The Weekly Smile for the 9th of September, 2019 #weeklysmile

25 Replies

weeklysmile2a

I try to mix up my smiles a little :)  It gets boring if I give the same on week after week after week.  This one is a little different, but if you read my blog regularly, it won’t be surprising.

Back in the late winter and spring of 2017 I wrote and posted a serialized novel, The Old Mill.  I pretty much wrote and then immediately posted each chapter, so it was a very, very rough draft.  That isn’t too unusual for me.  I did the same thing with The Halley Branch, which I posted in 30 consecutive days.  I have also done other serials, from three of four parts, to 20 or 25 chapters.

So, back to the Old Mill, I loved the story.  It was one of my favorites. But I hated the writing.  I mean, it’s not terrible, but I hope I am better than I was in early 2017. I also hope that my well-edited work is better than that roughest of drafts.

A few weeks ago I read through the book and took a while to decide what I was going to do.  My decision is a partial rewrite.  I added two characters (more, if you talk very minor).  I simplified parts of it, mostly names so that they are not as confusing. And now I am rewriting it in third person instead of first.  By doing that I have been able to use other POVs and add a lot more depth and do a lot more character building.  Every new chapter has been in a different POV and I’ve changed some of the existing ones.  Did I mention I am adding chapters?  And rewriting a few of the old ones.

I am about a third of the way through the book, but it is already much, much better (in my opinion ;) ). And I have been having a lot of fun with it.  So much of what I am doing is closer to writing than to editing.  I enjoy writing so much more… Of course that means I am just pushing the editing back, but it has allowed me to return to the story after more than two years and get a feel for it, putting it back into my mind in a way that doing editing right now would not have accomplished.

That is my smile this week, rewriting The Old Mill.

What made you smile?

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Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

And remember, the Smile can be anything, large or small.  Nothing, nothing at all is too small for a Smile!  Sometimes taking time to notice those small, every day smiles is more important than those once in a lifetime huge ones :)

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).   Next week I will compile all of the Smiles and do a separate post of them on Monday morning just before the smile.  (I will shoot for around 7 AM EST).

Try to use the hashtag #WeeklySmile when you use Twitter or other social media that uses hashtags. I searched Twitter and found that #weeklysmile had been used only a handful of times back in 2012 and 2013. It hasn’t been used since. So it’s ours! I also registered it on Twubs.

You can use the graphic at the top. It is the official graphic for the event.

Now go out there and find something to smile about! :)

25 thoughts on “The Weekly Smile for the 9th of September, 2019 #weeklysmile”

  1. Pingback: The Weekly Smile Recap: 9/9/2019 – 9/15/2019 #weeklysmile | Trent's World (the Blog)

    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I totally dreaded starting the rewrite, but once it was going it turned out to be so much fun. I think it is because right now it is more like writing than editing, but writing something I already know, not something new.

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  4. dprastka

    https://myhorsestories.blog/2019/09/10/my-weekly-smile-sept-10-2019/
    My weekly smile!

    Thank you Trent as always. I Loved your smile for this week as I find it so fascinating how you are working on The Old Mill. It sounds like you are making good progress. I have always wanted to write a book, a horse story book but I know there are a million horse stories out there. Haha, plus I am so busy and I have no idea if I could write something worth reading. I am so busy I find it hard to find time to even read books. Anyways, I am so ENJOYING blogging, so thank you for the SMILES :D and the inspirations!! ~ Diana <3

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  6. Pingback: The Weekly Smile 9/9/2019 #weeklysmile – Had to get a new air conditioner | Tessa Can Do It! Positivity is Catching!

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  9. Junieper2

    Writing is still a new thing for me, so I don’t know if rewriting would bring a smile to my face, but great if it works for you – great:) That you may a lot of writing done this week!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I’ll admit that I dreaded, dreaded starting the rewrite, but once going it has been a lot of fun. As I said, I love the writing part, and this is writing a story I already know very well, so….

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It can be a lot of fun, can’t it? I just took on one of my two big data-dump chapters and was able to cut out over 1000 words, so the rewriting pays of in other ways. I hope you continue to have fun with your rewrite!

      Are you on vacation again? I saw some photos on FB and wondered if you were there or sharing old photos.

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