A Day of Rest

I've been rewriting a novel after getting feedback from my agent, in the hopes of getting it ready and sending it on the publishing rounds. I wrote this novel last fall/early winter and hope to have it making the rounds while the YA fantasy novel I wrote last spring also makes the rounds to a different set of editors, my thought being that casting two fishing lines doubles your chances of getting a bite.

This edit involved deleting two full chapters, writing three new chapters, and flushing out all three main characters. The rewrite process, for me, seems to take on a pretty standard pattern-I get my feedback from Jonathan, I agonize and mull it around in my mind for a few days, and then I start cutting like there's no tomorrow, slashing and burning every passage, sentence, and word that seems not good enough, not anymore! Then I start rebuilding, adding some new passages and tying them into what already stands, and then I slash through those passages as well. It's an exhausting and time consuming process and, after a while, you have to let it go and just pray the new draft is significantly improved.

So I sent the new draft to my agent last evening and now I have decreed today (and tomorrow) as a DAY OF REST, meaning I'm allowed not to think too hard about anything and I can sail as far away from my keyboard as possible (though I'll always return, ready for more insanity).