4/3/2025: I now am basking in the glow of having edited a second draft of the first half of my novel. I will give it a 4-day break from me while my wife and I drive up to Rochester, NY to hear my son play flute in a classical music concert.
Frankly, I am glad for the break. I was having too many *feelings*!
You may refer to my last couple of journal entries on my website, diaryofanoptimisticswriter,.org , for more information.
In a nutshell: I was down because revising was taking so long. Then, I hit pages that were easily condensed and/or deleted. I flew through those and felt like I could edit all day and part of the night. And I did, for a day or two.
It was like being lost in the forest, and then finding your way. Exhilarating. New ideas were pouring out of me left and right. I cut. I pasted. I added material. Moved scenes around. The story came more into focus.
Whew! Done! For this weekend, anyway.
Biggest surprise while editing: Tyne Montour, the junior-year student who just transferred into Hannah Area High School, coming from 10 years of homeschool, blossomed as a character. Legal mystery writer William Bernhardt, whose writer’s conference / Gulf of Mexico cruise I took part in a year ago, does not believe that characters begin to assert their will as you write. Well, it sure seemed like this one was. She was saying things I’d never suspect her of saying. On top of being a little snot, she’s devious and conniving. I suppose Bernhardt is right—without me, Tyne wouldn’t have anything to say about anything—but it’s so exciting to see the character travel along her arc. It’s like turning the corner and seeing a full-blown rainbow.
Monday 4/7/2025: Once again, the game is afoot! My goal is to finish draft 2 of the novel by Thursday, May 15th. That’s kind of a squishy goal because I have no idea what I will run into. Since this is a thriller, a lot happens very quickly. I was introduced to the idea of “but/therefore,” created by the writers of Southpark (if you want more information on this, email me). Now I’m checking that each scene has a causal relationship with the scene before it. If it doesn’t, it’ll need to be fixed. I will also need to go back to Act 2 part one, and Act one, to foreshadow Act 2B and Act 3 events. In a few cases, mention a character or two who become important in the second half of the book.
May 19th-June 2nd: I’ll be reading, rereading, and, as Dean says, tweaking, draft two. I’ll need to read the whole book at least twice (or, as the book’s protagonist, Kelsey Webb says, twict), and I may listen to Word read it to me.
Then it will be time to find a few readers who will tell me what’s working and what’s not.
Monday evening 4/7 I’ll put a diary entry on diaryofanoptimisticwriter.org about how the situation looks as I take out my red pen.
Actually, in 30 + years of teaching English, I’ve never owned a red pen.
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