If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Replace Abyss with Third Draft and you pretty much have my current state of mind.
While I was reading through the manuscript, I had the incredible brainstorm to use index cards to make notes on changes that went beyond editing on the page. During the process, I thought, hey, this is great. I’m getting some fantastic stuff here.
After? Well, maybe you should be the judge. Can you make heads or tails out of:
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Chapter end — ?
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Page 100, meeting Mr. Scott re-look and edit
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Page 122 psychology of place in the locker room
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Page 145, rethink bowling as church
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Page 152, after at the swimming practice, re-look
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Page 184, need MacKenna’s essay – here or somewhere
Oh, yeah. That was a helpful exercise. You know you’re in trouble when you’re advising yourself to re-look and edit (no duh, I could say that about every scene) and adding detail “here or somewhere.”
Clearly, I have my work cut out for me.
Writing Wrongs 
This list made me laugh so hard, my dog is worried about me.
“re-look and edit”? I thought only I made notes like that.
Can’t wait to see what happens with bowling as church.
Actually, that looks like one of my lists. Although I’m allergic to index cards, so I put things in parentheses all over the draft. Nice, when I’m sending out somewhere, huh? If you’d like a second pair of eyes, I’d be more than delighted to look at the draft. 😉