Ug, this revising thing is so TEDIOUS

Sunshine13 · Sep 11, 2008

So I was all gung ho when starting this whole nit pick revising/polishing thing. I'm to chapter 9 now and am so ready to be done! It's so BORING.

Granted, I'm learning from it and becoming a better writer by seeing how to reword sentences better, write them more active, etc. But my gracious me I have so many chapters to go! -cries-

Clarec · Sep 11, 2008

Is this your first revision? You'll be poking your eyes out by the third...

dawinsor · Sep 11, 2008

I love revising. It's my favorite part of writing. But for me, revising is less about sentence tweaking than about deepening the story, working on voice, adjusting the pacing, stuff like that. Then I go back and jiggle the language details. But that part's easy.

ABekah · Sep 11, 2008

My motivation for revisions / working on my novel when it gets too tedious?

Realizing that every moment you spend working on it is a moment closer to the querying process.

Matera the Mad · Sep 11, 2008

It's not a good idea to keep at it too steadily. When the brain knots up, stop! It doesn't help to start hating it. Write something else, or just read something. Skipping around isn't illegal either

Mad Queen · Sep 11, 2008

I love revising too, until I start hating it, but the first revision is all love, no hate.

jmarz01 · Sep 11, 2008

I hear you. I'm taking a break from revising, actually, over the weekend. I've hit a couple of rough patches and I've pulled out everything from my bookshelves that is similar in tone/content to my book, and written by authors whose work I admire. I'll be going through them with a highlighter, notepad and pen, noting how different authors deal with different technical issues.

I'm hoping figuring out some of the logistics sorts of issues will refresh me. I'm feeling somewhat discouraged this last 24 hours or so. I'm on a storyline/character deepening revision right now, and then I plan to do another revision to streamline the narrative. It's a monumental-seeming task, isn't it?

JamieFord · Sep 11, 2008

That's why I do it as I go along. I start each day tweaking/editing the previous days work.

Carmy · Sep 11, 2008

Ah, revision hell. Very familiar.

You revise, and revise, and then you do it again. Finally, you think it's probably about as good as it can be and you send it to a Beta. Then you start revising all over again.

Seriously, I've found if I dodge about among the chapters rather than do them in sequence, it becomes easier. Mainly because you can't be sure where exactly you are in the plot. If I do the chapters in sequence, I miss a lot because I'm "reading" ahead of myself.

Birol · Sep 11, 2008

Revision Hell: Where writing becomes work.

You have my sympathy. That doesn't mean you don't have to do it; you just have my sympathy.

caustic · Sep 11, 2008

JamieFord said:
That's why I do it as I go along. I start each day tweaking/editing the previous days work.

Sometimes this tactic gets me further into the story, and allows more of a flow between what I have written and what I am about to write.

Sometimes it's too distracting, but more oft than not, it helps.

Celeste_2sweet · Sep 11, 2008

Oh gosh! I hear ya! It's so annoying but still If I want something so bad its a small price to pay to make my dreams come true, DON'T give up!
Celeste

triceretops · Sep 12, 2008

Oh, Lawd. I know this one. My recent book is so stilted that my agent had to have a long phone chat with me, and I got some real valuable feedback from the critters here at Aw on the SYW thread. I'm gonna have to re-write the whole damn book. Thing of it is, the last two books my agent loved, and were stilt-free. Imagine that.

I've written over 2,000,000 words and I've gotten worse! Gak.

Chin up. Forge on. I know we can do it.

Tri

DeadlyAccurate · Sep 12, 2008

I love revising and editing. Though somewhere around the 15th pass, it does get a bit tiresome.

But I love when the plot has finally come together, the loose ends are all tied up, the dialog pops off the page, and I have all the description in. And it's a really real book then.

Sunshine13 · Sep 12, 2008

Clarec said:
Is this your first revision? You'll be poking your eyes out by the third...

