Sunday, April 11, 2010

Ahhh...

Now that's a little more like it.

After another rock-em, sock-em frantic bout with editing, I'm back into my comfort zone - writing again. Well, this is a little different I guess, since technically what I'm doing it rewriting.

The last couple of days has been spent (when I wasn't at my real job) furiously editing. The most recent session gave me three solid treks over and under and straight through my work in progress, where I already lopped off more than 8,000 words. I cut those suckers due to a number of reasons - from mere editing to content purposes to just plain spite.

Now with a stack of papers covered in marks, I opened up a brand spanking new file and started typing all over again. My flashlight into draft No. 2 is the beat up hard copy of my poor little first draft.

I don't know if this is how everybody (or anybody) goes about knocking out the second draft. There may be more efficient ways, but nothing motivates my writing more than that blinking cursor with nothing behind it.

To me, it's not the same just going into some old file and making the changes, highlighting and deleting and all that other pains-taking stuff. It's a rewrite, so I'm starting all over.

It's not a start from scratch. I've got some pretty good guides: The hours I spent typing the first draft; the hours I spent editing that sucker; the hours I spent sharpening the story and these characters and, of course, my idea.

It's a marathon, not a sprint, but I feel like I'm hitting my stride again.

2 comments:

  1. Man, that's serious dedication. Rewrites can be really intimidating. I always rush through the first draft just so I can have something down to rework. that blinking cursor on a blank page makes me crazy.

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  2. I like the blank page because it makes me feel like I've got to fill it.
    There's all the promise that goes along with it.
    I know, I know. It's a SECOND draft, and pretty much everything's already written. Maybe I'm just tricking myself, but it's worked so far! ;)

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