I'm still going with this revision thing. I have next week off work, and the week after my studies begin, so my time is short. There was a point recently when I did a "mega-tweak" on my first chapter, and I thought I was almost there with fixing it. But as I read it on my Kindle, I got really discouraged by the amount of things I now needed to tweak in the wake of the mega-tweak. Thankfully I got past my moping and plowed on.It's quite an undertaking, fully rewriting a novel. When I first rewrote this one back in 2012, some things stayed the same, like my main character and her family. But a lot changed. A previous "good guy" became a bad guy. A new love interest materialised, and became the male lead. A best friend became condescending, and her boyfriend a jerk. The setting itself also changed from "aimless new adults living life after high school" to first year of university.
After that 2012 rewrite, I left the novel to stew for, ummm, five years? Yeah, that's all. When I returned to it in 2017 I saw that I'd created a hot mess, but thankfully I much preferred this "new" mess to the old one. 2017's revisions / edits are making me love it even more. They say write what you love, and each new tweak of a sentence, paragraph or section is bringing me closer to loving this novel.I think I've fixed most of the big problems, though there are still timeline blips to be worked out. I'm down to about 122,484 words, meaning I've shed 3,765 words or so. I need to shed a lot more! And no, I haven't removed my "darling" Jane yet. Still not decided on what to do there.
That'll do for now. But I wanted to mention that I'm reading Eleanor & Park after having it on my TBR for quite a while. I'm loving it.
Hi Trisha ... it must be quite challenging to change things around ... though uplifting as you can see the work improving and you're enjoying it more - makes it easier to write ... good luck with getting as much done as pos, before studies start up again - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteI rewrote a novel before so I know how much work is involved. At least you didn't let yours sit for almost thirty years.
ReplyDeleteI adored Eleanor and Park. And oh, yeah, it is definitely an undertaking rewriting :)
ReplyDeleteI finished it - it's amazing! I was happy with the ending too, though I know it's troubled some.
DeleteClearly an epic undertaking! Sounds like you're really invested in this novel so it's excellent news that you're getting closer to an end result that you love.
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