After a slight delay, work has resumed on the fantasy-comedy rewrite. Averaging about 2-3 scenes for each writing session. If I keep this pace up, I might even wrap it up by the end of the month.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A significant part of this rewrite is shifting the focus of each scene to make my protagonist more active and have her be the one moving things forward. More than a few times it’s involved having a scene play out from her perspective rather than that of another character. Some of these are proving to quite challenging, so I’m doing what I can.

Also factoring into this is forcing myself to let go of how the scene was before and making whatever changes are needed. This can be kind of tough because I initially think the scene is good enough as is and don’t want to overdo the tinkering.

But if it’s going to get better, some degree of tinkering is needed, if not a necessity.

Once I accepted that and started actually doing it, things got a little easier. And because the new version works better, I’m not missing how it was before. The changes that have been implemented are a better fit overall, so anything from previous drafts is left by the wayside.

I’m trying to be better about approaching the rewrite process so each draft is noticeably different (and stronger) than its predecessor, and not “I’ve rearranged the furniture in a slightly different configuration”.

Further proof that no matter how long you’ve been writing, there’s always something new to learn.

-A friendly reminder that the window to submit your script’s info for The Maximum Z 2026 Script Showcase is open through Thursday Dec 17, so don’t put it off for too long. All the details here.

-I’m putting together a list of movie, TV show, and book recommendations to include in the last episode for 2026 of my podcast The Creative Writing Life. Just one from each category, please. Those can be sent here.