It rained all night. Sometimes, hard enough to wake me. The wet and cold continue. Perfect weather for a writer. Perfect weather for editing.
I’ve plugged away at a fourth of Elsa and the Tie-down Man. Goals: eliminate a fourth of the book there-by tightening it and as I go about doing that, assess the merits of the book. Is it any good? Does it still hold my interest after all these months abandoned? Is it publishable? Worth more work?
I have a few regrets, but really some regrets are useless. I regret that I didn’t do a better job explaining my thinking on the edits I had been doing before I got sick. When I put the novel away, why didn’t I, at the very least, put in a few notes as to my thoughts of the book at that time? No sense regretting that now, though. I know I wasn’t in the shape for much insight, but that knowledge would be helpful now.
I can’t guess. The only thing I can do is go forward or quit. I choose forward. That means the book will be different than intended at the time it was written.
Of course, it would be different. I’m changed, so I bring to it different eyes. I’ve found that in every bit of work I do. When I reread a poem or short story I see it in a much different light than first intended. Most often, what I do to my work then, improves it. Because there are new layers to me, I can put new layers in my work.
This is an unexpected benefit of digging out this novel to edit. I had noticed the change in my writing—where I was coming from, how I wanted my work to come across—as I worked on my old poems and short stories to ready them for submission, but in the vaguest of ways.
I started on Elsa with a lot of trepidation, only to find, as a writer and a person, I have grown. Dare I say improve?
Rainy Monday and I’m heading forward.
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