Nunc Dimittis
Dec. 5th, 2008 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseDing-dong, the rewrite's dead,
The wicked rewrite's dead!
This morning it flew into its eagerly waiting editor's inbox, and at least as eagerly waiting agent's ditto, a mere five months after I promised to deliver it. By no means is that my standard practice, but I had eight sick horses, a dead cat, new kittens, Creeping Evil That Must Be Expunged, deep depression you betcha, also, and finally a six-week block that coincided with the meltdown of the global economy and the lead-up to the big Change Election. All in all, the distractions were distracting to the utmost.
I expect to do at least one more round, this time, I hope, of revisions rather than a guts-on-upward rewrite. The original plot would have been an acceptable if excessively sparely written adult fantasy, but for middle grades, not so much. Back to the drawing board, keeping the characters and the setting, but completely rebuilding the structure of the book--from adult priorities to, I hope, viable kid priorities.
Writing for kids is bloody hard. In case you were wondering. It's also a lot of fun, though the sheer Angst of going on and on and on with it, forever and ever, amen, rather cut into the enjoyment.
We'll see what Ye Ed says. In the meantime there is a short story calling my name, and we're about to crash head-on into the Holiday Express in any case. This means there is time to, you know, ride more than one horse. And hack away at the jungle in the yard. And once in a while, take a quiet evening without the pressure of the day's page quota (because rewrite indeed meant rewrite--I kept probably 1500 words out of the entire first draft; all the rest is new). Such a concept.
The wicked rewrite's dead!
This morning it flew into its eagerly waiting editor's inbox, and at least as eagerly waiting agent's ditto, a mere five months after I promised to deliver it. By no means is that my standard practice, but I had eight sick horses, a dead cat, new kittens, Creeping Evil That Must Be Expunged, deep depression you betcha, also, and finally a six-week block that coincided with the meltdown of the global economy and the lead-up to the big Change Election. All in all, the distractions were distracting to the utmost.
I expect to do at least one more round, this time, I hope, of revisions rather than a guts-on-upward rewrite. The original plot would have been an acceptable if excessively sparely written adult fantasy, but for middle grades, not so much. Back to the drawing board, keeping the characters and the setting, but completely rebuilding the structure of the book--from adult priorities to, I hope, viable kid priorities.
Writing for kids is bloody hard. In case you were wondering. It's also a lot of fun, though the sheer Angst of going on and on and on with it, forever and ever, amen, rather cut into the enjoyment.
We'll see what Ye Ed says. In the meantime there is a short story calling my name, and we're about to crash head-on into the Holiday Express in any case. This means there is time to, you know, ride more than one horse. And hack away at the jungle in the yard. And once in a while, take a quiet evening without the pressure of the day's page quota (because rewrite indeed meant rewrite--I kept probably 1500 words out of the entire first draft; all the rest is new). Such a concept.
