Behold! I have emerged from the Writer’s Den refreshed
and at long-last finished with phase 3-million of the major rewrite. I’ve sent it to beta readers, received
their approval and now my baby lies in the more capable hands of my outstanding editor, Heather Webb (check her out, she’s
fabulous!).
My apologies for being gone so long. I had to really commit myself to finishing this
project. As I mentioned in Digging up The Dead: The Tale of The Manuscript That Wouldn’t Die, reviving the dead is
no easy project and this manuscript was DEAD! It still looks something like this...
But that is what I’m writing this blog about…
As writers, we hear it all the time, “Just stick that horrible manuscript in a drawer
and write something else.”
So I did that, right? And my ghostly characters called
me back. They swore they weren’t dead and they wanted their story told. So I've slogged away for months and
here’s what I’ve learned in the process.
1. Writing improves with time.
2. It’s extremely difficult to correct a billion mistakes in one manuscript.
3. It’s hard letting go of writing that you once thought you loved.
4. Remember to NOT make the same mistakes in the future.
5. Every character has a mission (or should) and at least one that you love must be sacrificed.
6. It’s worth the effort of rewriting a manuscript just to see how far you can go.
I know this manuscript is far from perfect
(cough-cough UNDERSTATEMENT), really. I still see a lot more that needs to be
addressed (enter the last round of edits) and I’m sure my editor is
finding a gazillion more issues for me to fix (which is exactly why I so desperately need her
expertise). Because when I’m done, though I still won’t have a perfect book –
and when this old story finally sees the light of day I’m sure it will have its
fair share of criticism – but the point of doing this is that I didn’t quit!
It wasn’t easy to pick up that mess of an old
manuscript and face my own poor writing demons, but I did (okay, there are a few
still in there, but I’m really hoping Heather will exorcise them!) and I’m
glad I did. It gave me a chance to look at my writing objectively, the
same way I look at someone else’s work-in-progress and think wtf? What was I
thinking? I was finally able to see what everyone else was trying to tell me
(yes, Heather, I know. I hate chapter two also).
And that’s why I am so glad that I’ve committed to
finishing this project, no matter how painful. This is the learning experience
of a lifetime (one my degree could never teach) and even if this series won't be
perfect, they’ll be something I can be proud
of simply because I didn’t quit. Now, the next time I write from scratch I
won’t make the same mistakes I made before (I’ll make new ones) and all of my
future writing will be better because I suffered and slaved and patchwork quilted
this thing back together.
 |
| After ripping her apart and stitching her back together so many times this is pretty much how I see my beautiful heroine now. |
My advice to you, if you’re just beginning this writing
journey, is to really make sure the project is dead TO YOU, before locking it
away forever. The manuscript might still never see the light of day, or maybe
it will, but it doesn’t make the best-sellers-whatever, the point is…if that
manuscript is still calling your name, then it has something more to teach you.
Pick it up, dust it off, and give it another coat of elbow grease before you decide to let it die. You’re the only one who can truly know your manuscript and what you’re capable of accomplishing with it. If you don’t want to give up, yet, then don’t. That way if it still ends up without a pulse, at least you’ll know you did everything you could to save it and hopefully you learn some new CPR tricks.
Pick it up, dust it off, and give it another coat of elbow grease before you decide to let it die. You’re the only one who can truly know your manuscript and what you’re capable of accomplishing with it. If you don’t want to give up, yet, then don’t. That way if it still ends up without a pulse, at least you’ll know you did everything you could to save it and hopefully you learn some new CPR tricks.
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