Round one of revisions on HEART OF STONE done.
Actually, it’s like round three, because I did a huge revision this time last year, then did another one in May, and now I’ve done a third. I’ve added 40 pages to the manuscript, and have restructured the relationships and mostly strangled the timeline back into its proper place, although I’m going to need to read it ninety-two times and take notes to be sure.
I have a subplot to add in, emotional content to beef up, sensuality to introduce and improve, scenes I loved to put back in, and a general mess to clean up, as right now the whole thing feels as prickly as a hedgehog. Out of the last 3 chapters, I barely touched the antepenultimate and penultimate (look, Henry! I remembered!), which desperately, desperately need work, but it’s emotional work and I couldn’t take delving into that right now, as this pass has largely been structural changes.
This is one of the brief shining moments where I’m thinking I might have a book here. Yesterday I was miserable, exhausted, hating it, and wanting to burn the whole thing, which, as I am annoyingly aware, usually means everything’s right on track. *laugh*
I’ll see if I feel like doing anything on it, or anything else, the next couple of days. I’m mostly writing this week off, as Ted gets here Thursday night (ok, it’s MONDAY, I could no doubt get at least some work done the next couple of days) and we’re going to need to stock up the house once we see what we’ve got and what we’ll need. So I’m kind of figuring work will resume next Monday, though if I get up to write in the mornings between now and then that would be a major bonus.
*looks vaguely guilty* See, I’m back into the writing thing, so the journal’s all about writing. I always feel like that’s a drag for other people to read. But the only other thing I’ve got to say at this particular moment is that after several weeks of evasive maneuvers, I seem to have caught somebody’s cold after all.
miles to Mount Doom: 252
ytd wordcount: 229,900
Hugs on the cold. Get well soon. And I don’t think your blog is boring to read. :)
If you’ll read my boring blog about writing a bloody awful dissertation, I’ll read your not-at-all boring blog about writing cool books.
What they said and for my part, reading your blog is fascinating no matter what you’re talking about. I’m surprised that the process is so hard but I haven’t gotten past 20,000 words on a rough draft, so– :D If you get discouraged, you’ve got what – three, almost four books published already.
I like reading your posts about writing.
The writing stuff is half the fun! (The life stuff is the other half.) Congrats on finishing this revision pass, and yay for an arriving Ted.