What does it feel like to edit a novel you wrote years ago?
For me, it feels a lot like stepping back in time.
When I first wrote my novel, I had a story in my head and a thousand ideas I wanted to get onto the page. I wrote them down as they came to me, following the characters and the story wherever they led.
Then I stepped away.
Years later, I came back to the manuscript with something I didn’t have when I first wrote it: distance.
I can see the story with fresh eyes and a clearer mind. I can appreciate the ideas that still work, recognize the ones that need refining, and—perhaps most excitingly—see new possibilities I couldn’t see before.
I’m not simply revisiting the story.
I’m discovering it all over again.
Interestingly, my family and I had a similar experience this weekend at the New York Renaissance Faire. We dressed in medieval costumes and spent the day wandering through a small, medieval-themed town.
For a few hours, we stepped out of our everyday lives and into another time.
And somewhere between editing an old manuscript and wandering through a recreated medieval village, I realized how much I love that feeling.
Maybe that’s part of what draws me to historical fiction in the first place—the opportunity to step into another time, explore a different world, and come back with a new perspective.
Sometimes stepping into the past is exactly what we need to see the present—and our own stories—with fresh eyes.
