Much of what I'm doing with this rewrite of "Faerylander" is removing all the overlying crust. It was as if I had a painting and I kept trying to fix it by adding more layers of paint, and now I'm removing those layers.

I think I was trying too hard to imbue the story with emotion and depth, and most of that doesn't work. Most of it should remain unspoken. Let the story tell the story.

There's a simple solution to bad writing: You don't try to fix it, you just remove it. Then if there is information that needs to be saved, you rewrite it from scratch. Most of the time, you find out you don't need it. That's why it's bad writing.

Managed another 10 pages. Again, I cut almost a full page of stuff that was false drama. I'm getting pretty bare bones. What's clear to me is that my writing is more evocative now than it was 6 years ago, mostly from practice, from learning to let myself write. I have the time to set this aside when I'm done, and come back to it, since I have at least 3 books lined up to be published.

I'm either going to tackle a rewrite of "Takeover" or of "Zombielander" next. Probably take me most of the rest of the year. The first third of "Takeover" was a narrative and POV experiment, that didn't quite work, especially compared to the last 2/3rds, which is a standard but comparatively well-written thriller.

Then do the rewrite of "Eden's Return."

I never know what I'll be in the mood for, so after that it's murky.