Revision (comma) Moment of Self-doubt

[mer]

I am halfway tempted to call off this Major Restructuring Revision and do something much more basic, like just cut wordage and a few (seemingly, in comparison) minor things and pray.

Of course, the patient is on the operating table with his guts in one jar and his heart in a cooler, so of course it doesn't look good. Let's put the thing back together and see how it goes before we start looking for time travel to undo what has gone wrong. Shall we?

Comments

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

Keeping an older copy is always advisable when starting a major revision. If nothing else it keeps the paralyzing feeling of "OMG, what if I completely screw it up" form halting progress. I tend to number my revisions and keep all of them in an "old docs" folder within a folder that contains all the stuff relating to the story. And each story gets it's own folder.

[beth-bernobich.livejournal.com]

Ja, and for novels I keep separate sub-folders for each version, so I can store notes, outlines, and other files along with the main novel document.

[iuliamentis.livejournal.com]

Is the version I'm reading going to be differently structured, then?

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Yes.

You are reading the old version to tell me if I'm cutting to close to the bone...

[iuliamentis.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. Gotcha.

I used work resources (with permission!) and printed out the whole thing before lunch today, so it should go a bit quicker now that I can read it at lunch, while waiting in court, etc. I'm aiming to have it all read and a nice long e-mail to you by this weekend--is that okay?

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Totes fine. Email is not necessary, but def. appreciated.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

The first time revising a novel and trying to fix the structure is scary as hell. Overwhelming and filled with ohmigod what if I screw this up moments.

Sometimes when you're starting a major revision, it helps to not look at the whole thing. That is part of the overwhelming part. Break it down into sections, thirds or quarters, and decide what each section needs to accomplish. Trim, twist and tweak as needed.

Then you look at the whole thing and see if it all meshes together and is consistent.

I admit that I'm weird compared to a lot of my writer friends. I can see the whole story arc for a novel in my head. If you can visualize something like that and give yourself reference points, or goal posts to shoot for, cutting things between might be easier.

You can do this. Just remember to breathe.