Midlist Writer: Revisiting An Old Manuscript

Friday 20 February 2009

Revisiting An Old Manuscript

I'm in an in-between period with my fiction. My last novel is sitting in an editor's inbox, I'm waiting for my critique partners to finish with my work in progress, and my next book is percolating through my head until I move to Oxford next month. I've decided to hold off on it until I get there because it's set in England. Also, my last novel taught me the benefits of letting a story develop for a while before setting it down on paper.

Anyway, I haven't had much to do with my fiction other than think. Most of my workday has been dedicated to my nonfiction, but this week I decided to have a change of pace and gave my last novel another read. Just because it's sitting in the submissions pile doesn't mean I can't still fiddle with it!

I hadn't looked at it for six months and thought I would have a lot of changes to make, but it turns out I'm generally happy with it. I only had minor changes--a few typos and some poorly written sentences that needed untangling. I realized that I'm pretty much done with that book. If it gets accepted, I'm sure the editor will have changes, but until then I'm done with that book. Sometimes it helps to look at older work that's still bugging you just to put it to rest.

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