Congrats, give yourself a well deserved pat on the back. As a matter of interest just how many pages is that?
Thank you @Krispee and @BookLover ! @Krispee that's 490 pages, 91,500 words. @EdFromNY and @jannert I have missed you guys very much. How have you been?
Been doing well, thanks. I just retired, and am focusing my efforts on trying to get Rosa's Secret published. I've also been casting about for my next project and I have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be.
I'm still kicking. Not quite as productive as Ed, but getting there. Formatting my novel for Kindle publication, but lots of other stuff is getting in the way at the moment. I'll be glad to have the freedom to get back to it.
I'm going to be replacing my desktop with a laptop and I'm wondering how you like writing with an Alienware. I tried one out and it was easier to type on than most. But since I found out about the MSI GT80 (which is way expensive) I'm drooling over its Cherry MX Brown keyboard. Trouble is, I can't find one to try out before buying. My wife says I should just go for the Alienware and if it doesn't work out, I can just carry around the USB Cherry keyboard I already have. So, what's your take? Do you find the Alienware keyboard less error prone than other laptops? Or do you use a peripheral USB keyboard instead?
Oh! I forgot to say: Congratulations! I went through a similar experience this year, so I know how tough it can be. I did a page-one rewrite of my novel after realizing it needed a lot more structure and it is daunting. Did I put enough emphasis on that? You deserve a hearty pat on the back, TDFuhringer.
I haven't noticed any errors with my Alienware. Though I should point out that I have a fully-loaded Alienware M18X, which in it's day was considered the best gaming laptop in the world. I got it 4.5 years ago and it STILL exceeds the system requirements for most software and games. And the beautiful green and black light-up keyboard still works perfectly despite my pounding several million words on it.
I hate it. I wish I was a good enough writer not to need it. It takes so much time and feels so painfully slow. I end up spending as much if not more time on revision than the initial writing. And I edit as I go. My first drafts are pretty clean and not bad, but they sure can get better through the revision process. Also, I also make things up as I go when I am writing so somethings things need a little adjusting depending on what direction I end up taking my story. During my revisions, my writing always gets better. The story gets better. If I didn't like the results, I wouldn't force myself to put so much work into revision. But now summer's almost over and I have a bunch of newly written short stories that are nowhere near ready. I've been putting off revision. A lot of short story markets close their reading periods during the summer. I thought I was going to be ready to submit a bunch of new stuff on Sept. 1, but I think I will be lucky if I can get one new story in shape to submit by then. Have any of you found ways to make the revision process go any faster? Do you hate revision? Do you love it? (I'm told some people love it.) How do I hate it less? It just feels like so much work. And I almost rather do anything else. The last time I sat down to work on revisions, a new story idea popped in my head. I wrote the whole thing in one-sitting (about six hours). Now, there's another story added to the pile I need to revise before I can submit. And that happens sometimes. I get frustrated and just write something new. But it doesn't help or address the problem of needing to do revisions. Did any of you have to change your mindset about revision? How did you do it? Hating the revision process is kind of a problem. These stories are never going to become my best work without it. I just really hate doing it. I would love to hear what you guys think about revision and how if you have any suggestions for motivating myself to get cracking on these. I know most of you write novels over short stories, but I think revision is revision. I really want to be able to do this without hating (and I mean really hating) the whole thing. I think the reason I hate it so much is that it really is such a long process for me. Sometimes, if a story is giving me a lot of trouble I just open a new document and rewrite it from scratch. And sometimes when I do it that way, it feels like less work, but that's not always the right path for all of my stories. What is your revision process like? Anything you've learned that made the process easier for you?
I usually hate revising right after I finish the first draft. I spent all this time finishing it, and I don't want to go back over it right away. So I take some time off and work on other things. Maybe I'll start another piece or edit something else I finished a while back. I've learned that it's OK to take breaks, and rushing things is counter-productive. This process works for me, and it may work for you as well.
