improvement with time

[eimarra]

It sounds so lovely. We get better with practice. The more we write, the more we edit, the better we get.

It has its downside, though.

Earlier this year, I edited (rather too quickly, I'd say) my 2004 NaNo project, Christmas Tree Farm Murders. Both Val and bonniers critted it for me.

Five years.

Having read through both of their crits, I can say that the best option for this book might be to start a new file and rewrite it from scratch. I've improved a lot in the past five years, and a new draft would need a lot less work than the editing that the current one needs.

I find this depressing. Not that I've improved -- that's good. But I've already written this, and I don't want to start over. So am I better served chopping it to bits and effectively rewriting each scene and adding new ones anyway, redrafting it from scratch, or moving on to something else entirely?

I don't know.

No decision will be made this week. I was, however, planning to edit for October. If I'm not working on Christmas Tree Farm, I suppose that means diving into the hard work for Pepper's edit. At least that's only two years old.

Edit: For the record, I'm not complaining about their crits. They were both spot on.

Comments

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's an interesting perspective on the differences. I often feel the opposite -- editing seems like a smaller task because it's all tied to what's already there, whereas new writing requires venturing out into unknown territory.