Writing Wrongs

June 23, 2006

A long while back--so long ago, I�m not even going to search out where in the archives--I talked about �writing the 250.� That�s 250 words each day on whatever manuscript I was working on. Because reasonably, I could do that, right? Just about anyone could.

Now I�ve discovered something new. It�s called rewriting the 250 because this is a revision I�m working on, but the scenes are new, thanks to Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook.

The whole thing with having new material = better (with luck) story is great. Revising and editing aren�t that tough. Because I had let the manuscript sit for a year (!), it was like editing someone else�s work. Well, almost.

But the brand new scenes--the ones residing only in my mind and in cryptic notes? Not so easy. In fact, I was thinking about chucking the whole project. Clearly, this was going nowhere. Could I still even write in Bethany�s voice? It didn�t feel like it.

But sometimes with writing, you gotta ignore those feelings. I wonder, too, if it has something to do with being in full revision/editing mode and switching over to what is essentially first draft mode.

So out comes the rewriting the 250. Because even if the changes I made look snazzy in my notes and translated well to a synopsis (Oh, have I mentioned? I have a synopsis. Yay, me!), it�s still the literary equivalent to �vaporware� until I make the changes in the manuscript.

And revise and edit them. But that�s a post for another day. As for now, I hear the 250 calling my name.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 1:40 p.m.

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