You would think I'd finish one meme before starting another, but no. Least I can do is get in one more word before answering Greg's five questions.

"E" word #8 is "editing." It should be "revision," but "revision" doesn't start with an e.

Editing is on my mind right now because I just finished rereading my one and only (so far) novel with an eye to doing a final pass and getting it out to sink or swim--no more futzing, no more fiddling, and either get me a sale and/or agent or not. I think it has a good enough foundation to be worth sending out so I don't want to let it just sit and do nothing, but I want to move on to another book.

It's been an interesting experience. I haven't read the book for a couple of years now and I've got enough distance to look at it fairly dispassionately. There are parts I'm pretty amazed I managed to write. Then there are parts that I recognize can be improved greatly. All well and good.

But it's also been a few years since I've written regularly, and I always have this icky period of wondering if I can still do this when I start writing again. (Always? You mean you've let the not-writing periods happen more than once? -- Yeah, well, long story....) And editing has been one of my bugaboos. For quite a few years I ground completely to a halt when I started editing during the initial draft, which is something everyone knows you shouldn't do (or at least figures it out pretty quick) but that a lot of people get stuck in. Then I got past that and discovered the joys of rewriting, but--it's been a few years. The joys of rewriting are joys I'll have to rediscover.

Maybe this word should have been "uncertainty," but that doesn't start with an e either.

Well, I have my list. I'm also going to go through a bunch of old comments I still have, and then I'll dive in. The best way to rediscover anything, I'd say.

In other news, I'm a great lesson in why you should have more than one story in inventory. I've been waiting for the final toc for a particular market to get pinned down. I don't think I got in, but I haven't gotten the official word, and it's driving me nuts. It's driving me nuts mainly because it's the only story I have out and I want to get it back out asap. I wouldn't be having this problem if it was one of many instead of just one.

Relearning how to be a writer, one step at a time. Life could be much worse.