Now that I’ve let the book sit for a month, I am rediscovering things I’d forgotten. Evidently one night I woke up and typed, “Add a part where there is a dog named Miss Darcy and Maggie thinks it’s an actual person but it isn’t it’s a dog.”
I will not be adding that part. Darcy. Seriously, how on the nose.
It was interesting to review what I had with a critical eye. I haven’t done that since my college Literary Criticism course, when I’d skim a book, dog-ear the pages that seemed to follow a pattern, and then slap up an essay. This time I was the author and I was surprised to find patterns and themes I didn’t deliberately intend. Man vs nature is in there. (I’m a little disappointed I didn’t find a Christ figure in there too.)
Unfortunately, the critical eye led to the critical brain saying things like, “Oh this entire first act needs to be completely rewritten.” That was followed by a fun spurt of creativity, but if this continues I will finish draft two, let it sit, look at it with a critical eye, get creative, and then I’ll be stuck in a cycle until the end of my days.