I’ve been a little MIA the past few months. This is because my creative writing has sadly not yet made me filthy rich and I have to spend time at a day job. Crazy, no?
The novel is still in progress. The beginning has been rewritten so many times I have lost track of all the versions. Suffice to say it’s a lot more efficient than before. There are still some tweaks to make, but in lieu of driving myself insane with YET ANOTHER OPENING CHAPTER REWRITE, I have decided to give the rest of the novel a thorough reading and bring it in line with all of the major plot and theme changes that went into the massive opening rewrite.
It has been so long since I wrote the middle part that I actually don’t remember a lot of it. So I’m entertained by my own writing! And the bits where I got too wordy are standing out now that I have fresh eyes. Fresh brain. Freed of much expectation. When I know what’s coming next, I kind of stop really seeing the page. It’s already in my head, you know?
These past few weeks while I’m reading my novel I’m thinking “Hey, I like this girl! She’s smart and tenacious! Ooo, a witch! Ooo, there’s action!” So this is very encouraging to me. Typically I feel pretty bored reading my own stuff, cause I just wrote it and I already know what happens. I like plot twists and reveals, and probably for this reason I rarely read a novel (other than my own) more than once. There’s no suspense, which is a large part of my reading pleasure. I know some people like to read their favorite books over and over again, but there are only about five novels that I have read more than once. From what I recall, they are: A Wrinkle In Time, The Hobbit, Little Women, The Song of the Lark, and The Hero and the Crown. Note that more than 20 years has passed between some of those readings.
L.A. Kuemmel 