Thursday, November 10, 2005

Revision Time

It seems that yesterday's "D-Blogger" day went well...at least based on the proliferation of readers I had yesterday. The only problem is, I think a majority of the people who visited were already diabetes aware. But hopefully someone out there learned something!

Okay...shifting gears...A couple weeks ago I had my "Write It Right Night", which I blogged about. If you recall, my intention was to get a troublesome scene finished.

Well, since that time I not only yanked the entire chapter, but I've yanked about three chapters, plus shuffled around stuff from two other chapters. I've then modified my plot, and I'm in the process of inserting a couple new scenes.

Whoever said that being a writer was easy? Because it sure wasn't a writer! Now, this is my first book, so I've been learning a lot. In fact, compared to my first draft, this draft (which I'm now calling draft four) shares very little of the same actual text and, in some cases, storyline. Same premise, same characters, same eventual outcome, etc. But the story keeps changing.

Rest assured (because I know you were really nervous for me and suffering insomnia as a result) I will finish this book. I still could even get it done by year's end, as I had originally planned.

Wouldn't life be great, though, if it worked how an author wrote? What if we live a part of our lives, decided we didn't like it, and said, "Okay...revision time." You then go back and edit the parts that don't flow well, or the parts that lead to a dead-end. You might still leave in mistakes made. After all, we learn from our mistakes. But you realized that a choice you made fifteen years ago took you down a plotline you wish it hadn't.

Well. It doesn't work that way, so just forget about it! (Although, I have tucked away a story idea for some potential future book that actually has such a premise.)

It is hard for me to believe that I've been working on this book for coming up on two years. When I started, I thought, maybe, six months. Shows what I know! (But the positive spin on that is I'm planning on living at least 75 years. Which means I'm probably off by a magnitude of four. So...I'll live to 300!