The draft of “Sophie and the Magic Seeds” came back from the editor with lots of comments and suggestions, but none that said, “start over.” Still, some adjustments and rewrites have to happen. First, I’m tackling the comments. Next, I’ll print out a clean draft and start cutting, because often that’s part of the problem, but I’ll also have to change some character dynamics and a few minor plot issues. Sophie is not active enough and must step up to save the day. Anyway, it’s not as bad as I feared.

Lastly, my prose needs to be polished. I intend to read a couple of books on the subject to help me with that task. There’s always room for improvement. The editor suggested two helpful works:

Sin and Syntax: How to craft wicket good prose by Constance Hale
and
Getting the words right by Theodore A. Rees Cheney

Let the rewriting begin.