Manuscripts - Old and New... Savita Kalhan

Unlike the Christmases of previous years, I found myself writing most of the days of the holiday this year. That hadn’t been the plan. I was going to take a week off, kick back and enjoy the festivities to the full.

In mid-December I finished a manuscript, which I had long struggled with. Finally satisfied with the ending, I bit the bullet and sent it out to a few a readers, and then promptly forgot about it for a while, or at least tried to! To distract myself, I decided to take a trip down memory lane, and at the same time restore order to my study, by pulling out some older manuscripts, some of which had not seen the light of day for a very, very long time.

Inevitably, the process of restoring order to the chaos of my working environment was hi-jacked as I dusted off the manuscripts and gave them an airing. I decided to reread them. Then I rewrote one of the manuscripts for a slightly younger audience, and, happily, the story, which hadn’t been working for the 14 + readers, began to work much better.

Another manuscript, written for adults a few years ago and then stuck in a drawer and forgotten about, was refined and polished and sent out to some readers. The third manuscript, dragged out of the longest hibernation was the first in an epic fantasy trilogy, (and by epic I mean humungously epic – the first book should be divided in two at the very least) – was so much fun I almost forgot it was Christmas!

In some ways it ways it was a very indulgent way to spend Christmas; it was a holiday within a holiday. I don’t usually have any time to make forays into the past in that way. The stories in the drawer usually remain in the drawer. They cover several genres and age groups. They don’t promote my current writing in any way. My brandis: teen/young adult contemporary fiction, and, unless you are an established writer, I’ve discovered that it is important to remain within that brand – particularly where publishers are concerned. So I’m not sure I will do anything with those manuscripts in the end. Time will tell.

Christmas has come and gone, the tree has lost its lustre, and New Year’s Eve has come and gone too. I’ve realised I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions. I usually make several, most of which get broken within days. I’ve now decided that making resolutions is not such a great thing for me. It’s way too much pressure, unless, of course, the resolutions are things like: to go out more, socialise more, read more, listen to music more, walk more, and maybe write more...

Happy New Year!


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