Thanks for your reply. Revision just sucks, right? Since you hate it too how do you bring yourself to do it? I guess the only answer is to just do it, but I never feel like doing it. And working on new stuff instead has just seem to compound my problem. I just end up with more things that need revision and more revision I don't want to do. I am making my best attempt at being a full time fiction writer. I'm trying to treat it like a job. I know revision is part of that job. And like I said, my plan was to have all these stories ready to send out on Sept. 1. I've managed to put it off long enough that I there is no way I will be ready. It would just be really foolish for me to take a break when I'm already behind schedule. I need to somehow figure out a way to not be so completely turned off by revision. Have you figured out anything else that works for you other than writing new stuff?
Not really. You're going to just have to sit down and make yourself do it. It's a part of writing, and even though you may not like all aspects of it, the goal is to have a polished piece. Revision is just part of that process. Good luck!
I really like - most of the time. There's one piece I'm revising at the moment that's making me want to cry. I'm basically rewriting it over and over liking it less each time. But most of the time... As I see it, my first draft, I generate the raw material, then I chop it up, move things around, make some bits bigger, others smaller, make notes like 'hint about this here', 'remember to mention this here', 'you seem to have forgotten about character X here' and turn a vaguely story-shaped collection of sentences into something coherent, engaging, affecting. (Hopefully.) That's when it actually becomes a story, which is really satisfying. And because it happened piecemeal, it's like you can't even quite trace how it came about. It's a wee bit magical. (It's worth noting I've only ever finished 6 stories.)
Rewriting is essential. But first you need to work on your judgment. Without good judgment you won't recognise problems. Or you might recognise the problem, but can't do anything about it because you don't have the know-how. You'll rewrite it to within an inch of its life and then give up. The most important thing a writer needs to do is recognise when something is absolutely shit or just right. Be brutal with yourself. You never know, you might have some sort of Steinbeckian breakthrough. I'll probably read this later and think it's absolutely shit.
I'm weird. I like revising and editing, but I agree that it's a longer process than writing. On my first draft, I write with no outline or a very rough one. But on the revision phase, I start building a reverse outline and a proposal outline for the 2nd draft. I found that I like making outlines but hate using them during the 1st draft.
At a writer's conference recently, I heard a speaker say that for many writers, the first draft is the writer telling him/herself the story, and revision is to tell the reader the story. I find there's a lot of truth in that.
I hate revising and find it tedious in the extreme. It took me almost as long to edit the first draft of my novel as it did to write the damn thing in the first place. But it was sorely needed before submitting the MS, so I put in the effort even though I'd have much rather been moving on to the next thing.
I just can't seem to get through this revision crap. I am so sick of this story I don't even want to read it again, but every time I go through it, I find something that needs my attention. It's a good story, and I don't want to blow any chance I have of publishing it because I didn't work hard enough on it. And this is just one of many lined up for me to edit and revise. And if everyone is going to reject me anyway, is there even a point to all this? I just want to scream and pull my hair out. And I want to publish. I really want to publish. Grrrr.
@deadrats : You want us to critique that? @Sal Boxford : You finished six stories? My stories are never finished, not one! Every time I open one I edit something. Is there a difference between revising and editing?
I just ask myself how I make the story better. Like that movie you saw and felt unsatisfied, how would you make it better?
Thanks, Scot. But I'm not really comfortable posting a story for critique since I plan to submit these pieces. But it's a nice offer. And it's not like I'm stuck. I just want to be done and move on. Did you mean you haven't finished one short story or a novel? On here they both seem to be called stories. I lost count a long time ago as to how many short stories I've written. Somewhere between 75 and 100, maybe. But that's just how many I've had to write to get to this point. It's like I have to write a few sucky ones to get out a good one, and this cycle has been going on for years. Foolish me, the lonely writer. Okay, back to work. Thanks, everyone, for your support.
