It's perfect. No, it's not. It's perfect. No, it's not. Sounds like I'm plucking petals off a daisy, but what I'm really doing is moving from draft to draft of my novel. I finished the last draft on September 16th. Yesterday, October 26th, I started the next draft.
I thought my last draft was pretty good. Then I started on the current draft. I've read if you're writing a magazine article, you should put it aside for a week and then come back to it and read it again with "fresh eyes." Why this is true, I don't know, but it IS true. I set that novel aside for a month, and I'm amazed at what I see today. A well-to-do character turns off the engine and sits in her car for 20 minutes . . . on a hot day in June? Did I really have the same character touch another character's shoulder three times in the same chapter? Ugh.
So, if you're writing something, anything, then please do this favor for yourself: don't mail or e-mail it to an editor right away. Set the piece aside for at least a week and then re-read it. If you've written a novel, set it aside for at least two weeks, preferably a month. No matter how perfect you think it is, you'll be astonished what you'll find.
Edit on, fellow writers!
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