Rewrite: Five Stages
Rejection of hard-won words
No matter how gently given
Always feels grievous.
Grief has its stages:
Denial, Anger, Bargaining,
Depression and, finally, Acceptance.
So does major rewriting.
Honest readers told me:
You need to do it over.
I entered a process
Known only in retrospect,
After much gnashing and slogging.
Disbelief. Criticism is blind
To my true intention and execution.
Those readers aren’t like others.
Devaluation. It’s easy.
Give me an hour, a day.
Okay, a week or two.
Realization. Who, me?
Was I the careless one, or
Assumed success was automatic?
Concession, gradually, with grumbling.
A week becomes months
The end comes out of hiding.
Writing. Back to basics.
Character, plot, movement.
Satisfaction simply in that.
Will I avoid the same mistakes,
Now that I’ve named them?
Who cares? It worked!
Charles B. Neff
8/19/15
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I have just finished my latest… A sequel to a sequel. I only have one reader and she is ecstatic about the book, although I'm afraid that the earlier chapters may be too pedantic for those seeking thrills in the plot. I'm happier about the later chapters. Like you, this one has taken a lot longer to finish.
Good luck with your book. I hope it does very well.
Ron