Did I Write That?
Not too long ago, a writer on a forum I hang out on asked if anyone ever thought “Did I write that?” when they were editing or proofreading their work. I knew what he meant, and yes, I’ve asked myself the question many times. I was reminded of this as I proofread Deiform Three this week.
It happens when I read a darn good sentence or paragraph. I don’t have a problem believing I wrote the clunky stuff. It’s the good stuff that makes me wonder, and the writer who posed the question on the forum said the same thing. When a sentence is particularly elegant, I wonder if it was a suggestion my editor made that I decided to go with, or if I wrote it. To my surprise, it’s usually something I wrote.
I don’t remember everything I write, and it doesn’t take me long to forget. By the time I receive a story back from my editor, I’m already writing another project or two. When it comes to revising and then proofreading, it can be like reading the story for the first time, which is good. I’m more likely to catch the remaining crap that way. Usually there isn’t a lot of it, because my editor and beta reader are great, and I’m not too shabby myself. But it doesn’t matter how often a story is read and by how many people. Something is always missed. There’s always more one can change. A story is never perfect.
The longer ago I wrote a story, the less I remember about it. I don’t remember some scenes from Rymellan 1. I could tell you the gist of every story and perhaps the order in which stuff happened, but every scene? Every word? No. In fact, I’ve already experienced receiving an email from a reader in which they referred to something in a Rymellan story, and I had no clue what they were talking about. I had to go back to the story and look it up. I wrote those stories five years ago, and I’ve written many more stories since then.
That’s why I mentioned that I’d reread the first two Deiform books and created my own wiki of sorts about the series. I’ve also added details revealed in Deiform Three. When I’m writing Deiform Four and ask myself questions like How old was Sam’s sister again when Sam “died”? or What was Jillian’s boss’s name at the agency again?, I won’t have to go searching through the existing books. I can just go to the wiki.
Anyway, things are on track for Deiform Three, so the eBook will be available soon. Here’s the full book description:
Jillian and Sam investigate one of Roberta’s visions and discover a dark secret lurking behind an affluent neighbourhood’s closed doors.
Roberta senses a situation requiring the Fellowship’s intervention, but her vision offers few clues for Jillian and Sam to go on. While the two Deiforms search for the troubled church in Roberta’s vision, Jillian experiences frightening breaks from reality.
Ropes and chains aren’t required to bind people together. Some bonds must be broken. Some bonds can’t be broken. In Unseen Bonds, Jillian and Sam must break one bond and come to terms with another.
Enjoy your weekend. 
Did I Write That? is a post from: Sarah Ettritch
