So, today I went to Kinko’s at got a cheap bound copy of the book-within-a-book, so it’s kind of nice. Somehow makes it all the more real seeing that it has heft (116 pages, 12 pt, double-spaced) and actually reads very clean.

Tomorrow, I start in on the main book, and am facing a dilemma.

While the draft that currently exists was a breakthrough, in that it actually reached the end, and told the story I wanted to tell, it seems like there might be more bad than good in it.

So, this leads me to wonder whether I would be better off… I hate to even type it… writing a new, final draft from scratch.

Part of it was that when i was writing the book-within-a-book, I am so familiar with the subject matter and the world in which it is set, the stuff is just coming out clean as hell. I even did a reading from the book two weeks ago, and read the stuff I had written 90 minutes earlier, and it just felt amazingly polished for being that new.

Also, I absolutely adored the writing schedule i was on. 2,000 words a day was blissful, and afer a week, it got easier and easier and seemed as though I was reading a book as it was being typed.

I do think what I have written is all necessary, but so much of it I already dismiss as backstory, or tangental stuff that needs to be worked around, that I wonder if I’m going to be doing more writing than editing anyway. If so, why not start with a blank slate? I mean, it’s been more than a year since that draft was finished.

Despite there being no external proof, I’m actually a better writer now than when i wrote that draft.

Ack, will decide this tonight, and go on whatever course i pick tomorrow… will keep you updated.