It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without
fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire
can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure
writers of all kinds. The brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh, our brilliant ninja leader. To read other members, click here.
This month’s question: Have you ever
pulled out a really old story and reworked it. Did it work out?
Oh, my. Talk about synchronicity.
This month’s question covers a topic I was planning on writing about
anyway. Of course, the modifier “really” as it pertains to old is
subjective, but I’m reworking an “old” piece now which is why I’ve been absent
from Middle Passages.
Five years ago, I began writing a
book I queried in 2015. I did receive some requests for full reads, but that
was it, and after sending it out to less than 20 agents, I made the decision to
pull the book and let it rest while I moved onto other things. I believed then,
as now, that it's a great story, but deep down I knew I hadn’t written
it well enough...yet.
Last fall, I returned to it and
after giving it a solid edit (it’s amazing what you can find after two years) I
invested in my writing career and my book by paying a trusted and talented
author/teacher /professional editor to read it and give me feedback. As I
suspected, the book had flaws, but now that they’ve been pointed out to me I’ve
challenged myself to fix them and make this book saleable. This, my friends, is why
I’ve been absent from Blogger.
I’m focused on reworking the book to
eliminate things that slowed the story, to ratchet up the conflict, and to make
sure I’m writing in scene. I’ve had other projects that have been for practice, clearly. After a point it’s time to leave them. But I don’t feel that way about this
novel. I want it to succeed. For that to happen, I have to dig down as deep as
I can, which means other things have to go by the wayside if I want this story
to have life beyond my flash drive.
Jury's still out on whether or not this revisit will end up being worthwhile. While I'm not typing, I keep my fingers crossed.
I'm doing what I've got to do. For those who
may have wondered, that's what I’m up to when I’m not here.
Wishing you all the best!
Wishing you all the best!
