Revisiting old work

I recently read with my newly honed MFA eyes a middle grade fantasy novel manuscript that I'd completed a few years ago. I've always liked the story, but ooh, baby. What was I thinking?

While it wasn't a total embarrassment, it's obvious to me now how much work it needs. For one thing, first person doesn't sound right for this story. This is kind of a gut reaction, but I think the story needs an omniscient narrator, which is something I haven't tried. So as an experiment, I rewrote the first chapter in 3rd person omniscient and sent it to my critique group. They'll let me know their thoughts tomorrow. Regardless of what they say, I'll probably continue with omniscient because it's so much fun!

I'm not diving into each and every character's head willynilly. I'm being selective and trying to control the narrator's proximity, which is like the movement of a camera to me, from wide angle panorama to close-up. One YA author who is absolutely a master at this is Philip Pullman.

I also need to figure out some basic things like what this story is really about, and by that I don't mean plot. There's probably an overabundance of plot. While I was out running this morning, in a chilly northerly breeze that required my full winter running gear, I realized this story is about faith. Not in a religious sense but in the sense of having faith in others.

Another tiny little thing to figure out is what my main character wants. Her external struggle is clear (because I like plot), but the internal struggle? Not so much.

Probably most Vermont College faculty tell their students this, but it was my first advisor, Rita Williams-Garcia, who told me to find the answers to story problems within the story itself. So now I'm thinking that a possible answer to the main character's internal struggle question is to give her a trait I'd given to her younger sister--a preference for realistic stories over fantasy. That one little switch could also play into the faith idea.