Two Things Can Be True
Sometimes it’s hard to know where and when an idea that transforms your work – transforms your life, even – had its genesis.
Sometimes you can go back over your Google hangouts history and see exactly why you did that, laid out in black and white.
And then sometimes you decide it’s not embarrassing enough that you know; the rest of the world should know too.
No, this will not be about ‘the little death.’ Though actually, that’s not a bad way to describe it.
I feel like every writer has reached that point where they would give anything to be done with a certain project/draft/manuscript. The finish line is the goal! Having that final word count! Crossing off that final to do! Sending it off to betas or agents or publishers, or even just hitting post. It’s someone else’s problem now, baby.
But what comes after that? Naturally there’s the relief, the celebration, the smugness, the need to tweet gloatingly about it, but there’s also a special kind of emptiness that comes with it.
Rewriting is always an exercise in humility. It is also an exercise in wondering just what the hell past you was thinking, and often the answer is simple enough.
Continue reading “Lessons from a Dumbass: Rewriting a first novel”
Okay, weed brownie.
And okay, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with pot, or brownies. It has a lot to do with our manuscript for Kingdom of Rust, which we called Weed Brownie for like a month before we came up with a real title. It’s a pun! Because the character who deals weed is a fairy! Which is also known as a brownie! It’s hilarious.
This time last year we used November to finally edit and complete the manuscript for our first joint novel (…that’s not a pun either), Star Boys. This November, we’re in the exciting position to actually have a second manuscript, and an agency to review it! And you better believe they have opinions. Good opinions, natch.
So well ahead of NaNoWriMo – like, October 31st – we decided what better way to spend 30 days than responding to these opinions and revising the bejesus out of Kingdom of Rust, v1? We’re pretty hype for it, despite Megan currently being an incubus of viral plague and Denali having been oxygen-deprived and work-drunk in the mountains for a week.
Follow, exhort, and commiserate with us here.
Denali Stannard 