So, I started what was supposed to be a rewrite… except it isn’t.

I added the framing device and a new "introduction" from the author of the rejected manuscript that doubles as my novel (save for the opening passage from the narrator’s prior book that had been opening the novel). Then, it was right into the story as it has appeared for a while now. And, it worked.

For some strange reason, everything flows fine with the framing device. If anything, it is just small, cosmetic tweaks that jump out. Things where the character is anchoring a moment too obviously from the present, as though he doens’t have the knowledge of what comes next. If anything it is providing a roadmap for the narrative, and clearly highlighting things that are not on course. Small words and phrases here and there, an odd sentence, but no major gutting.

The section where I was conflicted about continuing bang up against the new tone as irrelevant, so there was something there, it was just hard to see it before, since it worked fine in a linear story.

In any event, this was one of the most painless rethinkings in the book to date, although when I first envisioned it, i thought I was doing nearly a from-scratch rewrite. It was more just lining up the book I wanted to write with the book I had largely already been writing.

Phew… dodged a bullet there.

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