“He is certainly very determined – not”

I’ve chosen the next story to be republished by Pegasus Pulp. This time, it is the first of my stories about the Silencer, a 1930s style pulp vigilante hero. There are three complete Silencer stories all in all, one of them never published.

While getting the first of the Silencer stories ready for publication, I noticed that the original draft needed next to no revisions. It was clean, it was crisp and a genuine page turner, particularly since I hadn’t looked at the story in some time now and therefore had forgotten some of the details.

Pretty much the only issue I noticed was an overuse of the adjective “determined” in connection with the character of Police Captain Justin O’Grady, a recurring secondary character in the Silencer stories. What made the many instances of “determined” stand out even more is that O’Grady isn’t actually determined at all. In fact, he spends most of the story running around like a headless chicken. He tries to act very determined though.

This is why it is important to let a draft rest for a while before revising/rewriting. Because the rest period lends distance which allows us to see many things clearer.

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