Revision thoughts

[janradder]

Not too long ago, I posted about how tedious and difficult the current revisions were on my book. Though I thought it was going well, it was moving along at a snail's pace and I was spending a lot of time just staring at walls, out windows and into space, thinking, which was incredibly frustrating. Sometime last week, that changed. All of a sudden, instead of sitting and wondering what the hell direction I should go in or working on one or two paragraphs over a two hour stretch, everything is just falling into place, and I'm having fewer and fewer stretches where I just sit and stare.

The odd thing, though (to me, at least), is that for every chapter I revise, I'm only keeping about fifty or a hundred of the the original words from the last draft, and completely tossing the rest. Essentially, I'm keeping the same structure and most of the same scenes are still there, but they're all completely re-written, and, at least I think, stronger because of it. Of course, I still have to go back and re-read the revisions I've made, but I feel good about them so far. I think I've finally found the narrative thread that was missing from the last two drafts, and maybe that's what's helped me pick up the pace because I'm not searching for it anymore or trying to plot out where it should go.

Comments

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

Someone in my crit group dubbed this the "It's all fine, now hit it with a hammer so we can see the good sentences written inside these bad ones" revision track.

With forearms like yours you must be hitting them pretty hard.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

That's a great analogy. I'll have to remember it. It definitely feels like I'm getting at something that's buried inside the previous draft.

[st-writes.livejournal.com]

Glad you found the thread...sounds like fun.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It really is. It's nice to look forward to working on the book and wishing I had more time, rather than dreading it.

[ccfinlay.livejournal.com]

The odd thing, though (to me, at least), is that for every chapter I revise, I'm only keeping about fifty or a hundred of the the original words from the last draft, and completely tossing the rest.

This is my revision process in a nutcaseshell, which is why it takes me 19 months to write three books even when I blow off everything else outside of work and family.

But *shrugs*. The question is, are you happy with the results?

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I am happy with it -- I think I've finally found what was missing and, when I've gone back and reread some of this revision, I've really liked what I've written. Plus, it's actually been enjoyable to work on, which is nice.

(By the way, three books in 19 months sounds pretty damn impressive, to me. I've been going ten months on just this one and it's still not finished.)

[dryadjuna.livejournal.com]

Sounds great!

[janradder.livejournal.com]

Thanks!