My first two novels, Under Shōko’s Bed and Neyuki, are waiting on editor feedback.  This has left me free to either work on one of my other novels or jump into something fresh.  I have been doing so much editing that I want to break out and start a new piece, but I also feel the weight of those other novels, so that remains my focus for now.  There is good content in each of the three, but they need major reworking.  I had been having a terrible time trying to lose myself in the work, and I finally realized it was because I had never done that sort of thing.  I have done big work on the first two novels, but I never had to reform them completely.  

For the first of the novels to reform, I chose a still untitled work that for now I simply call “Novel4.”  I wrote it a year ago as I was waiting for my editor to get to Under Shōko’s Bed.  In the time since then, two editors have been through Shōko, and the learning from those edits colors my reading of Novel4.  So many things I did not recognize as problems a year ago now jump out at me.  I have also grown through Tokyo Writers Workshop.  There are so many viewpoints and what I learn each month from the group is all fresh in my mind, especially recognition of my weaknesses.  Also, I am reading more.  I have mentioned before that reading has never been easy for me.  I find as I read now, though, I notice more what the writer is doing.  I see writers taking chances and doing things differently than I would have expected.  All this teaches me as well.

The big problem with Novel4 is that it needs to lose an entire character, even though she was the driver of major twists in the plot.  Re-plotting the novel was being a chore, when writing is supposed to be fun.  So I decided to stop pushing myself to have everything decided in advance.  I love the wonder of the story coming to me as I go.  Granted, it can be dangerous.  You can write yourself into a corner—or do what I did and create a cringeworthy relationship between two characters that would make the reader abandon the novel.  I am on more solid ground now, though, than I was a year ago.  So I have an idea of where the novel is going, I have last year’s content as a framework, and I have my imagination as I write new relationships into the novel.  It gets more interesting and exciting by the day!  I just wish I had the time to work through it faster.