Okay, so first week of revision done! I worked about 9 hours over this week, which all things considered is pretty good. I wasn’t always as efficient during that time as I’d like. I just have to work on not losing focus.
I’m not as far through the story as I planned, but I’m not too far behind. I did a lot of writing; new writing to fill in the holes. In the past that’s something that bothered me. I had this foundation-less expectation that revising was just like…fixing grammar and word choice or something. Now I know writing and rewriting are a part of revision, so I feel much more positive about that.
I think the biggest ah ha! moment I had is the feeling I get ingoing through and revising just the plot and/or story. In the past I would try and revise and get a section perfect before moving on, which bogged me down. If I got to a point that was really sticky everything would just grind to a halt and I would have to just ‘give up’ on that section which left me with a negative feeling about it, plus the fact that the section wasn’t done.
In this revision I feel like I’m actually accomplishing something even though the sections I’ve ‘finished’ aren’t perfect yet. They have all the plot elements I need inserted. So I feel a sense of accomplishment for what I have done, and it was much easier because I didn’t try and do everything.
I do have a little bit of a pacing problem in two places, where the scenes just ended up super short but I haven’t figured out how to so things differently that they’ll flow better. Not worried about that.
I’m also happy with what’s coming out after this pass of revision. The new stuff I’ve written really fits in well and I hope enhances the story.
