Revise, Renew & Rediscover

Digging out my Old Manuscript

I have always had several stories buzzing around in my head at any one time, so when it came to actually sitting down and putting virtual pen to virtual paper, I wasn’t sure where to start.

I’m not sure if it was the best idea or not but I dug out my old novel - previously touted to agents and publishers 20 years ago - dusted it down, unravelled the scroll (ok, maybe it wasn’t quote that old) and started to read.

To my absolute surprise I found that I was enjoying the read. My characters were like old friends and the story was familiar, although I couldn’t remember how it ended. On the odd occasion I actually found myself with a tear in my eye. Is that odd for a book you’ve written yourself?

So, I asked myself, why start from scratch when I already have a completely good manuscript sitting on my desk top (remarkably retrieved from a hard drive on an old laptop)? I decided to revise that and see where it takes me.

Issues with Timing

Inevitably, there are a few issues with timing in my book I need to sort out though. My book was set in a world 20 years ago, technology has moved on immensely since then and the world itself has changed. For instance, my story is set pre 9/11 and an incident occurs at an airport that due to the super high level of security at airports now, could not possibly have happened. Because of this I have chosen not to bring my story into the modern world of today and keep it in the time it was written, pre smart phones, pre CCTV and pre aeroplanes being flown into towers. To bring it right up to date would mean too many alterations and I would rather be true to my story. I hope I’ve made the right decision.

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