Writing vs Re-Writing

What I love about being a writer is that no matter how long you do it, you will always be learning. And I enjoy that I get to continually learn things that help me improve my craft or open me up to things I hadn’t considered before. One thing I recently learned about myself was how I feel about writing something new versus re-vising something old.

And I have to say, I think I prefer writing something new!

It’s easier because with a new project I am starting from the place I am currently at in regard to my writing skills. When it comes to revising something I wrote years ago, I’ve realized that it is extremely challenging. I can see what can be improved, but it’s not always easy to find a starting point and do the work that’s needed. I’ve found it to be very daunting to take an older work and bring it up to my current standard. It’s a rather slow and meticulous process, as it should be, and its often two-fold. I want to improve on the writing style as well as the story structure.

Writing style? Basically aesthetics. I want to make the prose prettier, refresh how I describe things, go deeper with emotional arcs, and so on. With story structure I have to think about if I want to keep the plot the way it is or if I want to make changes. Sometimes those changes are minimal, sometimes it involves completely restructuring something which has a ripple affect throughout the entire piece. But I rely on my instincts to make sure I am doing what’s best for the revision.

Before I tackled revising an older piece I might have thought it would be easier because I’d be working with an already completed story and there wouldn’t be the usual frustrations there are when you’re building a new project from the ground up. After doing so, well, I certainly understand how challenging a revision can be. The frustrations are different but they’re there. It is however, very rewarding once you’ve put in the work and have breathed new life into a project. I feel much better about my capabilities with re-writing now that I’ve done it.

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MAGIC CORRUPTS, MAGIC CONQUERS

What if the world changed overnight…and it was all because of you?

All Pennrae wanted to do was to help. Now she’s found herself in a world that’s been instantaneously transformed by magic…that she brought back. She’s gone from a simple karate instructor to an instant celebrity—and she hates it. Fortunately, she has her friends, her beloved magic companion, and one ridiculously hot boyfriend.

But a sudden, unprompted attack in broad daylight is about to make Penn’s life even more complicated. An ancient forest guardian known as a Kiabi—a warrior of magic and almost impossible to defeat—has marked Penn to die. The attack at first seems incidental and unprovoked…until she discovers the true cause. Her. Penn may have saved the world, but her actions have set a chain of events in motion. In one brief moment, something dark, terrible, and older than time itself found an opportunity to escape, to free itself from the guardians and mark Pennrae as its enemy. Now the world and everyone she loves face a gruesome fate unless Penn can unleash the full force of her Divine magic…

The Warrior of the Divine Sword series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Magic Dark, Magic Divine
Book #2 Magic Corrupts, Magic Conquers