I made it 1/3 of the way through my edits yesterday. about 25k words in. I’m adding more. Still. Which is funny because a lot of the stuff I’m adding is stuff I should have added two rounds ago. Explanation, reality. But each time I read through this story, I see more where I tried to keep old stuff just because I liked it, even though it doesn’t actually fit in this new version.

Oh! Tangent. A huge *hug* and thank you to Jessica Lei for your feedback on my pitch yesterday. I read your comment over and over and it all made perfect sense. You highlighted things I wasn’t certain about but couldn’t articulate, and you rock and I will probably take you up on your offer and e-mail you the updated one. Everyone go visit Jessica because she’s awesomeness frosted and writes a great blog ^_^

/tangent

Back to revisions. Pouring over some early feedback, as well as Jessica’s comments on my pitch, really helped me solidify how this story needs to end. I still like what I came up with over the weekend, but knew it wasn’t fleshed out. Last night I was drifting in and out of sleep and it all started to congeal in my brain. And it turns out this morning, it wasn’t in a bad, hazy, sleep-induced manner that turns out to not be brilliant when you wake up.

So on Monday I was really concerned that I had burned out on this story a week too early. I’ve managed (somehow) to learn to relove it, at least for the next five days. I’m not certain how I pulled that off, but I honestly think it had to do with constructive feedback. Not the kind that’s all glow, or the kind that’s all advice, but something somewhere in the middle that sounded like “This is good, I really like it, I have some suggestions.”

The first draft was for me. Revisions are in the hopes that someone else will want to read it. Knowing that’s true helps put a lot in perspective.

What reenvigorates you when you’ve fallen out of love with a story?