Sequel to “Red, White & Blues” Now in Rewrite & Edit Phase Or “The Agony and the Ecstacy of Editing, Part One”

Happily, I can now announce that the sequel to “Red, White & Blues” has been written.�� That was the easy part.�� Now comes the hard part:�� rewrites and edits.�� When I re-read “Red, White & Blues” and know just how many rewrites and how much editing I did to it, it fills me with both hope and dread.�� Hope because I know that it can be done; dread because I don’t know how I ever did it.�� Re-reading this sequel over and over again and still not finding much that needs to be either rewritten or edited makes me nervous.�� Obviously, there are plenty of passages that could be removed, but does one remove them simply to do just that?�� Re-working passages often times leads to more words, not less.�� Not having the mental fortitude to allow another person to edit my story makes me especially vulnerable to leaving things in simply because I am fond of the character.�� I thought documenting this process might be interesting to both readers and other writers, so here I go:

For the initial read-through, I was gentle.�� I told myself, “You just need to read it and look for glaring errors-spelling, sentence structure, etc.”�� Fine.�� I can do that.

The second read-through, I took a harder look, mostly for inconsistencies or facts that might need further verification or exploration.�� When writing fiction that incorporates actual events, certain things must be reported as accurately as possible even if the surrounding story might not seem possible.���� Okay.�� That was good.�� Now we’re beginning to get somewhere.

The third time is when I have to begin to get harsh.�� I highlight portions that should be removed or re-worked.�� Hopefully, on the next read-through, I will see a lot of yellow!

In the end, it will get done, but the process is not only daunting, but sad in some ways.�� Ultimately, it is gratifying. And it WILL GET DONE!

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