Revision Is What You Make Of It

Rewriting can be painful or it can be liberating for your manuscript. It's all up to you.

After many queries I finally got an agent for my first book. A couple rounds of editing commenced then he submitted it to a few editors. After over a year he admitted defeat and we parted ways. The shortcut for that book/series now glares at me from my computer screen. It demands satisfaction. Who am I to deny it?

For those of you who follow my personal blog, Heather's Odyssey, you know rewriting that series is one of my New Year's resolutions. The premise is solid, the characters are intriguing, and the story deserves to be told. I cannot and will not walk away from it. But how to start such a monumental rewrite and not drown in it? It's all in the outlook. It isn't depressing to me that the poor book didn't make it the first time. In fact, reading over it now with a more educated eye, it's painfully obvious why it didn't make it. I'm excited about breathing new life into it and making it into something spectacular. I don't dread the rewrite, I'm looking forward to it.

I've printed it out, all 435 pages of it, and have set a date on my calendar. And I mean that literally, a date. I plan on getting a nice bottle of wine, my trusted red pen, and spending the entire weekend with my manuscript. Rewriting doesn't have to be a headache. It is what you make of it. No doubt there will be many edits for that book in the future but I look forward to each and every one!

~Heather