Writers' Retreat - after

I love writers' retreats. It was such a productive time.

In two days (Friday night to Sunday lunch) I edited an entire novel (Just the Way You Are), jotted down notes for three new stories, plotted another new novel and thought about--never underestimate the importance of thinking--what I was going to do to fix a half-finished novel.

Since then, I've done another read-through of Just the Way You Are and picked up 128 things to change. They're minor, though, so won't take long. The novel is actually hanging together well. I was surprised there weren't more things for me to change in this round because the last edits were major. I took out one character's point of view completely, combined two other characters into one character, and removed one plot line completely. I didn't think I'd rewritten the bits around those things cohesively enough to withstand another major edit, but I did. *feeling good*

I worked on the synopsis for that story tonight. I've changed it a lot--it needed it because the plot had changed--and I think I've ruined it, but I'm not sure. I'll leave it sit tonight and have another look at it tomorrow night after I finish making the rest of the small changes to the story. I'm up to 68/128. 

I love working on a project when it's so close to being ready to send out. It's the same kind of feeling I get when I begin a new story and everything is the exploration of the unknown. 

I have two weeks' holiday coming up and plan to spend most of it editing a SF story I've been editing for a while. It's been sitting for a few months so I'll need to read it again to see exactly where I'm up to with it. There was a lot of passive writing in it that's taken a number of passes to remove. It's another story that suffered major plot changes after I'd written the whole thing. Primarily, that was because a couple of plot elements clashed with the way the protagonist's character developed. It was clunky and unbelievable. It works better now; I just need to strengthen the main character's motivation at the beginning so the conflict in the middle is clear. I can't wait to get back to it.

Okay, I've spent enough time talking about writing. Time to go back and DO the writing. *love my job*

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