August 2024 Writing Update

So, another month, another entry into the ever-growing log of my novel editing diary. But, you know, it’s online, so it’s a blog. Here we are. Since I met you last, website o website, some good stuff was found. Confusion and jumbling and shuffling took place. An entire chapter that I distinctly remember working hard on was nixed entirely. And then, shockingly, there was a chapter that just felt…right!

A spelling correction here and a rephrase there, but for the large part it was entirely untouched by my hands as my eyes gave it a second pass. At points I even wondered if perhaps mine own senses did deceive, because it felt like I was reading a novel. Not my novel. I felt like I was reading a real novel. And, I don’t know about other creatives, but there’s a distinct and different feeling between those two things in almost every endeavor I’ve ever pursued. It’s a hyper-awareness and maybe imagined, but there are brief and magical moments where I didn’t have this consciousness. In a way I felt proud of this, either for letting go of my own self-critical predisposition, or for writing something that actually felt pretty good. Anyway, hopefully there’s more of that to come. And hopefully I can get that feeling pretty consistently once draft two begins.

Because, in spite of all of this, there will for sure need to be a draft two. Somehow, some way, some day…