Magic!

To my very great surprise, this edit is very different from all of my previous edits. I suppose each one was unique, really, but this is a whole new level.

Between raising three children, illness (my own, my husband's, and the children's), holiday activities, touching bases with my friends now and then (so they don't think I'm dead), keeping the house in reasonable order, and freaking out about a mouse infestation in our attic (yeah--gross), I didn't think I'd find the time to get any of this edit done.

Guess again! :)

Even with squeezing it in here and there, I'm a week in and more than halfway done. And it's serious rewrite! I've scrapped scenes, rewritten others, changed main characters, even turned a plot-line upside down.

And it's easy. And fun! And finally, FINALLY pulling itself into a beautiful, satisfying whole. The characters are consistent, and the plot is tight and flows well.

I'm just so pleased with how this is coming together. So pleased.

I think the biggest reason it's so different and easy is that I haven't read it in about six months. I've got fresh eyes, and I've been reading more than writing. Reading another person's work changes how you look at your own writing.

The point of all this? I now believe the best thing you can do for yourself (if you have a manuscript that needs work) is put it away for a long, long time. Don't stop thinking about it, maybe allow yourself to outline or brainstorm a little now and then, but don't touch the manuscript itself.

The result? MAGIC!

This is Why

A friend asked me once why I call this blog "Round about we go". If you are a writer then you already know the answer.

I actually got the title from a Milne poem, called "Busy":
"Round about, and round about, and round about I go. All around the table, the table in the nursery. Round about, and round about, and round about, and round about..." Well, you get the idea.

In my Milne book there's a cute little sketch of a toddler skipping around a table until his little legs give out and he falls down dizzy.

It's an endless cycle, this writing stuff and sometimes I feel like that dizzy little man--skipping happily in circles, and going nowhere. Thankfully, it is a happy journey to nowhere and I never give up hoping I will eventually escape the nursery.

Alas, my friends, I have not yet stopped skipping 'round my nursery table. The Wielder is in my hands once again, and in dire need of editing.

However, do not get discouraged. This time it is different. This is what I've heard called "trimming the fat". Removing all the extra info and wordy descriptions that are holding the story back. That is what Stan wants.

I am also going to spruce up the heroine and the villain. That's what I want.

Thankfully, I am well past the pregers hormone issue and writing is, once more, a pleasure. And so...

Round about, and round about, and round about, and round about I go!