I'm back! It was a long winter and I'm not going into a lot of personal detail here.
Suffice it to say I've spent most of the last three months rewriting!
I've won the rights to Dromfrangil back and am really hoping to get the story republished again.
So I've been doing some heavy rewriting.
Honestly, what I've discovered is that it really was nt my best work and wasn't publishing ready to begin with. Over the last three months, I have gone through it three times, and the majority of the story has been completely rewritten.
It's got a new title (the one I originally wanted) the name of the world is different, and I really feel like the writing is cleaner and better. The story itself needed a lot of work.
My advice is to always take the time to go through your work several times. Check your grammar, tighten up phrasing, then really read your story and see if it is as solid as you want it to be. Don't be afraid to change details even if it means adding work for yourself.
I had to delete and rewrite entire sections during each draft. I also decided to spice up the story, and when I did, I had to alter what characters were doing and when they showed up. That meant rereading the whole book as I edited and rewriting the sections where those characters appeared or interacted with other characters.
Last, get eyes on your 'final' draft, when you think you're done. Get feedback. It's important to hear what others think and if you can improve the book more than you thought you already did. You want your readers to enjoy the story and ensure there aren't places that will pull them out of the story or that they don't care for, particularly if it's more than one of your beta readers. If it's several of them telling you they are dissatisfied with something, take a look at it and make adjustments.
Rewriting can be tedious. But if you want your book to be as appealing as possible when you're ready to query, it's important. The draft I'm wuerying right now is my eighth draft, and I'm really hoping it's good enough. I'm prepared for the possibility that if someone is interested in it, I might have to delve back in for some changes to meet requests.
Buckle up! Write your novel. The first draft will be rough, and probably terrible. You'll look back after all the rewrites and drafts and wonder how you ever thought it was a good novel to begin with. But when you get done with the rewriting process, you'll have a polished work to be proud of.
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