Coming back to a story

Hi everyone,

It never fails to surprise me how many changes I find to make when I return to a story that I haven’t read for a while. Everyone who writes has experienced this. No matter hard you work on a manuscript and polish it until you can see your face in it, put it away for six months or a year and you’ll wonder why you ever thought it was finished.

I “finished” a long story a year ago and now I’m revising it page by page and, of course, loving each new change. Goodness knows what I’ll think of these brilliant improvements a year from now. I think it was Mark Twain who said, “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” But in some cases, it also involves putting in the right ones.

Everything old is new again

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I discovered an old story buried in a file. It’s so old I don’t have it on my computer. I read it, remembered it, and liked it. According to my journal, I wrote it thirteen years ago, sent it out once in 2002, once in 2004, twice in 2005, and stopped. What a quitter I am!

I have no business tormenting an old yarn trying to sleep it off in a drawer, especially when I have other stuff with deadlines attached. But I can be so weak! I’m probably wasting time but just a few more tucks here and there and . . . who knows?

Sandy Asher, I know you recently returned to tales of the past and turned some of them into cash. So I hope you’ll understand and approve of my irresponsibility.

David