I would highly recommend it.  I had so much to do as far as changing things around went, and I couldn’t wrap my head around them or focus on any one particular thing.  So I got out some fine point Sharpies. I would use brighter colored pens next time–these were all part of their “new” color line and had names like “cappuccino” and “olive”, but they still worked quite well.

Green (olive) was getting rid of that pesky character that I decided was superfluous (he died a rather natural death, as a matter of fact–I thought it would be more difficult to get rid of him, but when I read through the edited pages, I don’t miss him at all.  He was more like a prop–he came out when she needed him, but wasn’t necessary to the action itself.)

Red (maroon?  Maybe brick.) was the adjustment with one of the characters on how much he knew and when he knew it, because he goes all over the place.

Brown (cappuccino) was working on developing the distrust of her father more.  She has this image of him in her head and it all goes to hell the more and more she finds out about him.

Gray (slate?) was just plain old plot structure.  I wrote so many scenes and just plopped them down wherever I thought they should go and now some of them don’t make any sense.  So I’m working on combining and reorganizing.

So..to sum up?  Big fan of color coding my editing.  I doubt it would work for everyone, but it’s a smash hit with me.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed, and now I can just force myself to only look at that one aspect, really focus on it, and get something done.

Trying another book about Lucrezia, but Rachel’s just as bad as Sarah is.  This one is Lucrezia Borgia:  A Biography by Rachel Erlanger.  Published in the 70’s, I think.  Yes.  Late 70’s–1978.  Apparently, this Lucrezia can do no wrong either.  In all fairness, I haven’t finished Sarah’s biography, so she may turn on our blond beauty yet, but it is interesting to see how Rachel just completely dismisses the very idea that Lucrezia had anything to do with sexual escapades and raunchy parties.  Lucrezia was a modest, intelligent, long-suffering young girl who was at the whim of her powerful father, just like every other woman in the Renaissance.  Really?  She was the daughter of a somewhat  pope, was brought up surrounded by mass amounts of money and power, and didn’t have a simpering clue on how to get what she wanted and manipulate situations?  I don’t know.  This Burchard guy–chancellor or secretary or something at the Vatican–has a daily diary where he writes down all the horrible things that the Borgias do, and he readily admits that he didn’t attend the parties and clearly has it out for them…  It seems to be the main source for all the accusations against the family, but really…  The stories had to come from somewhere.  She can’t be all that pure and innocent.  I just don’t believe it.  But it’s fascinating to see how staunchly Rachel defends her.  I’ll be interested to see how she deals with all the poisonings later.  I’m only to the marriage to Alfonso d’Este right now…

Maybe I’m just too cynical.  Perhaps someone brought up in those circumstances can avoid becoming just as corrupt as the others around her, but I seriously doubt it.  Nor do I seriously doubt that she was as wonderful as poets and the people of Ferrara say she was.  I’m sure she had her good moments.  Everyone does.  (Even Hitler had people who loved him, right?)  But everyone has their bad moments, too.  I guess that’s what frustrates me.  I’m willing to admit that certain things about Lucrezia may have been misinterpreted, but she was still human and made human judgments and human mistakes…  Perhaps this is a good lesson for me and my characters.  I need to remember that they’re human, too and make them good and bad.

It’s official. Yesterday I finally deleted the last scene that had remained from the original story that I wrote back in high school. It’s a strange feeling. I thought I would be more irritated and upset about it, but I’m actually pretty relieved. I don’t know why I hung on to all that stuff for so long. And it’s not like it’s disappearing forever. I will be using some of it in the second of the three novels… It’s just a strange feeling. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s as if the main character is a completely different person now. Which is good. She wasn’t that impressive to begin with. So now starts the task of reworking everything and making it all flow again…