Oh gosh no, this is my very last. Which is why I'm so impatient lol

tehuti88 · Sep 12, 2008

I'm not a revision sort until at least a few years have passed, so while I can understand the tedium for different reasons, I'm not on the same page as you...or most other people here, it seems.

I too recommend taking breaks now and then or writing on something else while revising. Writing something else can remind you of the fun part of the process while you take care of the...not-so-fun part of the process.

Or you can offer yourself a small reward every time you finish a chapter, something like that.

Phaeal · Sep 12, 2008

ChristaCarol13 said:
Oh gosh no, this is my very last. Which is why I'm so impatient lol

It's your very last when the publisher tells you so.

Straka · Sep 12, 2008

dawinsor said:
I love revising. It's my favorite part of writing. But for me, revising is less about sentence tweaking than about deepening the story, working on voice, adjusting the pacing, stuff like that. Then I go back and jiggle the language details. But that part's easy.

For me, it's a different high. Writing the first draft is about staying in the moment and just laying track. Revising and making adjustments to where that track goes and smoothing out the bumps in the ride. When I'm revising, I actually feel more like a writer, if that makes sense.

Sunshine13 · Sep 12, 2008

Phaeal said:
It's your very last when the publisher tells you so.

Well obviously

I am speaking, of course, before I start submitting it to agents.

Sargentodiaz · Sep 12, 2008

I have four completed works that I've editted and revised. As the moment, I've seen a major failing in one work and am in the process of making major changes that I hope will make it marketable.
It's a challenge that I think makes a difference between a Writer and a Storyteller.

Straka · Sep 12, 2008

lvcabbie said:
I have four completed works that I've editted and revised. As the moment, I've seen a major failing in one work and am in the process of making major changes that I hope will make it marketable.
It's a challenge that I think makes a difference between a Writer and a Storyteller.

That's an important distinction I learned after doing 4 WIPS. My earlier work were good stories, but would not have been very successful books I believe due to a variety of small reasons. For starters, tighter writing was needed as they were all toooo long.

Andreya · Sep 12, 2008

Oooh, I REALLY hate revising too!!

I feel I have so many loose ends & 'holes' in the story.. ugh.. I love it when I'm on a buzz & everything is free-flowing & just flowing together... so I love beginning & hate ending in the general sense too!!

but how can one ever finish & send off something without revising? OoO
maybe I expect too much from me, to just have a 'last' revision too.. when maybe I should just tell myself to have a few mini-revisions..? hmm...

gwendy85 · Sep 12, 2008

Well, I love revising. But I'd rather do it while writing the novel. When I'm in a writer's block, that's when I go back several chapters to revise.

Right now, all I'm really doing is editing. I feel like if I write and write and don't stop 'til I finish, I feel it's comparable to digging a hole without cleaning up and you end up with a pile of unflattened dirt behind you.

Using the same analogy, I like to rest after hours of digging, then patting the dirt down while I'm regaining my strength.

Then again, that's just me.

Telstar · Sep 13, 2008

I like revising. I like it so much that I feel to do it after i finish every chapter, usually the day after, which i dedicate to revision. I also think that this method helps me keeping the pace, alternating 3-4 days of work, one of revision and one of rest in the week.

This is against most advice I have read, but works for me and I know my fist draft is as polished as another author's third or fourth. And I wont need any major overhaul thanks of planning ahead (read outlining).
I don't feel it publishable because there will be more to adjust in the light of the completed book in terms of plot seeds, minor characters and info-dumps to smoother.

HeronW · Sep 13, 2008

Took me about 2 yrs to get back to tucking in the nits a friend who's an Eng. major found when she went thru the 117K book. That gave me distance emotionally and critically from a good work that I could make better without feeling like I'm wasting my time. After the nits were done, I'm going over it a second time seeing things she missed that I know I can improve on, and I'll do it again just to make it better.

It take us time to learn to balance so we can walk, then we learn to run and fall and get up and go on, then we get a goal, and we may not run to it, but we are cognizant of the wrong turns and distractions. So we improve.

Ug, this revising thing is so TEDIOUS

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