With a first draft written in November (NaNo), another one finished in January, and a third book nearing the half-way point, I decided it might be time to start thinking about revisions.First let me state that writing like this is a recent process for me. Formerly, I used to start writing something, get a couple chapters done and run out of steam or get distracted by finaling in a contest and having to polish a full of (a.k.a. finish) a different book for an editor.
With a manuscript at Harlequin and a moratorium on entering contests, I don't have this distraction. I'm delighted that I've written more in the last 3 months than in the last year. Shutting off my internal critic and tasking myself to dump a book out of my head in thirty days has given me great satisfaction.
But it's a very small part of the whole process. After the first draft is when the real work begins.
I'm collecting advice from author workshops I've attended. I ordered a book on revising.
I printed out the book. Marked his POV with blue flags. Her POV with pink flags and all scenes with secondary characters with purple flags.
Next, I'm working to nail down the character arcs for in there comes my conflict. I'm helped by Archetypes and Enneagrams.
I'm going to read through the book by the weekend and make notes. I'm afraid there's going to be a whole lot of things I need to fix. But by organizing the process into steps, I hope the first round will go relatively smooth.
Frankly, I'm intimidated by the sheer enormity of what awaits me and my ability to do the book justice.
How do you handle revisions? Anything in particular make the job easier?
