Daily Archives: September 5, 2022

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Rewrite Retreat

September 5, 2022 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed

Happy September and Happy Labor Day.

Last month I did something I have never done before…a writing retreat. I did this because I needed to rewrite my November release. I wrote this series several years ago, when I was just starting my writing career. My writing style changed and the characters needed to be seasoned.

Most of the characters I write are Christian and are figuring out life while loving God. However, this series needed a lot of work. The story sounded a little preachy and that’s not what I wanted.

I had a 100K plus word book that was horribly written and incomplete. When I put this book on my production schedule for this year. I thought it just needed to be cleaned up. I had no idea it needed to be rewritten.

I took a break from my last project before starting on this one. Once I started reading to refresh my memory. I realized I was going to need more time to complete it. I pushed the release date out as fas as I could…November 29th. I’m not exactly pleased with the release date, but I’ve got no choice. I’m releasing a non-holiday romance during the holiday season.

How did I do with my writing retreat? I ended the week a few words short of 40K. I missed my goal of 60-65K words, but I was pleased with what I accomplished.

So here I am at the midnight hour trying to finish my book. The original book had some good parts which I was able to use. Let me clarify. Although the original book in its entirety wasn’t good, I still wanted to use the core story. When I made the decision, to do a major rewrite, it opened the door to a new ending and the possibility of another book. Or maybe a spin off for one of the characters.

The other thing I’m doing I probably shouldn’t is add to the series without reading the previous books. I know this isn’t very wise, but I was able to get away with it, because the book isn’t really a continuation, but more of a connected book. Not reading the other books in the series may not seem like the smartest thing to do, but only time will tell.

I was a little concerned about the word count because I’m close to 100K words. Then I checked the other books and was reminded they are 90K+, which made me feel a lot better about the word count.

As of this post, I am 3300+ words away from the end. I set a goal of today to complete the book and begin the first round of edits. Let’s see what happens.