Once again I am back to revision. Ask me any day of this month how things are going and I’d give you a different answer. This has been a particularly grueling revision as there was much I needed to change. I knew the ending needed a lot of work, so I dreaded even getting started. I was worried I wouldn’t add enough words since I’d quickly drafted the last 10k of the first draft and needed to at minimum add 10k to the second.
Then there are nonwriting-related stressors that only make all of this ten times more difficult. Then as always, as I am trying to finish up the current project, other projects are pounding at the door, doing everything in their power to distract me from the task at hand. Perhaps I should be grateful for this as it means I probably won’t ever run out of ideas, but it is just one more obstacle for me finishing the current things.
Progress
I was hoping to finish this first round of revisions by the end of July, but alas twas not to be. What is worse is that I’m so incredibly close and yet I will not get it done before I go camping. I was hoping to be able to unplug with no worries and I will try to do so anyway, but it is a little bit more difficult to do that with the last thirty or so pages dangling over my head.
I did revise 173 pages which is ironically only one page less than the length of my first draft. However, I’ve added 34 pages as I’ve drafted and I will add a few more by the time I’m finished. I drafted 21k words which is more than I thought I would in a revision month.
I’ve passed 51 queries and got some personalized feedback from the latest rejection which confirmed some of my suspicions as to why it hasn’t been getting as many requests as I would like. I will keep trekking forward with the manuscript anyway, as the issues pointed out are things I either can’t or will not change. They were written into the calculus of this book and why it might be rejected from the start.
What I’m Learning
Set your expectations lower. This is really something I should have learned much sooner in life, but alas I am stubborn. I have a tendency to expect the best and thus, when the best happens I feel as though nothing great has happened since that is what was expected. If it goes anything less than perfect, I am crushed.
Right now I am more so learning that this is an issue for me. I could get away with the disappointment of not getting the lead in my high school theatre productions, but that was nothing in comparison to writing, editing, and editing, and editing a manuscript only to have it get a lackluster response. Even though I know the odds and the statistics, I couldn’t help but expect to be better than the statistics would dictate. I feel like ego is such a large part of this industry and those who succeed. Ego is essential to do great things, but it can be absolutely devastating when those things aren’t realized, especially when you’ve put so much time and effort into a manuscript—not to mention pieces of yourself.
Leisure
Leisure has been scant this month. The biggest thing of note was that I went to see Deadpool and Wolverine, which was wonderful and wholly irreverent.
I also watched a bit of the Olympics, catching one of Rafael Nadal’s tennis matches and one of the USA Woman’s Rugby 7’s matches, like many I’ve been following Ilona Maher’s social media accounts because she is fascinating, funny, and ferocious on the field.
Looking Forward
I am starting to get excited about my next project. My plan has changed once again and I’ll work on Cut Throat next. When I went back to look at what brainstorming I had I was surprised to see that the document was just shy of 10k words. Apparently I was excited about it when I originally had it slated for before Project A.
My plan is to send what I have done of Project A to my Alpha readers to do another pass next week and then I’ll send them the last thirty pages to go over the following week before doing my second revision. My goal is to finish that revision by the end of August. After that it will go to Beta readers and then I will be able to get into the beginning of Cut Throat. I will have to take a week or two in September to do my third revision but I should be able to take a break from Cut Throat and go back to it.
Next week I plan to take a little bit of a break, but I will have my notebook and hope to work on some poetry and short story ideas I’ve been collecting while I worked on novel-length projects. I’ve also printed out my Cut Throat brainstorming pages to read over and get those ideas percolating in the back of my mind so I can hit the ground running after I’m back in a week.
One thing is for certain. I have no intention of slowing down, if anything I’m just getting started.
