Diving Back In (Soon...)

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

This month's optional question is: Many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you?

I suppose that depends on whether I think the work has the potential to be good or not. If I think I can't salvage something, I tend to avoid it. I don't delete it, of course, because who knows? I can always revisit it someday. 

One instance I can think of is when I was in college and needed a short story for a writing class, I used the first chapter of the book I started when I was fourteen. I wasn't sure if this story was abandoned for good, but I knew the way it was written wasn't going to work, so I wanted to give it a good send off by having people read it. I was really proud of the writing when I had first written it, but it was filled with such purple prose that I didn't think it would work for a whole novel. 

Rereading my work is actually going to come into play very soon. I wanted to be more ahead with my plan to get back into writing, however...I haven't really started yet. But that's ok! Right?

But if I want to get back into writing Uneven Lines, I think the first thing I need to do is to read what I have so far. Which is a lot, actually, since I only planned on writing one or two chapters on top of what I already have. Since I haven't worked on it in so long, I really need to familiarize myself with the story and the voice (which I do think will come back to me quickly once I get into it). 

I think this will be at times enjoyable, and at other times cringeworthy. I do think most of the book is really good and I wouldn't change all that much. I'll probably get sucked into it and fly through it. There are some parts though that I know need massive rewrites, particularly with one of the subplots. Part of why I've been avoiding the story for so long is that I haven't been able to figure out how to fix these parts that I know aren't working. But maybe since it's been so long that when I go back and reread it, the needed changes will be obvious. I can dream, right? 

I'm actually approaching the fifteen year anniversary of when I first started Uneven Lines on February 15. I do wish I had accomplished more in those fifteen years...maybe, I don't know, finishing the book and trying to get it published? Alas, that's not where I'm at and that's ok. I know if I had tried to force the book to be done all those years ago it wouldn't be the story that it needed to be. I did need a lot of time to develop the story from where it started. Fifteen years, though? Sheesh! 

I'm actually going to be in NYC on said anniversary, where the book takes place. What does this mean? I have no idea! Hubby and I are going out to dinner on Valentine's Day and then to a musical (it's not the same one I saw last time, I don't know why you would think that...). But I don't have any other plans set in stone so maybe I can go to some locations from the story or eat some food that's featured in it. Just anything to get the ideas going!