The Dreaded Revision

[mamculuna]

I am now at a wonderful and terrible place with my novel. I've completed a draft (Yay!) but now have go back and do it again, with the revisions. I know from the days of writing poetry that this is what makes the difference, but it's overwhelming to take the plunge with a novel. I got through the first draft by taking it in small chunks, and I know the revision will have to go the same way.

It's hard because I really would like to get some readers, but there are a limited number of patsies people willing to help me this way, and I want to save them for readers of the best I can do. I already see a lot to do in the first round of revision, so I'll have to plunge ahead. More tempting is to put this aside for another book entirely--I never loved this one, just felt like it was a sort of practice book while I'm still working and have only a few off-hours to give it. But once again I think of my yoga lesson--anything less than your best effort is unethical practice. Abandoning this first attempt without making it the best possible version of itself would really set me up to be a bad writer, I think.

So the week after this one is Spring Break, and I'll take my laptop to the beach. It'll be too cold to swim or even kayak much and I'll be by myself for two days. It's my intention to come back with a serious inroad made into the second draft. We shall see.

Comments

[an-old-one.livejournal.com]

Well, once you finish that dreaded revision I, for one, would be delighted to do some beta-reading for you. Just let me know.

dub ;o) (the ever-changeable)

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

but now have go back and do it again, with the revisions. I know from the days of writing poetry that this is what makes the difference, but it's overwhelming to take the plunge with a novel.

Well, I've turned working on my novel into a life-style. It's more than a project, it sort of consumes my off-hours like a ravenous dog. I wouldn't recommend this approach, but it works. A novel is a big committment, and the revising of a novel can be a hair-pulling tight-rope walking adventure. You're afraid to change anything lest you "mess it all up". But you know it's not what you want people to read the way it is, either.

It's hard because I really would like to get some readers, but there are a limited number of patsies people willing to help me this way, and I want to save them for readers of the best I can do.

I can SOO relate to this. I'm not sharing bits of my novel as I edit them because I want people to give me feedback on my best work, not my in-between grundgy work. It's sort of pointless to hear feedback when you already KNOW the problems in your manuscript. It's much more useful to get feedback on stuff you've done your best on.

However, feedback in the end is a good. I paid a woman (a poet by the way, but also a writing consultant) to read the entire third draft of my novel as I wrote it. It helped immensely, I cannot even begin to tell you! I had enough confidence in my writing to know when her constructive criticism was right on the money, and to reject the suggestions she made I thought wouldn't work. Sometimes she was harsh, sometimes her praise was the only thing that kept me going.

anything less than your best effort is unethical practice. Abandoning this first attempt without making it the best possible version of itself would really set me up to be a bad writer, I think.

Unfortunately, as writers, we have to give ourselves permission to suck some days. Because our best efforts are at the whim of mood and stress and patience and hard work and the muse and the weather. But it's the final product that counts as "your best effort". The cumulative product of all those days of sucking and not sucking.

So the week after this one is Spring Break, and I'll take my laptop to the beach. It'll be too cold to swim or even kayak much and I'll be by myself for two days. It's my intention to come back with a serious inroad made into the second draft. We shall see.

I really need to get out of my Lay-z Boy more often and write in a location that's more inspiring. Hmmm... Should get that laptop I've been thinking of.