Daily Archives: August 10, 2007

It’s Worth It

STARTING OVER

By Kitty Bucholtz

Last month, my agent gave me notes on my latest novel. I’d turned in what I thought was “the” book – it was funny, in a subgenre that was selling well, and most importantly, it was a story I loved with a passion. This was the book I thought would be my breakout work.

Instead, I’m going to have to do a page-one rewrite.

It’s embarrassing to admit, but the quick-to-be-emotional nature that helps me write romances brought a quick rush of tears at the news. I took a few deep breaths, washed my face and waited until the next day to think about it. I saw where my agent was coming from and agreed with her. But still, I was going to have to start over.

From the beginning.

My first thought was that I’d completely wasted a year of my life. My second was that if I’d known I would suck as a writer, I wouldn’t have spent last year in another country stuck in my tiny cockroach-infested apartment. I would’ve been out seeing the country!

My third thought went somewhere along the lines of “Get over it!” (I might not have been that nice though.)

My head agreed that the book would benefit from the changes. My heart wasn’t there yet.

It’s been a few weeks now and I’ve done a lot of brainstorming, taken pages and pages of new notes, and created a brand new (empty) file for the new version. A few days ago, I finally “got it.” The story is coming fast and furious now – and it’s so much better than the initial version that I don’t even know how to compare the two. And THAT is exciting!

Starting over is rarely easy – new book, new job, new home. But if you look for it, you’ll always be able to find something that makes you say, “It’s worth it.”

Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, she’s pretty sure she knows at least three people who aren’t writers.