Writer's Wednesday: Revisions/Re-Visions

Yes, my friends, it's that time again!

Revisions!

Notes and outlines and corrections and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! 

Whenever and wherever I have the chance to work on it.

Okay, those are old photos, but you get the idea. 

Today's discussion: where am I in the process, and how is it going? 

Way back last fall, just before I began drafting Seffi Wardwell #3 (Edited Out), I took a squint at #2. My initial reaction was that I'd done an amazing job with the first draft (not something I usually think). My second reaction was that if I thought it was all in such good shape, I needed a second opinion.

I don't usually care to have anyone read a story until I've revised it a couple of times, but I needed advice, so Ellen Jacobson kindly agreed to read the MS of Washed Up With the Tide.  

Thanks to Ellen's insightful comments, I am now in the process of my usual level of revision and re-vision. Between her comments and my own realizations as I began reading again, I decided that YET AGAIN I needed to adjust a few things... like whodunnit.

This has led to a bit of introspection about my planning and outlining process. It's tempting to wonder if all that work I put in on outlines is wasted. On reflection, however, I think that even if the conclusions I reach before I start writing are upended in the writing or editing process, the work put in to understanding the characters and thinking about the plot is of use, if not downright essential.

So where does that leave me? 

1. Combing through the MS to figure out where the changes need to go,

followed by:

2. writing and rewriting scenes to  make those changes,

which will allow me to 

3. go through it all again to smooth out the bumpy parts of the changes.

After I do all that I can send the story to the next round of beta readers before I begin polishing the prose.

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
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