Well, some told me to leave it ages, up to three-six months, before rereading my baby. Others said get right on it. By the time you are ready to reread from the start, it will have been a while since you began anyway.

Updated this too!

I decided to take the middle road, and it’s been around three weeks.

Yesterday, I took to my printout with pencils and post-its, and read the first few chapters…

Sonu Singh was at the ready to help me along.

And it really struck me, as I read, just how much my writing has come along since I started this project 18 years ago.

Sure the ideas are good (I think) and the characters are forming, but some of the writing!

Wow!

It’s clumsy and repetitive in places.

I didn’t know exactly how much I used the words actually and really in my manuscript, and that was the first three chapters!

But at least I’m looking at it with a more mature head now, and hopefully, I can rectify these issues.

I need to use this reread to find silly errors and plot holes and make copious notes about what needs rewriting… EEK!!!

And even though I’m not remotely at the stage where I will be ready to publish anything, I started wondering what the cover could look like.

#ProcrastiQueen – yes I believe that may be me!

This is what I came up with…

The bangles have some significance which you find out as you read the story…

I’ve been looking into the whole self vs. traditional publishing thing too, and researched agents… It’s a bit mad!

I’ve had quotes for editing/formatting too if I was to go down the ‘self’ route, and I have had some wonderful offers from great friends, to help along the way.

Once I do this mammoth reread and first change around, my next step will be beta readers.

I need to know if this is WOW! enough to even go down the agent/traditional route. Or if I get decent feedback, whether to push myself on the self-publishing route. Or if it is truly awful, and needs a lot more work!

This whole writing journey is a long and winding one, and I hope you are enjoying following it with me, Peeps! Your input has been invaluable so far!

In case you didn’t get it before, the prospective blurb is:

Aashi’s life was all set.
Or so she thought.
After finding out her fiancé was not the man she thought, she vows to put him, and her innocence behind her.
Accompanied by her brothers and best friend, she embarks upon an enlightening journey, where memories created and new relationships forged, have far-reaching effects.

I will also need to work on a synopsis too!!

This whole writing journey is a long and winding one, and I hope you are enjoying following it with me, Peeps! Your input has been invaluable so far!