MATIAS TAUTIMEZ
  • Home
  • About the Author
  • Contact
  • Writer's Blog
  • Artwork
  • Short Stories
  • Game Reviews
  • Home
  • About the Author
  • Contact
  • Writer's Blog
  • Artwork
  • Short Stories
  • Game Reviews

Drafts and drafts and drafts

12/14/2018

0 Comments

 
With all the words I apparently need to cut from The Paladin, I'm wondering if rewriting from scratch with the current manuscript as a guide is more advisable than a line by line edit. So much has to go to meet that word count cut off that I'm going to be losing a lot of little details, details that will kill proper continuity if they aren't managed correctly.

And yet, the prospect of rewriting the entire manuscript, word by word, chapter by chapter is daunting. It feels like so much time was or will be wasted. I know I can more or less copy and paste whole sections, but... I don't know. It's just discouraging to think of how many years I've been working on this, how many edits I've made, how many versions beta readers have gone through (and liked!) all to just start over with a blank page.

I know it's not like I'm losing the manuscript either way. All that work isn't gone and nothing is lost. But there's a psychological wall, a barrier that's hard to surmount in the form of a blank page. If this was a new story, I'd be jazzed at the blank page. But for the seventh time rewriting The Paladin, I just don't know. 

Really, this is all just a vent. One way or the other, I'm going to need to do some heavy word cutting and probably a decent amount of editing. That'll necessitate a whole new round of beta readers to make sure the version actually stands up. Which means if I decide on this route, it could be months or even a year before I send out my next query letter again.

But that's what I have to do, I suppose. I want to see this published and if agents won't look at it as is, I need to be ready to modify it. Does that mean I'm compromising something as an artist? I don't know. Edits are part of the process. They're good. No one worth their salt every put out a first draft. But I wonder if the Tolkien we read today was his seventh draft...

​DFTBA
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Matias Tautimez

    Keep your eyes open for my debut novel, The Paladin.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    August 2022
    May 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    November 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

About the Author

Contact

Writer's Blog

© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.