Manuscript finished?
So here we are. With the manuscript finished for Book 1 of the Legacy of Leithu, I am now working through the miserable experience of the rewrite for draft 2-2.5. It’s more like draft 12 of The Exceptional Trunk, though. I got caught up in the editing-while-writing loop many years ago. However, once I get past the first 1/4 of the book, it’s all fresh and new from these past few months.
I am faced with the process of driving through the full manuscript. While reading it again, I ponder the characters‘ motives, ‘Would Cassie say this? Would Evan do that? I have to reformat my brain with the new knowledge of the fully developed story, timeline, events, characters, and such, and weave tighter patterns within the story. Not to mention the very enjoyable task of cleaning up the information drops.
I know it’s worth it, and it will make the whole thing that much better. However, it doesn’t make it any less of an undertaking. And in the end, I’m wondering the true, overarching question of it all… Are the readers as pedantic as I am? I look at a passage in chapter 9 and ask, ‘Did they put that item in this location in the bag?’. I review where we last saw the bag and the item, and verify where it was placed. Is this being pedantic, or creating continuity? Consistency? I know it’s worth it to make sure everything is in its place, but DAAMN… It’s a lot to keep track of.
