I’m happy to say that it’s been another decent week for productivity. I did manage to get some editing done most days, though my daily word counts have been a bit lower. That’s to be expected because I’m currently doing a full scene re-write, which continues to be the slow process of redirecting a river that I’ve described before. The good news is that I’ve done this kind of rewriting a few times now, so I’m starting to find some faith that I’ll get through it and that the story will be better for it in the end.  But writing a scene from scratch does result in a much lower daily word count than editing existing text, so I’m trying not to take the low numbers personally.

I continue to feel good about the rewrites though. I think the story is getting more streamlined, focusing better on the important bits. I’ve ratcheted up the tension and dropped more hints about things to come. One of my writing group members, who was an alpha reader and is now seeing the rewrites on a chapter-by-chapter basis, says I’m moving in the right direction. It’s all very encouraging stuff for me.

I even think I’ve mostly figured out how to fix the main problems people pointed out with the ending. The details are still lacking, but I at least have the basic shape of it. Which, let’s be honest, is par for the course for me. The whole book was nothing but a basic shape when I started. So I believe I’ll be able to figure out the details when I get to them. There’s one main piece of that puzzle I haven’t quite figured out yet, but I know my brain is working on it somewhere in the depths of my subconscious. The right path forward will find me when I need it, I’m sure.

Another good sign about my rewrites is that I’m getting excited to share them with the writing group. The first couple of times I shared chapters I kind of dreaded doing so, because while I didn’t know then what needed to be fixed, I definitely knew there was a lot of work ahead of me. It was scary and intimidating to share with that dread hanging over me.

With the rewrites underway, I still know there’s work ahead of me, but it’s a much less intimidating level of work. The notes I’m getting back on the rewritten chapters are much less extensive than those first few pre-rewrite chapters. They’re smaller, easily handled points. Now rather than dreading the work ahead of me, I can take delight in watching how the things I’m writing are hitting people. My favourite part is listening to their predictions of what’s going to happen. It’s truly joyous to see the emotions and reactions my writing is triggering in readers. I’m really hoping that sometime next year, I’m going to be able to share it with a wider audience. Fingers crossed.

On the topic of sharing with a wider audience, I want to take a moment to shine what little spotlight I have on the work of one of my friends, Don Miasek. He’s an important contributor to the Toronto Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers group, and a writer of fantastic, clever sci-fi. I always love reading the work he shares with the group. His debut novel, Pale Grey Dot, is launching May 15 from Bakka Phoenix Books and you can pre-order it here. You can also read the first chapter of it here. I highly recommend checking it out, and you get to support a Canadian author and a Canadian publisher at the same time. What’s not to love about that?