This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.
And so it begins...
...
After spending a number of harrowing days trying to plan, plot, and replot, sort out the characters and their characteristics, discover locations and read up on them, and learn as much as possible about the props, it was time to let loose the pencil.
But, sadly, all the plotting in the world does not translate to instant words on a page.
I started revising. Great.
I hated what I amended.
Deleted it.
Started again.
The page was staring back at me, daring me to write more of those terrible words, disorganized thoughts, and random passages that had no connection.
No, it's not writer's block.
It's pressure, the pressure of having to revise 1,800 odd words in a day, this day, and tomorrow, and the day after that.
Enough!
I go outside and look at the mess in the backyard, the one I've been promising to do something about for the last 10 years. Perhaps it's now time.
As rubbish goes into the bin, ideas form, passages start writing themselves in my mind, and plot lines seem to materialize and make sense.
I go back in and get on with the revision.
Day 1 over, 1,916 words revised.
Just think, come tomorrow I have to go through all this again. Sigh!
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