Have you ever had the chance to go back to the past and be better at something than you were?  Imagine, traveling back to your past and hitting a baseball better, throwing a football in a perfect spiral, or maybe being able to dance more smoothly.  I had a chance to experience something like this over the past couple of months without even realizing I was doing it until I was halfway through.

Three years ago I finished my first novel, Jared’s Island.  It took a long time to write and even a longer time to get up the nerve to let anyone read.  Finally in September, I published it on amazon.  The reviews were very good for the most part.  The criticism I got was mainly regarding the editing.  I had pulled it down once and edited what I believed to be wrong, then got it back online a fast as I could.  Again, the reviews that came it were good, but the editing was questioned.

By the time enough reviews had come in saying similar things, I had moved on to my next book.  I wrote and published my second book – with editing help.  Then I did the same with the third, learning a lot as time passed.  This year I decided it was time to make sure all of my writing was the way it should be.  I set three goals for the year.  I wasn’t happy with the cover of my second book, so I wanted to make it better.  Goal two was to finish my third book, since I was most of the way through it.  And my thrid goal was to go through Jared’s Island page-by-page, correcting everything wrong.

When I did, I quickly realized how much I had grown in my writing over the past three years.  By the time I was done I had removed six pages worth of unnecessary words, corrected countless errors, and re-worded many word choices.  It was not easy to admit that I had to go back and re-work my first book, but I felt I couldn’t move forward in my writing before I looked back once.

http://johnthayer11.wix.com/johnthayer