Sculpting a Manuscript

​I’m in that deep grind of re-writing. Polishing people so they make sense and harrowing out the inconsistencies in their characters. It’s tedious.

When I come to a fork in the story – should I dig deeper or cut the whole damn paragraph? No one will know. Except me and a couple of my characters. Sigh.

Thank God for the find/replace feature. I can change the where, when, who with just the stroke of a key.

What was it like to edit back in the dark ages of the typewriter? I have to wonder if there aren’t a few books out there that could have been even better if only it wasn’t such a chore to use that back space/eraser ribbon combo.

Sometimes I feel too lazy to make a change and it would only take me a few seconds, why would a writer bother if it would mean hours (even days) of re-typing?

I think of this phase of the writing as sculpting. It’s finding the David amongst the lump of clay. Carving away what is unnecessary, sometimes with a fine-tip brush and occasionally with a chisel.

It is exciting to see what ultimately rises from the mess and chaos of editing.

I’m nearing the end of what I can do, but still loving the story and the characters I’m crafting. I will miss them when it’s time to hit the ‘send’ button.

I need to get it right because once I release them into the wilds of the publishing journey, you never know what might happen.

Speaking of which, Story Plant (my publisher) has just begun a new venture. They’re adding a Media division to turn their books into plays, musicals, and movies. If you’d like to hear all about it, check out this Indiegogo campaign video:
 
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/story-plant-media-chapter-1#/ 

#editing #amwriting #manuscriptsculpting #write

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