Celebrate the Little Victories

Over the years, I have found that I have been so critical of my own work, that I have taken so little time to celebrate my own accomplishments.  Today I will celebrate one.

I began my WIP, Flight of the Heart, about nine years ago. It is the story of a young woman who witnesses a mob murder and is on the run, under the protection of a private investigator, who is helping to keep her alive until she can testify.  I suffered writer's block when I reached the final chapter. I just could not figure out how to end the book. THEN my computer crashed and I was left with nothing but my hard copy.

Since then, I went through a divorce, and life just sort of took over.  This year I finally got back to Sarah's story, and began the tedious task of retyping the story.  This month, not only did I finish re-entering what I'd written, but Sarah's story finally reached it's conclusion.  Now I could point out that the story is still only in it's rough draft, that it has a great deal of editing and rewriting to be done, that the characters are inconsistent, having been drafted over nine years... but I'm not going to dwell on those things. Today I'm going to pop the cork and celebrate a victory. Today, Sarah and I both get to celebrate the end of something.  

We'll worry about the rest tomorrow.

Happy writing, everyone.

A Review: The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

Wilson Lewis has taken his life for granted. He is a successful attorney. His beautiful wife, Jane, gave him three beautiful children, kept a beautiful home, and took care of all his needs.  But when he forgets their 29th anniversary, he realizes how close he is to losing the things that matter most. So he sets out to repair the damages done over the years by learning to be a true partner to his wife. 

I have never been a fan of books written in the first person. This book changed that for me. I was drawn in and captivated by William as he told the story in his own personal voice. His character and propensity for insight and reflection while delivering a sucker punch of emotion left me weepy more than once. Seldom would I read a book twice, but this book, in particular, may take a lonely spot on that sparse shelf. A must read.  

Edited to Death!

When I think back on the first draft of my current (first) novel, I remember how the words just seemed to fly from my fingertips. The characters became living, breathing entities, and I cared about them. Yeah, the writing may have been a little flowery, wordy, and full of technical errors, but it came to life just the same.

A couple years later, my computer crashed.

I had to begin the long process of retyping the whole thing.  While I typed, I edited... and edited... and edited.  Somewhere along the way, I lost touch with my characters. I lost track of the story, and traded authentic for technical.

I think I've killed Sarah and Michael.  At the very least, I dumped them off on a dirt road somewhere to find their own way home.  Oh, what have I done? For now, I'll continue to type it back in, one chapter at a time. But from now on, no editing, just typing.  Once I find them again, we'll deal with the technical issues.

Have you ever written something you loved just to over edit it to death?