Don’t Panic, It’s Only Revisions
Right, I have to remember not to go off in public until I’m further into my work apparently, because thing have been going swimmingly since the rant. I’m getting this feeling that I might have jumped the gun a bit on that whole quality issue. Oops. Oh well, others seem to have been entertained by my rantings, so it’s all good in my view.
Friday was fairly successful, sliding back into the story and checking on a few things after I posted about the first chapter being improved. I managed to get through a few more chapters with no major structural work required. Then yesterday was apparently let-loose day. I dragged myself off to bed having gotten to the end of Chapter 11 (of 26). 6 chapters in a single day. No, I’m not just reading without making changes. According to Word’s summary of tracked changes, I’ve been a busy little writer. It’s just that the rest of it is in fairly good shape and so it’s going more quickly. In theory, I could be almost done the book by Tuesday, though I’m not going to rush it or anything. I suspect that I’m on track for my usual 3 rounds of revision/editing before sending it to test readers. So, yeah, I’m going to put a big sticky note on my laptop, and it’s going to say, “Don’t panic, it’s only revisions.” Maybe that’ll help me hold on to perspective next time. *snickers*
To me, one of the hardest parts of editing and revising is all the second-guessing that goes on. I do it with practically everything until I’ve convinced myself half the time that I’m doing something wrong, that I’m not good enough at this to ever make it. I’ve learned to recognize that feeling and, after finding out that the short I almost trunked for similar reasons was not only decent but good enough to rate Holy Crap emails, I take it with a grain of salt when I start feeling that way. It’s a hard line to walk between the inner editor who never thinks anything is good enough and my fear that it’s just my ego saying the sentence/paragraph/chapter/story is great. I suspect that will never end, never ease up, that I’ll be walking that line for the rest of my life as a writer, no matter what happens or how well it turns out. I’m also sure that I’m not alone on that either.
I think I’m in for another good day with editing today and tomorrow, but we’ll see what happens with that. There hasn’t been that much else this weekend. Some notes on the next book, others on the next project, Spire of Time. Hands up if you DIDN’T see that one coming. Oh look, no hands. Yeah, okay, so even I was fairly sure that would be next. That said, Reah will have to be patient. She likely won’t get anywhere with me other than notes until December, with writing probably commencing in January, but that’s so far into the future that it’s just a thought, not a commitment. That one will be interesting to write for a whole host of reasons you’ll likely hear about later. Hmm. Well, on that note, I think I’m going to toddle off back to editing.
I’m with you. Also revising and it can be very up and down – on moment I’m bloody brilliant, the next a total waste of space. In fact I wrote about similar dilemmas on my blog today – uncanny huh. Keep it up!
Lol, yeah, I know the feeling. I did the later half of one chapter last night where I spent half the time asking what I’d been on at the time, and another chapter where I’m all like “Yeah, I rocked that one.” The lesson here is… um… Maybe that the writer’s never fair to themselves? I know I’ve had stuff where I thought it must be crap only to be told it was wonderful, and I think “Did they read the same thing I wrote?”