More than 30 years ago I began writing Tula, a story about growing up in Beaver, Utah. I used an electric typewriter and worked a whole summer on developing different adventures for Tula every day. Way led on to way, life happened, we moved, and with one thing and another, laid Tula aside.
Three years ago, in the summer of 2008, I went searching for Tula in the file, the boxes, the carryall. Couldn't find her. But I did find notes of subjects I wrote about as well as a list of others I intended to write about. So I broke them out and set to seriously writing about Tula again.
That summer I went to a writers' conference and came away eager to return to Tula and her adventures. Almost a year later I had 100,000 words which I passed out to a few friends who graciously read them, responded quite positively, but were certainly not jumping up and down for joy.
I wasn't far enough along to seek publication and had to set Tula aside again because of commitments I made to a year-and-a-half project abroad.
In August of 2010 I returned and picked up Tula. With my computer and a shorter wait in between, she was easier to find this time. I poured over all 100,000 words and found her dull, uninteresting, downright boring. No wonder my friends had not been greatly enthusiastic! I wasn't either.
A few weeks later I decided--against all advice from the writers' conference--to change Tula's point of view from third person to first person. Suddenly she came alive.
The work was just like starting over. Changing point of view isn't just adjusting the verbs. It is insights, feeling, fears, hopes, dreams, as well as conversations and relationships. Working nearly every day it took me almost 8 months to get Tula into first person.
That's the project finished this week.
All eight months of rewriting I knew she was stronger, more interesting, more delightful.
Just to check out my thinking I farmed the finished manuscript out to four friends to read. The reviews were positive, delightful, "couldn't put it down" types of comments. I wanted to dance like Snoopy on his doghouse!
This time I'm moving on to the next step. No matter what else happens, I learned a great deal more about writing and I finished! That makes the whole thing sweeter this time.
Hurrah for finishing!
Three years ago, in the summer of 2008, I went searching for Tula in the file, the boxes, the carryall. Couldn't find her. But I did find notes of subjects I wrote about as well as a list of others I intended to write about. So I broke them out and set to seriously writing about Tula again.
That summer I went to a writers' conference and came away eager to return to Tula and her adventures. Almost a year later I had 100,000 words which I passed out to a few friends who graciously read them, responded quite positively, but were certainly not jumping up and down for joy.
I wasn't far enough along to seek publication and had to set Tula aside again because of commitments I made to a year-and-a-half project abroad.
In August of 2010 I returned and picked up Tula. With my computer and a shorter wait in between, she was easier to find this time. I poured over all 100,000 words and found her dull, uninteresting, downright boring. No wonder my friends had not been greatly enthusiastic! I wasn't either.
A few weeks later I decided--against all advice from the writers' conference--to change Tula's point of view from third person to first person. Suddenly she came alive.
The work was just like starting over. Changing point of view isn't just adjusting the verbs. It is insights, feeling, fears, hopes, dreams, as well as conversations and relationships. Working nearly every day it took me almost 8 months to get Tula into first person.
That's the project finished this week.
All eight months of rewriting I knew she was stronger, more interesting, more delightful.
Just to check out my thinking I farmed the finished manuscript out to four friends to read. The reviews were positive, delightful, "couldn't put it down" types of comments. I wanted to dance like Snoopy on his doghouse!
This time I'm moving on to the next step. No matter what else happens, I learned a great deal more about writing and I finished! That makes the whole thing sweeter this time.
Hurrah for finishing!
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