Sunday, February 21, 2016

Sunday Discussion: On Revising

I thought I would write this week on revision, since I'm really heavy into revisions on Iron Curse at the moment.  I can't even remember what day I started (I just looked it up it was Feb 3rd) and as of typing this post--an hour before it goes live--I'm not even halfway through my revisions.

So...

There are times my head hurts.  There are times I want to cry.  But I am grateful.

I have not read much of anything at all.  I haven't had time because my time is taken up with revising.  I have a full-time (paying) job so it has gotten rather tough this month.  I've been relying on audiobooks for all my reading needs.

I know everyone revises differently the same way we all write differently.  You probably didn't know (because I've never said) but I'm a pantser when it comes to writing.  I have a vague idea about my story.  But outlines?  No way. So my stories are made during revisions.  The proof is seen here:  My manuscript was originally 59k words.  It was 238 pages printed in MS format.  I am currently on page 83 (that's right. I'm not even halfway through.) and the word count has gone up to 64k.

I'm excited that I have words to write.  At first I was afraid because I was so frustrated with the story.  And that is where my first problem was.  I hadn't distanced myself from it enough to effectively edit and revise.  After being away from it for 2-3 weeks and working on another project it was like a fresh start.  I printed it all out and have made notes on almost every page.  Except tonight.  Because I've had a headache and have just been revising straight in the computer.  But honestly, I find more things when reading on paper.  It looks so different than reading it in Scrivener.

Of course, I have been making more changes to this draft than most people probably would.  I am changing POV for the entire novel (a real pain in the arse, honestly) adding scenes, shuffling scenes around, reconfiguring the way it's set up, putting in more world building, tightening up the writing, etc.  I made a few minor plot changes as well.  This was basically a full-on rewrite.  Some things I kept, but a lot of it is completely changed.

And you know what?  This was my NaNoWriMo novel.  It took me 30 days to write 50k words.  And here I am taking longer to revise it.  If I didn't have another job, maybe I would be done by now (I sincerely doubt this).

I have other things I need to do as well.  Like read review books, because you know this is a book blog where I review books lol.  But these revisions have taken up my life.  

Are any of you working on a book?

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