Getting back into the swing of writing has been rough. Mostly because the ‘writing’ has consisted of reading my story and then reading it again while making notes of things I need to change, fix, or add.
I was hoping that on reading The Storyteller over again, that I would be encouraged by how much I had done. Instead I find myself scared by how much I haven’t done. It’s much harder to make myself sit down and work on the story than it has been in the past.
I read some articles on revision in the past, and I remember a lot of them seeming to say: ‘Sure, I went though and jotted down notes on what needed to be fixed, then I made a plan and viola!’ Maybe for some people it is like that. I feel like I’m still light-years from a readable book, much less a publishable one.
As for my actual process. Right now I am making a new copy of each scene, and then going through and putting in notes. Right now I’m ignoring descriptions that need to be improved, dialogue that needs tweaking, all of the typos. The notes that I write are in reference to plot, world building, and character building issues. All the ‘huge’ points that need to be hammered into place so that someone could read the story and at least follow what’s going on.
I am not actually fixing any of these issues yet. Right now most of the notes are in reference to little things. Things that aren’t too lumpy, but I know that later I have major holes and whole scenes that will need to be added and rewritten. In order to keep the project from feeling overwhelming, I just have to keep taking baby steps.
