Friday, November 18, 2016

Revising Old Manuscripts

Ever since I had a R and R (revise and resubmit) offer from an editor last month, I have been on cloud nine. With that editor’s insightful and helpful feedback, I have attacked my manuscript with gusto and am revising it with a whole lot of enthusiasm. When you know what exactly to fix in your story, revisions become a cakewalk.

Infact, after that particular editor’s comments on one manuscript, I’m rewriting all my stories from the past one month. You can even say that I’m on a revising old manuscripts road trip. I’ve literally pulled out all my earlier written work:  be it middle grade or picture books, and am tweaking them slowly, chapter by chapter. The result is pretty decent (atleast I think so).

I feel that it’s not just important for writers to write more and more, but also to go back, atleast once, and rework/rewrite previously written stories. As the more we write and read other people’s books, the more we can see the faults in our own work. With this new writing wisdom, it becomes easier to tackle and revamp older manuscripts which now occupy space inside our laptops.

I tweaked two picture books a couple of days back and sent it to an editor and hopefully the middle grade manuscript too will leave my computer by the end of the month.

Do you revisit your previously written stories? Or do you forget about them and move on to the newer ones?



Wednesday, November 2, 2016

IWSG Post – My Favourite Aspect of Being a Writer

This will be the second last IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) post of 2016. Whoosh! The year has hurtled past, leaving barely two months in which I’ve scramble around finishing my writing and reading goals.

I sometimes wonder how did Ninja Captain Alex J Cavanaugh (author of the Amazon Bestsellers: CassaStar, CassaStorm, CassaFire and Dragon of the Stars), start this amazing online group for writers.

IWSG members post on the first Wednesday of every month. In our posts we discuss our writing insecurities, anxieties, worries and learn from other writers who are at different stages of their publishing journey. There is a wealth of information on the IWSG website.

I love the idea of IWSG members answering a question in their blog post. This has made it so easy for me (as well as many others) as I sometimes run out of topics to blog about. Now all that I’ve to do is to answer the question for the month and my post is ready.

November 2nd Question: What is your favourite aspect of being a writer?

My favourite aspect of being a writer is being able to live my fantasies through my stories. Many times my characters do the things that I’m unable to do, they visit the places I’ll never be able to visit. And I also like the idea that I’m entertaining readers through my words.

I’m eager to read what is your favourite aspect of being a writer?