Anyone have any suggestions on how to take revisions one page at a time? I'll admit, I've been in a hurry and I had hoped to sprint through the second draft of this novel in a month, but it's taking longer than I wanted. Mainly, I'm noticing a lot of missing scenes. Today, I had a refrigerator moment where I tied together what happened while one of the three main characters took a three day nap. It wasn't important to the drama between the characters, so I just skipped the time between and glossed over what happened while she was out. I realized that one of the other characters could have had her biggest moment of the story during that time. So now, I have a whole additional chapter I need to write, but it'll be weeks before I'm at that part of the story. Anyway, just venting.
Not that I actually have a clue, but when I get to the second draft of this novel, I definitely don't anticipate that I'll be going after it one page at a time--I don't think it will be glued together nearly that smoothly. I expect that I'll be chasing subplots as they tunnel through the scenes, and considering the major parts and how they interact, and so on.
As I read through my manuscript I made extensive notes about what revisions to make. One of the things I learned was that the further I read those revisions revised the earlier ones. So, I did not touch the manuscript until I had done an extensive read through and created a revision bible of sorts.
Ugh. Revision. Don't even get me started... It's the worst. It's harder than writing and I just gave the writing everything I've got. Now I've got to make it better, make it make sense, make it everything I've ever wanted it to be. Just saying, I think we've all been there and it's never as easy as we think or hope it will be.
Yeah, seems that way lol thanks Positive note, I did add the chapter. 2k words took it well over 80k. Feeling good
I re-read and make notes. I focus on different things in the multiple passes. Plot holes, and proper dialogue that matches the characters (and their actions), pacing, things like that. All the while, I will catch grammar or typos as I go, even if not focus. But, taking notes to address something allows me to focus on other than every concern right at the moment I encounter it.
Actually, I rather like the revision process. That's when I make the subtle connections and find out things about my characters that I hadn't noticed before. After that I can go back and strengthen those things, if I want.
@John Calligan , that's a pretty normal thing to happen in the early sets of revision. That's why you do it. @K McIntyre added whole new scenes due to revisions, found she had reused the same name for two separate but very similar characters. Those are not "refirgerator" moments, but "AH-hah, glad I caught that one" moments. So keep up the good work. In my third or fourth revision, because I had to synopsize each chapter for my editor at first, I found I had a whole chapter in which they arrived at the seaport, the weather was beastly, the accommodations stank, and nothing much else happened. Ooops. And since the main character ran his whole shipping operation out of that port, he would have know where to stay, and it would have been pretty nice. Rewrite!
