Monday, May 26, 2008

The agony of the 'rewrite'

I've just realised that I'm going to have to trash about three-quarters of my sf ms Drift.

Of what I'd written, only about 25k is serviceable, due to my decision to rip out two major sub-plots.

I know that by simplifying the plot Drift will be a stronger book.

But still -- you think you're almost there, and then you realise that a lot of that work was for naught.

Oh well. The good news is that I get to make a whole heap of new stuff up, and this time with one eye on structure and the finished product!

2 comments:

Natalie Hatch said...

Gary I know how you're feeling, I've been editing now for a few weeks and each time I go back I rip more out, soon I'll have a novella!
Hope all goes well.
Natalie

Unknown said...

Thanks Natalie. I'm actually thinking I'm going to put the project on the backburner for a while. I can't get the science to work for me, which means starting from scratch.

So I'm trying to decide if that's the book I want to write anymore, or one of the other ideas I've had since.

(Meanwhile, I'm writing a collaborative crime thriller with two other writers, so I think I'll focus on that for the time being)