The Big Re-Read

So every weekday this summer (except when I was away in Holland and then in Maine), I have been working on my boxing story. Yesterday, I finished the first draft. (Insert drum roll here!)

That means the Big Re-Read is officially underway.

Here's what the Big Re-Read means to me: pleasure and pain.

Pleasure happens when I read something I like. It mostly happens when my characters say cool stuff. Only for me, pain is a little more frequent at this stage. Pain happens when I read things that don't feel quite right. Pain also comes when I add more and more items to my "To Fix" list.

The one really good thing is: I've been through this process before. (That's what comes after you've published twelve books.) I am on intimate terms with both the pleasure and the pain. And I know that my "To Fix" list is going to be very long, and that slowly, slowly I'll check items off the list.

There is a Robert Frost line I love: "The only way out is through." That line applies to life itself -- especially in difficult circumstances. But for me, today, the line also applies as I begin the Big Re-Read and the Even Bigger Re-Write. 

You know what else I haven't told you? I'm a little sad not to be writing the first fresh draft anymore. I LOVE MY CHARACTERS IN THIS MANUSCRIPT. ESPECIALLY PRETTY BOY!!