Over a decade ago, I took a year-long writing course called A Novel Approach. Over that year, we were led through the process of writing a book. It was exhilarating, challenging, and sometimes downright gruelling when writing 3,000 words between classes, but I did it.
The book I produced was just okay, and using feedback from my instructor and beta readers, I rewrote it and then offered it to my adoring public, aka kind friends who supported me.
A couple of years later, needing a writing challenge, I pulled out my manuscript and rewrote it in an entirely different way. Feedback was warm, but I wasn’t bowled away by rave reviews.
Last fall, I retired from my job and decided to fill my newly-free time with writing a second novel. I built the frame, and partway through adding some muscles to those bones, I happened to dig back into my files and noticed the first book I’d written. Curious, and finding any excuse not to do the hard work of brand new writing, I read it.
Well, guess what? It wasn’t that bad, so I decided to go back to it. I reviewed it once, editing each paragraph, adding, deleting, tweaking descriptions and dialogues, and correcting typos. Then I went through it twice more. There was a lot of work to do.
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