Yesterday I did something I almost never do. I re read Charlie Darling. I usually don't reread books that are under submission until I've heard back from an editor. This is for two reasons 1) I invariably want to start tinkering with them, a word here, something different there etc etc and 2) I'm always a bit frightened that they might be complete pants and I must have had some sort of brainstorm in ever imaging that anyone would ever want to publish them.
The reason I reread Charlie was because I wanted to look at the half-done medical that I have on my file so I wanted to see how it shaped up compared to Charlie. It's a very different type of book but I knew that some of the points that the editor had given me for the revisions on Charlie would apply to the new story so I needed to refresh my memory.
Rereading Charlie wasn't as bad as I'd feared, I fought the urge to meddle and stuffed the crows of doubt in the cupboard while I forced myself to look for the technical aspects that I'd wanted to research.
Then I opened the file on my half done story. This was the bit I dreaded - when I started this one I was doubtful about it but Jessica kept assuring me that it worked (thanks Jess)I went through tweaking and adjusting and using what I'd learned from writing Charlie and by the end of the day I'd added 1k and I think it's a much better story for the additions. Hopefully now I can push on with it and with Animal Instincts while I wait for a verdict on Charlie.
2 comments:
Nell I know the feeling. If I've submitted something I don't open it to read it, because my worst fear is that I'll find a million mistakes. And then I'll beat myself up for not catching them, and then my stomach knots because I know I'm going to get rejected. I'd rather not see the rejection coming. It's better on my nerves.
Anyway, I've got my fingers firmly crossed for you.
Nell, I've got everything crossed for you and Mr Charles. Me thinks that getting the hm&b call would be a pretty great way to finish of your writing year!!
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