Thursday, October 13, 2005

Rewriting and revising

Ask any author what's the worst part of writing,
and I'll bet the answer is 'rewriting'.

I happen to hate that part of fiction writing.
Why? Because once you write 'The End', the work
is done, finished, complete - but it's not.
Your brain tells you you've finished. After all
you wrote 'The End'. But, in reality, there is
much that probably needs to be changed.

One of the things I have to guard against is
the continual use of one word. Then there's
words that are misspelled. Don't think a spell
checker catches all the spelling mistakes. Take
there and their. The checker doesn't know the
difference. And, in English, we have lots of words
like that. Not only does the author have to check
the overuse of words, but the misuse of words.

I hate it when I read something I've written and
realize one of the characters in the scene was
standing and I have them standing - again.
Names, descriptions, positions - they
all have to be checked. So, once you've written
'The End', your work has just begun.

Allison
"Simon's Brides" Available from
Wings-Press, Inc. in May of '06

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