Time management. That's always been a problem for me. Guess I'm too spacey.
Anyway, here is my progress since the last time I wrote: as far as revising goes, it's exactly where we left off. That is to say, I haven't done a thing to fix what I've written. This is why I need a secretary. They say a picture is worth a thousand words...is this one worth more, since it's a picture of words?
So: revising process. Basically what you see here is a revised copy of my book. Aha! But 'tis horrifying to look at, no? I agree. What has happened is that I wrote a book. Yay me! Think that is accomplishment enough? Oh no! After I wrote a book (aka "first draft"), I went through, highlighted all the major sections that sucked and needed to be eliminated in yellow, made blue highlights where I needed to add something, pink highlights where I needed to check the consistency of something, and green highlights for general edits that I couldn't decide on a category for yet. Once I made the final decision to cut the yellow parts (always a horrible thing for an author to have to decide), I wrote [insert transition here] and left it, ruthlessly working through the yellow. And once ALL the yellow was gone (it took me a while. I had to fight with the part of me that was wailing "but I worked so hard on thaaaaat!!!" the whole time), I worked through the blue, which took longer (hello...more writing after I'd already thought I was done). Then I waded through the others. And deleted a few characters. Added some detail that I neglected to mention my first time writing.
I remember when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire took forever to come out. Maybe you do too. Were you as impatient as me? I whined about how it really couldn't take that long to write and edit a book. I mean, come on, how hard could it be? It must be the publisher's fault. They're making us wait to increase anticipation.
Boy did those words come back to bite me in the...rear.
Anyway, back to my lovely picture. You see, once I'd created a second draft (I like to keep all my drafts), I printed it out and bound it. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to make my edits with a big red pen. More convenient, too. Then I can take my editing anywhere! Plus, it's like I'm reading a book I wrote, for real! And editing? I like editing. I go through, mark what needs to be changed, and call it a day. That's the red pen.
The black pen is revising. You know what? I even like revising. I go through, see what I've written in red pen and make the changes I told myself need to be made. Often that's where the sticky note comes in as well (as seen in above picture). Double-spacing isn't enough to add whole paragraphs, after all.
It's the part where I need to then enter those words into my third draft that I hate, despise, loathe. It's like data-entry, only worse, because you can't just enter in a number and push enter. You have to find the spot you fixed, make sure your revisions actually make sense, enter it in, and find the next spot, always double-checking your work so you don't wind up with some crazy mashed-together sentence!
End of rant. And so, my progress.
Actually, that's a lie. I've at least written in my sequel, which is so far titled SG2 because I'm too lazy to think of a name. I'm up to 52,000 words! Yay me! Progress!
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