Thursday, September 29, 2011

Revising




Well, I'm not done. But I'm revising.

I got to the black moment, dear readers. I got there and I went, "huh."

I assure you that one is not meant to just say "huh" at the black moment of a book. Something had obviously gone wrong. As I've mentioned here, I stop when my characters have lost their path. Usually, if I find the story's not feeling right or has completely derailed, I need to go back before I can go forward.

So, I stopped. But instead of carrying on like a ninny, flailing about in misery, I fast-forwarded through that part and just decided to check out my characters.

Alas, I've found where they got off track. It's a bit more involved than I'd hoped, so I figured I might as well go through the middle of the book and wrestle it into submission. Then I can write my black moment and my resolution.

Anyway, almost done. Technically, I'm just about done with the first draft and in the middle of the first structural pass of revising.

Which only leaves a couple more structural passes of revising, a couple passes to layer, and then a final pass for word choice and grammar.

Wait, was I optimistic at the beginning of this post?

Oh. Right.

My reaction at my black moment applies to this too, I guess.

Huh.

So, tell me, have you hit "The End" only to find it felt more like a beginning than an ending? When do you feel that burst of accomplishment when you're writing?

7 comments:

  1. (HI!!)

    YES, "The End" feels like the beginning. It feels like an accomplishment, too, but the more I edit, the less the next "The End" feels like "The End"!

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  2. *waves* Hi Jordan! How are you?

    the more I edit, the less the next "The End" feels like "The End"

    This is exactly right. It's not that it's not an accomplishment, it's just that it feels more like a link on the chain instead of a fulfilling, satisfying finale.

    How's your writing going?

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  3. Totally agree! When I typed "The End" on my first ms, hubby and I went out and celebrated - it was SO exciting. But then the hard work started and now I kind of dread "The End." LOL!

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  4. Hi Jerrica! :)

    Yes, me too! When I finished the first time, we went out to dinner. We toasted the book's completion.

    Little did I know that complete was really only complete for now. LOL!

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  5. To be fair, your first "The End" *is* a big deal! It should be celebrated! Ignorance is bliss, of course ;).

    My writing is going pretty well (after a spectacular crash and burn earlier this year). I was just thinking about you, and I wanted to make sure you were still writing. I'm happy to see you are!

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  6. Considering I don't work in a linear process or has an outline of any kind, and I know what the ending of a book will always be before I write a single word out of it, writing "The End" to me is only the beginning indeed, because there are a lot of 'holes' still need to be filled throughout the whole novel.

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  7. You're not the only one I know who writes out of order. I would be completely lost if I tried to do that. This is another example of how there are a billion different ways to accomplish the same goal.

    :)

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