2nd Re-Write Finished - What A Blast!

WOW! As an aspiring author, I must confess, I’m at a loss for words. I wish I could tell you how the Lord has blessed me with focus and concentration as I worked on my novel rewrite this month.

I wish I could tell you the joy it is to give my time and attention first to God, then watching Him provide me with the time I needed to work on this re-write.

I wish I could explain to you what a wondrous, revealing journey this rewrite has been.

I feel inadequate to the task, but I’m going to try.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been working on this same novel off and on for about three years. It has been such a terrible struggle trying to find time between the day job and health issues to do it. I completed the first draft in late 2006. Dinked around with it in 2007 and started a related novel as a distraction.

The year 2008 was my “obsess over the first chapter” year – where I literally did little else but write and rewrite the first chapter. Then in the latter half of 2008 was my burnout period where I did no writing whatsoever.

So I decided that I needed to get back on the wagon and determined that in March I would begin the second pass of my novel – it’s first re-write. Up to now, I’d dinked and edited, but this was a full fledged re-write.

Today I finished the first rewrite. I’m exhausted but very happy. This is a major, major milestone for me.

But I still have miles to go.

So what’s next?

Next I print out the manuscript tonight then put it aside for a week. On April 1st, I make another pass through the manuscript.

Then on April 9th I let this baby fly for the first time in its life – winging it’s way to the boxes of my crit partners for a full evaluation.

Then when they’re done tearing it apart, it comes back to me and I rewrite it again – then SUBMIT IT! 8-)

I am so happy to be closing in on the finish line. Sure, I know it will have to be written several more times. But I have never taken on such a gargantuan task in my entire life. To be honest, novel writing makes my head hurt. But after the Advil kicks in, I’ll be telling you it’s a good kind of pain.

All the toil has been well worth it. And as I said in my previous post, I have a feeling of certainty that I didn’t have before – a certainty that I am going to finish and submit this project. Regardless of whether it is accepted or rejected, the crowning achievement will be getting it submitted.

THAT is several decades worth of goals all in one. In the meantime, I’m going to shut off this computer and give it and my eyes a break, and then skip around the apartment doing the Snoopy Dance at what I’ve accomplished. Revel in the moment. Then rest and wait for phase three. 8-)