Defining Moment

There weren't really any major jolting events. In each case, it was more like an evolution--lots of hot showers, lots of daydreams while driving to work, lots of mentally trying out various possibilities. Some ideas gave each story a good nudge, but The End came more as an emergence of ideas that blended together into coherent stories. There were dead ends, too, but not so severe to stall the progress mostly because the clunkers happened in my mind before getting to "paper."

For me it was the final stages of revision.

I had given copies to several people to review, and some of their suggestions gave me fresh insight. Things I "knew" as the author weren't clear to the readers, and their feedback made it immediately clear what needed to be cleaned up.

Also, reworking the opening made a huge difference. I cut it entirely and started from scratch - much better.

Maybe it's not over yet - my agents has submitted the manuscript to editors, and I'm waiting to hear back, so we'll see if there are any more revelations coming my way.

What NeuroFizz said --
many, many defining moments. Many small adjustments.

And what folks like best about the story is generally something I agonized over. Leave it in? Pull it out?

No blinding revelations. Lots of nail-biting.

Best advice I ever got: It's all about the story.

I went to the Surrey International Writer's Conference in 2006, and "ah ha!" moments hit me like crazy. That year, they had a lot of presenters stressing how important the story was. Story and stakes, story and stakes. The things readers care about. I'd always focused on the writing before, thinking that if I polished it enough, it would sell. But it never really hit me that the story itself wasn't good enough until that weekend. I learned there was a big difference between a story and a premise, and I had a premise-novel. Which meant my stakes weren't anything anyone would care about and it just explored a cool idea, not told a cool story about a character people liked.

I came home, looked at my ideas folder, and found the most original idea I had. Then I created a story with a protag readers would like, with a problem with personal stakes that drove the story. The following year, I pitched the book at Surrey, and ten days later I had an agent. Seven months after that I sold the book.

The writing, the technical gunk, all of that is important to know and learn, but once you become a good writer, you're just the same as every other good writer out there. Good writing just means you reached the skill level to play. What will set you apart is the story you tell.

If my novel had a defining moment, it was in my agent's revision requests. He wanted me to change what was a very pivotal, third-act turning point in the relationship between my heroine and hero. I was shocked and a little nervous, but as I turned it over in my head, I realized how many more doors this change opened up for my heroine. It made her more three-dimensional in my head and much more interesting on the page.