Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Are You Guys Tired Of Me Talking About Revisions Yet?

I've been revising so much lately, it's consuming my life.

Good news: I finished my round of revisions and sent it out to a couple betas.

Bad news: Now I have more revisions to do.


Beta feedback elicits two basic responses from me:

1. Oh my god, that's brilliant, why didn't I think of that? It's going to make the book so much better!
2. More revisions?????? *Slams head against wall repeatedly*


So that's pretty much where I am right now. The critique I got is going to require a lot of hard work, but it's so dead on I can't really argue against it. Remember when I was getting sick of Temper and couldn't pinpoint why so I just set it aside for a month? Well, the changes I need to make will fix all the things that bothered me about the ms before.

Unfortunately, these changes are really big. Like, adding-a-plot-line big. Basically, I have to completely rewrite the first two chapters, and add at least three major scenes throughout. Not to mention lots of little changes to make sure the whole novel flows with this new story line.

So, yes. Lots of work for Kat to do. Tell me about your revisions. Have you ever added or deleted a whole plot line from your story? How did that work out for you?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

I'm Still Revising!

Nearly done with Temper revisions. It feels so good to be this close to the end. It's funny-- the more I work on the book, the more I like it. I'm mending and repairing and fixing everything that once bothered me. Of course I should expect to like it more.

I guess I didn't know it would be so easy.

Not EASY-easy, because writing a book? NOT EASY. But the more I work on it, the easier it is to continue working on it, because the better it gets.

Of course, pushing myself to the point where I could begin to work on it again was very, very, very difficult. It was SO. MUCH. WORK. So daunting. So energy/mind/life-draining. But now all that's left is polishing minor stuff, and I'm getting excited about the story. I like the story again. I'm feeling hopeful again.

And yeah, I'm still dreaming of new story ideas. You guys might tire of this, but I got another awesome idea I can't wait to write. Think I'm gonna go with this for my next project. I'm calling it SEVEN DAYS for now, but I'm not really sold on the title. It's a YA fantasy, and I started really plotting it today, talking through the story with my boyfriend (who has heard-- and remembers-- the plots for at least 20 of my ideas. He is forever spoiled for any/all of my writings).

Him: So how is the main character going to kill the bad guy in the end?

Me: I'm not sure yet. But I'm thinking some good old fashioned ingenuity... or maybe an axe.

Also, I just want to say thanks to all you guys! Your comments have been so encouraging, even though I've been so missing lately. I'm excited to get back into our lovely little blogging community. I'll be posting a lot more regularly here.

But for now, I'm off to revise some more!

Cheers,
Kat

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I'm Revising!

Maybe it's the venti white mocha with four shots of espresso.

Maybe it's the music, a play list of my current favorites.

Maybe it's the fact that I have all evening, distraction free, to work on my writing.

Maybe it's the great books I've read lately, inspiring me.

Maybe it's because I haven't really worked on Temper in so long I've forgotten the flaws and built up the parts that really work in my mind.

Probably it's a blend of all of these.

Either way, right now, I'm feeling rather fond of Temper, which is so nice considering my avoidance of it lately. Right now I really love it-- it's funny, the plot is solid, the characters are charming. It's... just... awesome.

And I'm going to finish it. Polish it up. And make it even awesomer (not a real word, but should be).

I'm not scared of my deadline anymore.