Talkin' To Felicity

Me: Hey.

Felicity (not looking up from her e-reader): Sup

Me: Want to hear the latest about Moonfire?

Felicity (still not looking up): What the heck is "Moonfire"?

Me: You know, Mystery of the Moonfire. The second book. I announced the title, like, a month ago.

Felicity: Good for you.

Me: Okay. So anyway, remember how I scrapped the last draft and started over?

Felicity: Sure, why not.

Me: Well, now I'm back up to the same point that I was at before - about 17,000 words - and this time, I read them back again, and guess what?

Felicity:

Me: I really liked them. You know how sometimes you get that cool, giddy feeling when something you've created - like in your case, a song, or whatever - just really works, and you think, "Okay, yeah now that's what I'm talking about"?

Felicity (takes sip of diet soda):

Me: I got that feeling last night! I had a hunch as I was writing the new draft that it was going much better this time around, because now I'm working from a carefully thought-out outline, but I wasn't totally sure until I sat down last night and read the whole thing through once more.

Felicity (yawning): Awesome. You should throw a party or something.

Me: Oh, uh - well, I am, but that's for something different. Anyway, what's cool is that not only does the book flow a lot better now, but I was able to incorporate some of my favorite pieces from the previous draft. You know that expression "kill your darlings"? About getting rid of lines of prose that you love, but don't really work for your story?

Felicity: Anyone ever tell you that you ask a lot of questions?

Me: There were a bunch of darlings in the previous draft that I thought may be gone forever because they wouldn't make sense with the new draft, but fortunately, I was able to bring some of them back from the dead and they fit right in.

Felicity: Like zombies. Great.

Me: Um, no, not really. Although there are zombies in the first chapter. Sort of.

Felicity: You're kidding, right?

Me: Sure. Anyway, I'm never writing without an outline again, I can tell you that. It may work for some people, but not for me.

Felicity (holding up empty can): You're out of soda, by the way.