It's not that I've had nothing to say recently; it's that I couldn't find time to say it that wouldn't take time from my novel. Plus, I was in the hospital for food poisoning, and then infectious colitis. I seem to be over it without any continuing aftereffects.
The big news is I've started to edit manuscript, a massive job. I have to turn it in to my writers' group for overall review in October. I plan to have all the problems I could find (as well as the ones they found) corrected. The first step is to just read through it and number every scene with OpenOffice comments. That prepares it to be rearranged and outlined, doing the larger rearrangements first, and then the fine adjustments within the scenes.
I'm actually not quite done writing the draft. However, I have an October deadline. If I read less at my writers' group every week and instead focus on the editing, I can get this done.
I started the novel, a piece of fan fiction, in 2009 not knowing the difference between a plot point and color. Boy, does this draft have a lot of color. My perception is that much can go.
My muse and I must sit down and have a talk. I'll never write another novel the way I wrote this one. Not that I would have ever wanted to do this one differently. I learned a lot. Trial and error is great for learning as long as you have people who can point out your errors. I don't know what would have became of this project if I didn't find a writers' group, and probably the best one in the Midwest.
Plus, I discovered and honed a writers' work ethic. I can't say how much I'm looking forward to editing this piece. I took the best route in creating this novel, but I don't have enough left in my life to take it again.
I find my eyes are about to cross from sleepiness. I've got to cut this out.
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