Yesterday, I finally finished work on the endless second draft of middle grade manuscript that has been three years in the making. The first draft was completed over two years ago, and then it sat on my desk collecting dust. Late last spring, I picked it up and decided to give it a read. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed what was there, but also realized it needed a lot of work. Feeling motivated, I dove in.
Besides the basic storyline and characters, this was nearly a complete rewrite. While the skeleton stayed intact, the other layers were reconstructed to give the story more depth, more heart, and more adventure. The resulting tally:
180 pages added (40 original pages deleted), bringing it 345 pages.
3 minor characters added
2 major storylines dropped
4 major storylines added
The next step is to read through the new manuscript and see how it feels. But I'm keeping positive. There is a lot of imagination, and a lot of work, put into this story. It involves fairy tales, secret universes, Pandora's box, giant spiders, ghouls, a slave rebellion, ancient curses, first love, two-headed Sirens, pesky little siblings, and one kick-ass twelve year old girl named Sylvie who is destined to save the world. What more could you ask for?
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