Magic word genie.

I've been trying to raise the ghost of Maxwell Perkins, but he ain't answering.

I suppose every writer hopes for the magic word genie, who will magically transform the raw material of the first draft into something amazing.

I mean, I've got a good editor in Lara, don't get me wrong.  But it is still up to me to make it a good book. 

There was a few days after Andy did the cover to Led to the Slaughter where I was amazingly effective in my re-writing.  Something started clicking and suddenly I was making some really nice changes.  Really shaped up the first third of the book.  The improvement was probably a combination of motivation and distance.

Then it faded, as it always does.

Thing is -- I can't wait around for those moments.  And sometimes those moments only come after struggle, after spending a long time trying to re-write brick by brick.  Just as I can't wait around for inspiration in the first draft, nor can I wait around in the 2nd or 3rd.

Anyway, I got half-way through the re-write of The Gold Spend No Gold, and bogged down.  Partly because I got a cold, but mostly because I just hit a wall, I think.  I think I need some time and distance to be effective.

I took the day off yesterday, and it felt good. 

I'm going to try to finish over the next three days, but I suspect a few chapters won't get done. Then family will be here for a week.

So I'm going to do what I can by Tuesday and then send the manuscript to my editor.  Give myself a month or a month and a half from looking at it at all.

My next goal is to do Faerylander again.  I think I'm reaching the point of diminishing returns with this book, but that all the time and hard work has paid off to some extent.  That is, it is a readable book now, where it wasn't before.  Beyond that, I can't say, because it has turned into Word-Jumble for me and once that happens I can't see it objectively at all.

When I've tested it with readers, they seem to think it is as good as anything else I've done.

Thing about Word-Jumble is -- sometimes it's fine or even good.  I just can't see it.  I just have to trust that the individual improvements add up to an overall improvement.  I love the premise, I love the characters, and I love a lot of the individual scenes -- and I've tried hard to make it all come together.  And each time I've tried, I've gotten closer.

But I'm at a point where I could fool around with it forever -- so it is probably when I should just pick a "Point in Time" and figure it's done and move on to the next thing.

I think that Point in Time is when I finish the next re-write, devoting a month to the process. 

I've probably spent at least a year and a half on this one book -- half of the overall time I've spent writing.  It was the first book coming back and I made a raft of mistakes which I've spent a lot of time trying to correct.

It was a necessary book.  The one that guided me back to what I wanted to do.  I think in the end it will be as good or better than my other books. 

But boy how I wish for the Magic Word Genie.