Why Rewrite the First Novel?

The day I bought Vellum, a book-formatting software, two thoughts emerged. First, I jumped for joy at the prospect of formatting any future books because my dear friend, Darla, has done it free of charge for three books! (Thank you, D) Second, now that I understood how to create publishable manuscripts, my first novel was due for an upgrade.

When I wrote “Breaking,” it was a heavy enough lift to conjure a complex, interesting story that would hold readers’ attention. I wrote as I spoke (a typical broadcast habit), and my language didn’t always translate succinctly to the page. My words sounded good coming from my mouth, but they were not always ideal for a reader’s eye. I can look at that first novel and see countless examples where I wrote something like “Bekka started toward the garage,” which should be “Bekka walked to the garage.” She didn’t start toward it. Or “She eased her body toward the dumpster.” Doesn’t “she moved to the dumpster” sound better? And you could start a drinking game with how many times I wrote: “Silence hung in the air between them.” If I had written it one time, fine. I probably used it a dozen times. Cringe!

So I began the painstaking process of rewriting the book. The first revised draft emerged

fairly quickly, but then I wanted to fix some extra spaces that landed in the wrong spots. I used the Find/Replace tool, which removes anything from a manuscript (even an extra 1200 spaces) and replaces it with a single space. Lord, y’all! Did I screw that up?! Because I asked the software to remove the extra space near the quotation marks, it gave me absolutely no spaces where I truly needed them at the beginning of a sentence. Suffice it to say, I spent hours fixing my issue.

But alas, the new “Breaking: Visions of Murder” is up and is definitely a tighter read. Whew! I also played with Canva and created a sexy new cover that is more in line with the overall theme of the series. Let me know what you think.

Now, I need to get writing on a fourth book, especially with the formatting software at my fingertips. Should I stick with Bekka’s story (especially given the crazy ending of Wrecked)? Or start something completely new? Send me an email at lissa81064@gmail.com with your opinion.