Well, I got some interesting comments from readers about rewriting. Kim said she prefers working on a first draft, and that sometimes, during rewrites, she feels like trashing whatever she's working on. Rosa wrote about how she enjoys the crafting involved in rewriting. I'm somewhere between you two, though perhaps I lean a little more towards Kim's point of view -- and yes occasionally I feel tempted to scrap my efforts!! The first draft can be scary, but there are so many possibilities, which always feels exciting to me. And the rewrite, well, it's just plain hard work. But it is true that once you've had a break from a project, you can see it with clearer eyes. Another thing I've found is that thinking about the rewrite is always worse than doing it. Maybe a lot of difficult tasks in life are like that. It's the thinking about them beforehand that gets us down.
So I'm about 18 pages into the rewrite. Did I tell you I have until Valentine's Day to get it done? If possible, I'd like to finish ahead of schedule. Does mean I'll have to guard my writing time like a mother bear looking after her cubs!
School starts on Monday and so I'll be shifting gears. Tomorrow, I am going to meet students at St. Willibrod Elementary School in Chateauguay together with my photographer friend Monique Dykstra. We're going to be helping the students write a little book about their community. This is part of a project called Quebec Roots, sponsored by the Blue Metropolis literary foundation. I'll be out for a good part of the day working on that, but I'll do my best to check in on this blog when I get home. Talk to you then! Hope you're having a good day wherever you are!!