All Downhill Now (Revision 3)

More than Halfway There

And yes, every time I say “halfway there”, I want to follow it with “living on a prayer.” I am well aware how much that ages me.

This is week three of my Revision Process for the Thesis Diary. We covered more ground, we are into the last half of the book, and I had a ton of other work stressing me out… so everything is very much the same and normal.

Week 3

Well, I managed another 8 chapters have gone through their first revision pass. This is the first work where we reached negative word count. In the previous two weeks my add and subtract leveled out to new words added to the novel. But this time we netted a lose of fat from the manuscript.

So, 8 chapters done brings us to 31 total chapters revised. We lost 603 words from the manuscript bringing the WIP down to 193,456 total words.

Goals:

With Christmas coming up and dealing with work and school work, I still think if I can keep it around 6 chapters a week, I’ll be done with the first pass through in less than three weeks. For week four though I really want to push to get through 9-10 chapters, that way I can be super lazy during the Christmas break week.

It also serves a second goal. The last 10 chapters of the book are all overlapping. I mentioned in my previous 2 or 3 posts about how I wrote that whole section. It is a series of scenes where all of the POVs are coming together and I show the same information from different directions.

I have felt that this entire 10-chapter section of the novel (collectively called the End) needs to be rewritten or reworked entirely. I feel that it all needs to be done better. Besides that, in the revision process I have identified a bunch of points (continuity) I forgot about. Silly and important details that didn’t get mentioned, or didn’t get the proper closure. I have a feeling that these chapters will see a massive shift in language, pacing, and will be entirely rewritten.

Classes…

So, I mentioned that for my class this past week I had to rewrite a short story. I went through 5 drafts on this story, and unfortunately didn’t get final feedback in time to even use the story for my assignment. (In case you haven’t read the previous posts, and why wouldn’t you, they’re fairly short? I can wait. Go back and read the rest of the series.)

The assignment required me to submit the story and include proof of the submission. I hate handing assignments in at the at final hour of submission. I usually turn my assignments in days early if I can. But that proved impossible when I’m waiting for not only feedback, but I had someone who was going to introduce me to several editors who would have read my submission. (Basically, opening their submissions for me even though they were closed.)

Well, I had to submit my assignment on Sunday morning, it wasn’t due until midnight Sunday night, but… no… I just couldn’t wait even as late as noon, I just had to turn in the assignment. It is what it is.

Week 4 thoughts:

School work doesn’t look super heavy for the next couple weeks. One journal entry and another portfolio… all of the elements of the portfolio are already done so I’ll be putting them together later in the week.

It’s a very quiet week. So, I guess I’ll keep this short.

Anyone want to talk about comic books? Read a few fun ones this and last week. I highly recommend the mini series Modok Head Games and the King in Black Crossover is shaping up nicely.

Also, on the indie side of things I highly recommend Sympathy for No Devils and We only find them when they’re dead. Also, if you’re into meta-fiction and literature controlling the real world, you need to read Once and Future. All fantastic.

If anyone is interested in discussing, make a comment and I’ll tell you why I love the above comics, and more.