The second worlds abound podcast is entitled The Voyage. And 'voyage' is a particularly apt term: I have just finished rewriting the beginning of this particular short story for the fourth time. Yes, the fourth.
In the case of every rewrite -- once the flaws were pointed out to me, or leapt out at me -- it was a necessity.
The past few days have been a long struggle of trying to get it right. And getting it right, in the case of The Voyage, has not been easy. The first version was to science-y and techie. With the second I realised, once I had been handed a good dose of objectiveness, was pretentious and overblown. The third was close, but it was too pared down; I had removed all literary decoration and imagery in my attempts to now avoid pretension at all costs.
The fourth? Well, I rewrote that again late last night, and I gave it a quick polish for half an hour before I had to email it to Regina. She's returning to Ireland for the weekend and tomorrow is her last chance to finish recording before she comes back.
So we'll see if I've cracked the nut this time; I think so, but I cannot tell. The writing of it is too fresh in my tired and addled brain. In a couple of days, I'll approach it cautiously, read it with some trepidation, and either breath a sigh of relief or sigh resignedly and attempt rewrite number five.
But you'll get the fourth version in the podcast ... at some point the perfectionist in you just has to let go.
I know I'm talking about the second podcast when the first hasn't even been posted yet, but the first two short stories where recorded back-to-back, and with some luck, I'll have the first ready either next week or the week after, once Regina hands them over.
And at some point, I might release all the various versions -- they have all been recorded -- and let people decide for themselves which is the best.
