I had a goal to finish this draft by Friday. Yeah, I’m not going to make it. It’s not because I’m not working hard, I am. Mostly. The editing is taking me longer than I had anticipated. Because I’m a pantster my early writing is me discovering and telling myself the story. Yea, I’ve found a lot of telling. In many scenes, while the kernel of the scene is sound, there is so much that needs help it’s easier just to rewrite from the ground up. That’s why it’s taking so long. I’m hoping that having been through all of this my next book will be better from the get go. Anyway, back to work.
When you revise do you tweak and adjust the scenes, or do you start from scratch?
Oh, I know the problem first hand. I've been going back and trying to knit together my WIP and the early stuff I wrote is atrocious! Horrible. It's taking much longer than I thought it would, too.
ReplyDeleteWell, I suppose finding that all our early stuff is horrible means we're improving so...Hooray for rewrites.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Spesh!
ReplyDeleteAs for me, my first drafts are pretty horrid. Sometimes I'll get a page that shines more than normal, but mostly it's full of telling, crappy dialogue, tons of he said/she said, very little narrative, and generally low-quality sludge. [g] The times that I _have_ rewritten a scene from the ground up, it's been much better.
I have faith that you'll be just fine. :)
Depends on how much of the scene is worth saving. Sometimes it's a bit of an edit here and there, and sometimes it's the shredder!
ReplyDeleteJill, those pages that shine are worth all the rest that need to be rewritten aren't they.
ReplyDeleteWiddershins, here's hoping you mostly get the ones that only need an edit. Hope you're feeling better.
ReplyDeleteI am a pantser as well. Sometimes it's awesome and sometimes I get so lost! lol I've been outlining the middle of my recent book since I got a little off track on it, but I'm doing better now. Good luck! :D
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about getting lost. I had to do a sort of outline in between drafts. Good luck with yours.
ReplyDeleteI'll cry with you! Editing takes bloody forever... I've finally got it down to where I can see a finite number of highlighted bits to fix on each page but some of them *still* say things like [need end] and [does this fit?] and [fix build up to this] and [pace!!]. Waaa!!!
ReplyDeleteIt does take forever but it will be worth it. Hope your class is going well and helping with all that.
ReplyDelete