T. K. Arispe

Do you ever have a piece of writing where, when you first finish it, you think it's great, and then three years later you look at it again and just think it's super cringey? 

Yeah, that's me with On Borrowed Wings right now. Those "minor" edits have turned out to not be so minor. I keep finding places where the prose really needs fixing, and somehow there are still loads of typos even though I combed through the manuscript meticulously (and got it proofread)???

Also, and more importantly in my eyes, I have been doing a pretty extensive rehaul of the storyline to make it less dark and intense. Because I, for one, hate that kind of thing as a reader, and I don't write things I don't like reading, simple as that. But I also think there are plenty of other people like me out there, and I want to make sure there is fiction on the market that caters to them.

I'm about 2/3 through the manuscript right now and I've already shaved about a thousand words off of it, although this is mostly due to removing some unnecessary words, sentences, and sometimes even paragraphs. (One of the most valuable things I've learned as a writer is that less is more. It's okay to be poetic and prosaic, but it's also important to make sure that you're not repeating yourself or using unnecessary words.)

Still, I think the book as a whole holds up pretty well for something that I first started coming up with in high school. I'm pretty proud of it. I just have to give it a little more polish to make it something that I'm happy with and feel good about people reading.