August 26, 2015: Finishing with Feeling

     Way back in May, I talked about doing a complete rewrite of a story that I wrote thirty-five years ago. I felt that I had a really good idea for a story, but did not execute it well when I wrote it the first time. I have been working on it steadily for the past few weeks, and finally completed the first draft today. I am waiting for some input from some other writers that I work together with, and then I will be doing the editing. Once I get the text completely corrected, I will design the cover for it and decide where I want to publish it. I could be wrong, but I think this is the best short story that I've written. Of course, this was the first serious short story that I ever wrote, so it has a lot of sentimental value for me.
     The original title of this story was "The Empath", but I intend to write more about the character later on in a series of books that I have considered calling the Empath Trilogy. I have outlined a series of three novels about James, the empath and how he came to be and what happens to him much later in life than the age he is in this short story. With this in mind, I've wondered if this short story should have a different name to separate it from the larger series. While this story is about the same person, it takes place in a much earlier point in his life.
     My last two publications were new creations, but this one is more of a recreation. It's like those movies that are coming out these days about TV shows that were on decades ago. I'm one who looks for how well they include the elements of the original show in their re-do. I don't enjoy them as much when they change the story up so much that you don't recognize the characters anymore. Being a big fan of Gene Wilder and his portrayal of Willy Wonka, I totally hated Johnny Depp's version because to me, that just wasn't Willy Wonka.
     Very few people saw my original story about James, but there was still something tugging at me to keep as many details the same as I possibly could. I added a couple of scenes to improve the flow of the events, and reworded a lot of the copy that was awkward, but I knew there was a place that I wanted James to end up very similar to the first story.
     Anyway, the rewrite is done, and still could change some more in editing, but the process is nearing its end. My next big project is to republish the book of poetry called "Encouragements" from 1997 with some added material and a new cover. I've already designed the cover, and I plan to actually put it out there as a Kindle and a book form so people can have a physical copy if they want one.