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3/22/25

Dear Dean,

              I’m multi-tasking. Writing you an email which I’ll post on my website. It’s easier to complain about how hard writing is when you can envision a sympathetic audience. Even if it’s just an audience of one.

              Actually, I don’t find writing that hard.  But revision is hard. I say that mainly because these days I’m revising. I’m a hundred pages into the text, about 1/3^rd of the way through the 1^st part of the 2^nd act.  Why is a pain? First of all, because almost every time I read a scene I come up with a “better” way of presenting things. I end up not revising, but rewriting. So now there’s more first draft material to go back over. If I go easy on myself, I keep the scene, and get away with just making major changes throughout. Is the book better for all this commotion? Man I hope so!

              As you can imagine, I feel like I’m moving at the pace of an ant in a lollypop factory. Specifics? Act 2 Part 1 has about 35 scenes in it. I’m combining some of the scenes in order to create chapters of similar length. On average, I’m combining 3 scenes into a chapter. I now have 3 chapters done, with potentially 6 more to go. Changing POV. Pulling the scenes apart. Rewriting. Matching the action to what’s come before. Making every scene “bigger” to suit the market.

              I can do a chapter in two days. Optimistically. That means I have twelve days until I get to the midpoint of the novel. Somewhere around April 4^th. Puts me finishing the 2^nd draft around the middle of May (that includes time away from the computer for my 2 sons’ graduations).

              Seems like forever.

              Some of what I’m feeling is anxiety. The Great What Ifs? What if a contradiction arises and it means I have to rewrite most of the 2^nd draft to resolve it? I’ve been going good so far, but what if this manuscript becomes becalmed, bereft of all suspense and tension? What if the book just stops working?

              Some of what I’m feeling is eagerness. This is draft two of RIVERS RISE, but it’s draft 13 of the original story (remember TWO ROADS, anyone?). Part of me just wants the characters to get on with it. It’s not like this is fresh ground. I feel like I’m typing with one hand, and with my other hand I’m putting my finger in the dike of my imagination, trying to hold everything back until I just get the next two hundred pages out of my head …

              Well. Enough whining. Sometime around the weekend of April fifth I will announce this website to all who might have an interest in watching me proceed on revising this book into publication.

              That’ll make it feel more real.