It has been a week of revision for me. This is me revising:
I know revision is a necessity. I know it makes the book better. I know it's a wonderful thing to have an editor tell you what to do to make the book sparkle and shine.
But it is hard.
Really, really hard. Sometimes it's harder than others. And this time? Pretty dang hard.
Here is my top ten list of things I don't like about revision.
10. About halfway through, you start to question everything. Everything! It can become almost paralyzing, because you have this urge to erase the whole freaking file and start completely over.
9. It makes you focus on all of your weaknesses.
8. Because it makes you focus on all of your weaknesses, you start to feel like you really suck.
7. That sucky feeling makes you reach for the crappy food, because crappy food comforts you.
6. Because you're eating the crappy food, and sitting at the computer for 12+ hours a day, you start to gain weight.
5. Sitting at the computer for 12+ hours a day not only puts on the pounds, it also gives you raging headaches.
4. A raging headache means when you finally get off the computer, you are absolutely no fun to be around and your family wants nothing to do with you.
3. When you finally go to bed at night, hoping for sleep that will bring relief from the misery and pain, you toss and turn, plot struggles and character issues refusing to leave you alone.
2. Each passing day means more suck, more fat, more crankiness, and less sleep.
And the number one thing I don't like about revision.
1. It is messy. It is rip your book apart, throw the pieces on the ground, mix them up, throw some of them away, try to find new ones that fit, messy. I hate messes!! And then there's the mess that accumulates around the house while you're revising, too. See?
MESSY!!!!
I better get back to it. I have a lot to clean up.
~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career
7 comments:
Lisa, I also hate the way it makes you begin to question everything in your story, even the things that you thought made it special to begin with and weren't planning to change!
It's so great to know that successful (published) authors are just as frazzled with the process as the rest of us!
Just curious...what writing program do you use? I can see a bit of it on the screen.
Good luck with those revisions!
Jamie - I use Scrivener for drafting, but for revising, I use Word. Not sure why exactly, but that's what I do. :)
Oh, Lisa. Well, if misery loves company, these extra pounds and headaches are killing me. I hope you get through this one soon, partly for you and partly so I get to read another of your books soon!
Oh god yes, MESSY! I am dealing with this now. I LOVE when the mess is cleaned up though....
I feel ya! Man, I do NOT like revising.
Lisa, if you'd be up for talking about the software you use for drafting, I think that would be really interesting. I've been looking into one for awhile now and would love to hear the benefits. Good luck revising, even though it seems like you have most of it done now. Yay!
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