Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Excited. Worried. Exhausted. Determined.
He sits and begins — again — editing the final twenty-five pages of the second draft of the novel in progress. The first draft had multiple iterations. This draft has undergone changes and now ‘feels’ better, but he believes another go through, maybe two, will be required.
He has his coffee and is ready to begin again.
He and his wife have stacks, piles, and cases of books. Some were bought at garage and yard sales because they look interesting, on deck, waiting to be read. Classics gather dust on shelves. Library books fill the TBR piles on nightstands and desks, along with books recommended by others, gifts, books written by friends, new releases by favorites, debuts which intrigue, and books waiting to be given to others, added to little libraries, or donated to charities. Finally are the books read and enjoyed, kept on hand for surviving the apocalypse.
He called it ‘a bad writing day’.
It was challenging and stressful. He didn’t like what he was editing, something he’d written months ago. It seemed good then but the need for deep revisions were obvious.
Disappointed, he struggled through as much as he could and broke it off to save his sanity. In truth, he was relegating the work to his subconscious. The next morning, returning to the manuscript, he understood how to fix that chapter. Coffee was poured. Revising was eagerly resumed.
Search engines had become very annoying. For example, whenever he put in a query like, “new novels 2023”, they returned lists of books.
Books and novels: not the same thing. All books are not fiction. Novels are.
