My friend Nick Palmer has spotlighted me over on his excellent blog (it’s kept much more regularly than this one). I sent over the story a while ago, so glancing over it again at a distance of time is an interesting thing. For example, I notice a paragraph that exists somewhere between two different drafts of the idea, and needs renovating. It’s not just mistakes, though. Once you put some time between yourself and your work it turns into something else, written by someone else (since we’re always changing, you will not be the same person who wrote it when re-reading it three months later). It lets the writing stand on its own terms, rather than be simply you on a page, and, since the text is under your control, you can shape it into something better, take ownership of it again. Eventually, though, you have to leave it be, and the story becomes its own thing, disassociated from you. It’s an interesting process.
Hope you enjoy it, anyway, and be sure to keep an eye on Nick’s blog, it’s a cracking read.
jamesdavidward.com 