Revision time!

Hooray -- I finally heard back from Rider magazine regarding the Haines Highway article I sent them in October!

They've decided not to use the piece....but this is still a good thing. It means that I can get to work on revising it and sending it out to other publications. I was sort of trapped in limbo while waiting to hear back from Rider, since I couldn't offer it somewhere else if Rider decided to buy it.

But! Now I'm back to square one with it, and with the kickass added benefit of six months of simmer time. It's almost impossible for me to edit pieces really objectively right after I've written them (I think this is hard for most writers).

Six months later, though, and I'm ready to attack it, to separate the wheat from the chaff. Time to get rid of those words that seemed oh-so-important at the time but really don't move the story along -- a process that writers from Hemingway to Stephen King have wonderfully dubbed "killing your darlings".

You know, I've even heard that phrase attributed to Faulkner. That frightens me, given what I remember of reading Faulkner in high school. I don't remember him as being particularly concise.

Comments

[Stephanie]

Guh, I hate revisions. Concise is the current style though; not only does flowery language sound odd these days, but most editors have to pay by the word.

What I think you really need is a refresher on the Haines Highway...
I get out of classes in late May. ;)