Rewriting
July 8, 2006
5:26 p.m.
I suppose you have questions, like where the hell have you been? What've you been up to? You know? Other junk like that. Or, maybe you don’t. I'm just guessing here, after all. Really, I haven't been anywhere. I've just been here, still in Columbus, still going to work every day, still Lisa's husband and Brigid's dad and all that. Brigid is a bit older, of course, getting ready for her senior year as I said a day ago. Lisa is working outside of the basement for the first time in years, and seems to like it. And I'm ... well ... I'm just me. I've lost maybe 20 pounds or so (yay, me!), but other than that, I don't know that much has changed.   The past two days have seen me rewrite two more stories, and add words to a fresh, new tale, and agreed to collaborate with John Bodin again. The old stories are what I want to talk about today. Both were pieces I thought were good when I wrote them, but had been bloodied in the market. I picked them up and breezed through them, and immediately saw where they were flawed. I mean, they were no-brainers. The one I worked on all day today was evenly split into two points of view, but really didn't need that at all. It needed a small touch in the second point of view, specifically to pass on a small amount of information about the motivation of the secondary character. But everything else in that POV was fluff. Why could I not see that before? I finished a minute ago, and now what was a 4,900 word story weighs in at a trim 3,200 words, all while keeping the story intact. Lisa will see it soon, and we'll see if it passes that test. :) So all total, I've rewritten four stories in the recent past. I think it's no surprise that in each case, word count has dropped between 15-25%. I think they are all four tighter, and better presented. Two are in the mail. One is ready for the mail. And then, of course, there's the one in Lisa's queue. Tomorrow I will strive to finish my first totally original story in awhile. If this keeps up, maybe I'll change the title of this place from "Annual" Persistence back to "Daily." Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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I have a theory about writing. The theory goes to this effect: The chief difference between good writing and better writing may be measured by the number of imperceptible hesitations the reader experiences as he goes along. James J. Kilpatrick |
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