Starting Point

Finished the rough for my first novel and have been diligently working on revising it. Revising teaches me the most. King mentioned in his book on writing that good things started to happen with his work when he started using a revision formula calling for deleting ten percent of the words.

To revise I start with a complete copy. That leaves the original untouched in case I go too far in cutting. Then I revise the copy. Each time through at the bottom of the page I keep a word count. When I get done after a dozen or more times through the chapter, at the bottom is a chain of word counts. At first it is difficult to cut words but my counts show that as I go along it gets easier.

Unlike many people, I had no burning desire to write a novel. No story in mind that I had been turning over in my mind for years. Although I am happy that the novel is done and take pride in having completed it, no amount of revising will make it anything more than a beginning. Right now with a little more research, I will be ready to tell the story, to start writing the novel. After revising all the chapters, will I start on writing it again? Not until it rests for awhile and I walk the ground of the story and ride its waters.

Every morning the creative writing is a short story rough, about one a week. Out of the best, one will be chosen to revise.