Rewrites

So, after a relatively quiet weekend, it's back to work. The pool guy's coming sometime this morning to replace the filter pump, which died on Saturday. Fortunately, we could still use the pool (actually, the woman from the pool co. told us it'd be good to use it as much as possible, to keep the water moving) but, on the other hand, it needed to be skimmed every ten minutes. It's amazing how quickly those suicidal bugs can drown themselves.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't entirely cooperate. Beautiful in the morning, black as pitch by the time I was ready to go in the water. We'd get in, it'd thunder, we'd get back out. It would get all windy and loud - and then pass and the skies would be blue again. Talk about weird weather.

The tomatoes are doing beautifully - except I have this plant tied up all over the place because it's got a weird shape and one very thick branch looks like it might snap off because it's growing out instead of up. So, I have it staked, and then tied (with very colorful yarn, no less) - it's crazy. But if the tomatoes ever ripen, it will be soooo worth it...

But I digress. I actually wanted to do a post on major rewrites and how much I dread them... until I'm actually doing them. Funny, but what starts out as a "I can't believe I have to rewrite x amount of pages," or "I have to change x, so now I'll have to rewrite y and z as well" becomes "Oh. Look at that. I'm done. Hmmm."

So my current WIP is just about finished - which is good because I want to have it in my editor's hands by the end of this week or - at the very latest - the beginning of next week. But there is one huge chunk that needs to be rewritten. The first love scene between the hero and heroine. I like it, but I think it's a bit... out there... Not that it couldn't have happened in real life, but I'm just not so sure it would. And the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable the setting was and the less I can see anyone wanted to fool around on it.

But changing that one scene will slightly alter the rest of the book - so it'll be a bit involved once I get there. Right now, I'm tightening up the earlier scenes, which is a piece of cake compared to that one lousy love scene.

And then, off it goes. And then I wait. And chew my nails. And dread my editor's response. Hmmm... facing possible rejection - sounds like a good topic for tomorrow, don't you think?