Life, Death, & Revision

Week 4 Revision: 14-20 Dec.

Well, the title is perhaps a bit much. But in truth this has been the toughest week of my revision.

I woke Monday morning to a number of missed calls, only to learn that my aunt had been taken out of this world in an act of brutal violence. In this time of pandemic and political upheaval, when we should be thinking about holidays and what joy we can… I’ve had to deal with a sudden death.

As I normally do, I tried to pretend that it wasn’t bothering me, and I set forth to revise my book for the rest of Monday. Monday is my day off of work and it is the day I like to get a jump on my writing, revision, or school work. I stared at the computer for over 8 hours and mostly went through the motions of revision.

I got two chapters done… while being distracted by the internet, talking to my teacher, sending emails that I was ignoring. I couldn’t focus. And for the rest of the week, it was much the same.

Making the Turn:

But I DO have to keep working. And it was actually while I was at work that I started to think about outlining the rest of the series that follows this book. And by Thursday I managed to get another four chapters revised.

Working through the pain and the anger, I have found an inner peace. And, well I do have some good news with this past week. We’ve started this post on a down note and now we’re going to move past it and concentrate on the work.

The Numbers:

The last chapters in the novel are much shorter than the beginning of the book so Once I hit Thursday and had 6 chapters done, I knew I could push on the weekend to get more done.

We finish week 4 with 12 chapters revised. Mostly just neatened and continuity fixed. I continue my hunt for bad writing… the “Was Hunt.” Several passages in the book are written in passive “he was doing this” speech instead of “he did it.”

With cutting and adding words, I netted -111 words this week. So the WIP is now at 193,345.

What’s Happening in the Story:

So, I still feel like I dropped the ball a little at the ending, and part of that is due to the fact that THIS part of the story is done, but the stories of these characters are not. Many of them are moving on to different goals and different roles in the next series.

That all said I really think I need to make sure that I have fulfilled many of the wants/needs of the main cast. Has Rune found his self-respect? I think he has but have I shown it adequately? This is where I need some readers to tell me what they think.

Caitlyn has grown mighty in her powers and has changed in her desires as well. She accomplished part of her goal and has a new one at the end… but her POV chapters end before this moment. The rest of her scenes are in other people’s POVs… so the reader doesn’t know what is happening in her mind.

They have to guess based on her words and actions. Hell, the final chapter of the book is from the pov of an animal watching the scene, and we really have no idea what any of the main cast is thinking at the end of the book. We have them suddenly agreeing to a different adventure, a different story, or some of them turning down the adventure for their own new goals. I don’t know if the chapter is brilliant or a total F#$% Up!

Other Business:

School is really laid back, with xmas happening this week, I have an extra week to get work done. So, I have done nothing last week and I’ll probably do one of my two assignments this week.

In other news though. I did finish a short story and submitted it for consideration. I moved away from writing shorts many years back. And since coming to school, I’ve had to write a few short pieces for various assignments, but otherwise I avoid short work right now. I worked hand and hand with my professor and wrote an interesting piece. If it sells then WOW, and if it doesn’t at least I’m proud of the work I’ve done.

I’ll of course keep you all appraised of how it does if it sells or if I submit it elsewhere.

This Week

As stated, this is Xmas week, so I don’t know what I’ll get done. I only have 7 chapters left to do to finish my first pass through the book. Might just try to get it done sooner rather than later so that I can hand it in for my prof to read early.

I have a journal entry to write, but again I have more than 2 weeks to get it done and I need to put together another portfolio… which I might just finish today as that’s all old work I already have done. I just need to compile and organize it.

Sorry to cut it short this week, but that’s where things stand.