Tag: Yumell

The Writing Moment

It was the best of stuff and the worse of crap.

I’m working on two items in parallel: a new novel and a finished novel now undergoing its fifth revision.

The new project has that exciting blush attached. Unencumbered by an ending, story and characters emerge through flash floods of thoughts and poured through fingers and keyboards into the ‘puter, evolving into a novel. Great, let’s keep it going. It’s the fun, creative part, where anything goes. I’ll see if it works later.

Meanwhile, on the editing side, I’m facing the dark side of my process. The chapter under the knife in the finished novel makes me gag and cringe. What happened here? Why isn’t it working, I whine to myself. Can no one save me? Or it?

No, this is up to me. After working on it the other day, I shut it down and told myself, leave it for a bit. Let it vacate my mind. Let it ferment untouched and see what happens after the interval. Perhaps insights will arrive; or maybe it won’t seem as bad.

Good plan but when I took it back up, insights were like peace talks with Russia: nothing there. And it was just as bad as before. As waiting didn’t work, I’ve concluded, I’ll increase focus and concentration, drop back one chapter, and read back into it. On reflection, after writing that, I can see that I was confused about what I was writing about, feeling through it, and unsuccessfully capturing and refining what I know, what I’m showing, and its impact on the story. Part of that is that although the novel is in its fifth cycle of revision and editing, this chapter was added in during the fourth round. I thought it was needed; I still feel it might be, but I’m flexible on the matter. I’ll see how it flows.

Alright, time to coffee up so I can novel up and work through this revision.

Happy writing, y’all. Cheers

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The Writing Moment

Starting the daily revision work with page 425, I did the math. Just 101 pages remained. Easily done. Can be completed by week’s end.

Then reality spit in my face. Stepping into page 425, I choked on misery. Such clumsiness in the prose. And chaos. Continuity had broken like a quake shook it apart.

Going retrograde, I slipped back two chapters, to where this scene left off. Might be a setback to hopes for a finish this week, but time isn’t nearly as important to me as getting it right.

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The Writing Moment

Here was something freaky for me.

In one chapter of the work in progress, I encountered a scene where the main character suffered from vertigo. I’d experienced vertigo a few weeks ago. I never had vertigo before but this scene spelled it out exactly as I’d experienced it. Reading it, I remember writing the scene in early last fall.

Yeah, I’m astonished. Blown away, even. It induced a weird sense of deja vu, like I’d seen what was going to happen to myself and put it into my novel.

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The Writing Moment

Finished editing and revising for the day on page 320 of 525 on what I consider the fifth revision. A sixth revision is planned. It’s needed for the music and levels.

Started a new novel today. I’d been thinking about it, and the words began coming to me last night, so I sat down to write those opening pages so they’re not buried in memory with other ideas. This is a corollary novel to the work in progress. The main character is level seven.

All very satisfying and challenging. Still, I look forward to being done (enough) with revisions that I’m happy and able to advance toward the next steps to publication with it.

Cheers

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The Writing Moment

Another revision of the novel in progress has been finished. The book has grown with this effort and is now 157K words and 520 Word pages one-inch margins.

Hoping I’m not jinxing matters, I feel happy and comfortable with how it has developed. This last revision was an entertaining project. I’m more familiar with the story and characters and had greater understanding of what to emphasize and what to cut back.

I finished just in time for the year end. Now I’ll take a pause for the holiday and then begin another revision cycle after the new year has begun. Cheers

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The Writing Moment

Deeply into revision after letting the novel in progress simmer for a few days. Surprising early cuts come, which weirdly feel ‘natural’. Like the book is already out there, and I’m shaping the manuscript to fit it.

The process is much more involved and slower than the creative writing stage. With the entire story from beginning to end filled in before me, I know how I want to sharpen its focus. Ten pages have been sliced away from the beginning. What remained of that bird required extensive rewriting. It’s like that first draft was an exploration of the history of an event and the characters populating it. Now that I’m familiar with it, I can properly tell the story. From less comes more.

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