Continued Progress

I’ve been really getting into the swing of things in my writing these days. My fourth revision of Danger Under Ocean’s Tides is coming along quite well. I have just come to the point where I will read a portion of what I wrote and say to myself, “I actually like that.”

Let me explain. Readers often want to believe that a book was written out of the natural brilliance of the author. That it was written under some inspiration whereby the author could do no wrong. Or, that the writer is just that good.

But that is not the case. Not by a long shot.

Writing takes work. And it has to be bad before it can be good. A first draft, for instance, is ugly, inelegant, and riddled with mistakes, both small and large. Then I try to fix huge plot holes. I mean the ones I knew were there even when I was writing it. You know, where Tracy chases the bad guy up a hill, even though two chapters before, she broke her leg. That kind of thing.

Then I read through the work and make other such changes, all the while fixing other smaller issues along the way. Then I get to what I call sentence level revision. Here my job is to craft well written sentences. I get rid of words I repeat too much, boring or poorly written sentences, and cliché phrases.

In other words, I have two main goals: 1) Write a story interesting enough to read, and 2) write it well enough people want to read it.

That being said, my next book is perhaps two months away from being published and I’m beginning to like it. When it comes out, I hope you do too.

As always, if you want any sneak peeks or to know more particulars about what I’m up to, sign up for the newsletter.

Aaron