Where There’s a Paddle, You’re Not Always Up the Creek

Sometimes, writing is like a giant game of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. In other words, rowing up a stream and going nowhere. Okay, you go somewhere, but times like these – you sometimes wonder.

I’m in the process of tearing apart Dark Fire, the second in the Rebirth series. There were a few things in the story that I didn’t particularly care for and this was my opportunity to set right all the wrongs I had. Which is usually a lot since it was still the first draft. Sometimes, this can be a daunting take, tearing a first draft apart like this. For instance, last night, I cut around a thousand words from my MS. Within an hour or two, I put back 900. This morning, I put another 800 in. So I made up what I took out, plus some.

It doesn’t always work this way. I’ve taken out 5000 and only put back 1000. Sometimes it’s just taking out something that didn’t work (because not everything does). Sometimes it’s making things tighter and corrects an unbalanced flow. Sometimes, realistically, things just suck.

I’m just glad right now that there’s no holes in the boat as I’m not interested in the whole “There’s A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” deal right now.