In case anyone’s curious, I’ve gotten feedback on my manuscript from both my agent and (most of) my workshop. I’m still waiting on a couple of opinions which really matter to me, and for this reason I’ve been reticent to attempt any re-writing. I’m waiting until all the science is in, to use a climate-denier phrase.

That said, I’m slowly growing more excited about the process. Everyone has a slightly different take on the book, but the good news is that they all enjoyed it (if for different reasons). It’s tough to reconcile all those opinions and desires and nagging questions, and I feel like I’m cooking vegan, kosher, and hypo-allergenic all in the same dish. But I know that the flavour is in there, waiting to be sweated out, and eventually everything will approach some semblance of cohesion. I think the first step might be re-reading it and making notes for myself, but not touching anything. It’s very hard for me not to fix and tweak as I go, but in this case I think I’ll have to sit on my hands. I’m not even sure I’ve read the whole thing in one go, before. I wrote it in isolated chapters, and at one point I went back and edited and re-wrote from the very beginning. I think the manuscript benefited from that, so in theory doing the same thing all over again with a more focused and informed mindset should help.

Still. I could screw it up.

In the meantime, there’s an absurd amount of homework to do. Seriously.