The New Beginning

This is part of a series, 30 Days to A Stronger Novel

What do you do after you turn in your manuscript?

I love Sara Miller Holmes musings about this in-between time. She’s allowing herself to be empty and expect nothing else. She’s letting whims take her to new sections of the library. Allowing poetry to fill the empty spots. Living.

Read. Sometimes, in the heat of revision, I don’t read other novels. But then, like a starving person, I gorge on novels. I take in words and story, so I can give out again.

I go back to another novel that’s sitting forlorn in my drawer, one that I didn’t know how to revise, but I knew wasn’t ready to go out, either. I re-read it, play around with sentences, phrases, here and there. Have I lived long enough to be ready to tackle this one again?

Or, I play with voices and language and ideas. Is this the start of a new story?

Mostly, I trust that writing is a cyclical process, as Sara Holmes has said so eloquently. I will write again. I will revise again. Right now? I’m just living that full life. Waiting for a new beginning, a project that will grab my heart and not let me go.

And every time that phone rings, hope makes my heart skip a beat. . .

Clickhere for my RSS feed.

Click here to sign up for my occasional newsletter.

2 thoughts on “0

  1. Wow! After reading through “30 Days to a Stronger Novel”, I realize I am not to this point–The End or The New Beginning–yet (although I have sent out some query letters to agents). Now, I know I have a bit of tightening and re-working to do. Your site has been/is very helpful, Darcy. Thank you.

Comments are closed.

Previous post The end
Next post Get an Attitude!