All the Billion Other Moments

This is actually my post for Tuesday. I should have posted it that morning, but I had every intention of getting more done. Since then we’ve had a few power failures and other fun time black holes. The systems are UPS protected now, but it took two days to get everything working again.

We’ve got a really busy weekend coming up, and lot’s to get done before then, so that’s probably it until next Tuesday. I’m pretty frustrated about it because I wanted to be done the read through by next Friday (along with a number of other commitments I’ve made). After that my schedule is going to get really nuts. Finding time for anything is going to be tough.

Bah. I’m going to bed.

Reached the end of Chapter 5 (not that the existing chapter breaks are going to mean much of anything). I’m surprised how easy it is to brutally remove entire scenes, ones I loved when I wrote them, and replace them with a single line somewhere else. Some of the POV adjustments are a bit more time consuming.

I hope to get back to this today, but I’ve got a lot of other stuff to get done, so no promises.

Quick post today. I have to go grill, but I wanted to update my progress.

Nothing went at all to plan today, but I got a bit more done.

Chapters 3 and 4 have a number of POV characters. I didn’t head hop within scenes, but I did change characters at scene breaks. I don’t think it’s at all confusing. I had considered rewriting each chapter as a single POV, but I’m not sure I can unless I want to have some very short chapters, or I can come up with some very interesting new material. Chapter 2 was the same way, but I was able to easily reassign the scenes to other characters and make an even split between two of them.

I’m going to push on and hope for the best. I’ll keep trying for single POV per chapter and if it works out everywhere else I’ll have to come back to this stuff. I’ll just make a note in the notebook for now.

Had a really busy weekend, but I finally was able to get some time in tonight… err.. this morning. Fairly heavy rewrites. Changed the point of view on a number of scenes. I removed a few scenes and was able to replace them with only a sentence or two in a later scene. I like some of the stuff I cut, but it really didn’t fit anymore. I wrote a few new scenes as well. I’ll need to review them before moving on, but I’m too tired to do that right now.

I’m going to try and post progress any time I work on the revision. I’ll also put the current page count. I only had a bit of time, but I made some more progress on Chapter 2 today. I had to stop to get other stuff done, but I need to roll some potential changes around in my head.

There’s a great cliffhanger in the middle of Chapter 2. Chapter 2 is too long. It doesn’t have enough material to be split as is (especially since I’m cutting left and right), but I think I see an opportunity to flesh out another important character sooner rather than later.

I doubt I’ll get back to it until at least Sunday, but it’ll be bouncing around my head until then. I’m actually excited about the story again, which is great.

Amazingly I managed to get started today even though many things conspired against me.

I completed the discovery section of the One Pass Revision with little issue. I had pretty much done all that stuff before starting the story, and some of it even still applied. I worry that it may have been too easy. Maybe I did something wrong? We’ll see.

So I started the slog. I managed to be brutal. I hacked the entire first chapter right out of the book. It was a tough choice, but I think it was the right one. I’m holding on to it, because it could easily be expanded into a short story on it’s own, but the book doesn’t need it. Do I think the book is better without it? I’m not sure, but it’s not the solid start I want, so it had to go.

Chapter 2 Scene 1 didn’t need too much work. Chapter 2 Scene 2 wasn’t bad, but I rewrote most of it. Chapter 2 is light on dialog. Chapter 1 wasn’t. Since it’s gone, I needed to get some more dialog into the book earlier. This removed a bit of infodumping, and allowed me to improve some weak characterization.

Not a bad hour and half’s worth of work. Special thanks to the kids for letting me get it done.

Ok. I think I’m ready to start on the revisions. Let me just check the supply list

• A printed copy of the manuscript. Check.
  
• A cheap spiral-bound notebook. Check.
  
• A couple of smooth-writing pens. Check.
  
• A table with room for three piles and an open notebook. Check (covered earlier).
• Good lighting. Check.
• Nerves of Steel^TM. We’ll find out!

Denise took the children out shopping after dinner, so I was able to spend some time on the desk before heading out to training for the night. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to use now.

As usual, I’m pretty busy, but my goal is to have the revision done by the end of July.

(469 pages, $9.95)

I feel compelled to recommend 2YN: The Two-Year Novel Course, Year One, by Lazette Gifford to anyone who has even considered writing a novel. I haven’t yet read the book, but I did take the class on which the book is based. In fact, I’m taking it again for my next novel.

Having gone through the process, and I can tell you that it works. Pick up a copy now. It is currently available as a downloadable PDF, so you can get started right away. What are you waiting for?