July 10, 2013

A Return to Writing

Most of the last few months have been largely spent reading over previously written material and polishing it...removing text in some areas, adding new text in others, filling in missing words, rephrasing, correcting inconsistencies, and making general improvements.  I did this both when preparing to send the manuscript for my most recent eBook to my editor, and again after she sent it back with her corrections and suggestions, which makes for a lot of reading.  (Incidentally, I published that book, Love Will Follow, a few days ago, and you can either order it direct at a 25% discount or from Amazon at this link.)  In addition, I've been reading over a backlist title as I prepare it for ePub, doing the same thing--adding passages here, deleting passages there. 

While you can really never have too many reads of a work-in-progress (because there is always something to improve on, and yes, mistakes can be overlooked, even with several read-throughs), it does get frustrating after awhile, because the writer in me longs to sit down and create new words, not polish old ones.  But such is the down side of being a writer...it doesn't end with creating the words, or even going over them at the end of the day.  They all have to come together to form a story that's consistent, and that takes work.

I'm happy to report that today I did something I haven't done in what seems like forever...I sat down and simply let the words flow.  And did it ever feel good!  How I've missed that simple joy of just dictating a scene.  I'm looking forward to doing much more of it over the next three months...because when I take a look at my project board, I've got quite a few books to write!

Do you feel as constricted by self-editing as I do?