Edits, revisions, and do overs

Book #3 is at a standstill. Edits have stopped. I've decided to go a different way entirely.

Are there mulligans in writing? No? Well I'm taking one anyway.

After many handfuls of chocolate and a few brain-busting workouts, I've come to grips with the fact that the new direction will make my book better. And it will be more fun to write. It will be wittier, hotter, and not as dark as before.

Sadly, that means most of what I've already written will be deleted. Okay, not deleted entirely, but it will be cut and pasted into a "deleted scenes" folder which will never be seen by anyone but me.

Starting again is a daunting task, disheartening at best. I've heard from many writers/authors that edits and revisions could be the hardest part of the writing process.

You've created a "masterpiece". You've written "The End". And now you're expected to go back through with a fine tooth comb and fix all those holes, mistakes, typos, scenes that don't fit, characters that don't mold, etc, etc, etc?

The answer is simple. Yes.

But at the same time, the answer is not so simple.

Deleting seventy pages of good stuff that I really like is far from simple. It's like erasing these characters lives, their beliefs, their feelings.

I can't start writing #3...again...yet. I think I'm still in mourning over having to accept the unacceptable.

I wonder if I should develop something like the 6 Stages of Death and Dying for the writing process. I've definitely gone through denial, anger and grief over the death of manuscript #3. Kubler-Ross watch out!