Meredith Mansfield, Author

Woo Hoo!  I finally typed “The End” at the bottom of BLOOD IS THICKER.

It’s very strange. I enjoyed writing the first two-thirds of that story, but the last third was like pulling teeth. I felt like I had to carve every word out of granite.  I’m sure that’s a sign that the story went seriously off track somewhere. I’ll have to figure it out and fix it.

The good news is: I don’t have to do that right away. In fact, I shouldn’t even try to do it soon. What I need to do is let it rest for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Rest, I’ve come to believe, is one of the least appreciated steps in writing. When you finish a story of any length and you’re so totally in love with it that you can’t see it’s flaws–or when you hate the last third and can’t stand to look at it anymore–that’s the precisely worst time to start the revisions. You have to give yourself time to come back to it without those preconceptions.

I always give myself about a month from completion of the first draft before I start revisions. (I’m in the middle of the second draft of MAGIC’S FOOL right now and it’s going swimmingly.) I generally have an enforced rest again while the story is out to beta readers.

I’ve also come to the conclusion over the last year that that’s not enough. When I really think the story is finished and polished and ready to go, I need to take another break. A longer one, maybe as long as six months, before I start sending it out.

That’s very hard to do at first. A little easier when you have more than one story in the pipeline.

That’s why I’ve been letting SEVEN STARS rest for so long after I finished with the last set of revisions. I’m aiming to open that back up and reread it in another month or so. If I fall in love with it all over again, well, that will be a very good sign.