These are going to be boring blogs for a month or so--or at least, more boring than usual.

I'm rewriting "Fires of the Djinn." (The current favorite title, over "Lucifer's Forge.") I'm contemplating the tagline, "One terrorist, one match."  It's my firefighters versus terrorists thriller.

The dreaded rewrite. Linda says I should quit saying I "Hate" rewrites, because it makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy, but to me it's just confirmation.

The rewrites are absolutely necessary. Not only that, but they are part of my effort to improve my writing. Give the rewrite due consideration, lay out some time between finishing the first draft and rewriting to gain some perspective, and then systematically do the rewrite, giving it the time it needs.

Try not to ruin it.

I think the first draft is fun for me, but maybe not as fun for the reader. The second draft isn't fun for me, but probably produces a story that is more fun for the reader.

Managed 20 pages yesterday. That seems to be my limit, more or less, when I'm not just browsing. When I knuckle down. I set a goal of adding 5 "telling details" to each page, and I mostly did that.

I can see why the second chapter, which was originally the first chapter, didn't work. But it is totally necessary, so I've just got to try to make the characters more sympathetic and the action more interesting.

It has also become very clear to me that the introduction of the main villain needs to happen in the third chapter, not the seventh.

So...onward.