's trying to hide from the other actors.

So, I guess I'm going to have to do what they did in the Princess Diaries movie, and get rid of the Mom, apart from a few phone calls during the program. This wasn't any easy decision, but it makes the most sense, plus it gets rid of an extra character!

Thanks for reading,

EKM