Revisions update - the road goes ever on and on...

Wonder of wonders I actually managed to carve out about 45 minutes for revisions over lunch today. If I'm writing fresh I can usually do about 800 words in that time. Revising, I had a net gain of about 350 words and advanced 8 pages. However, my chapter six is now my chapter 2 (and chapters 1-4 have vanished completely. When I start in the wrong place I really start in the wrong place.)

Thanks to stephanieburgis I came across a post on Terri Wyndling's blog about Creative Burn Out - something I could relate to as the past 6 weeks of day-jobbery have been unbelievably busy and really the slow down isn't likely to happen until the last week of November. We will strive to write and revise despite that, but if there aren't enough lunchbreaks (or lunchbreaks long enough) to acheive that during the week then it may have to be the weekends that bear the brunt of any creativity my tired brain can dredge up. (I think I also need to cut back on the coffee and up my intake of water and fruit juice instead.)

In other news, I have been sleeping well due to my autumn-cleaning tasks on Saturday which involved the washing and putting away of the summer curtains and the putting up of the winter curtains. (Velvet - Mormor picked them up from a charity shop for next to nothing.) They're lined so going to bed is very much like hibernating in a cave because even the street light can't get through, hard as its little orange glow may try. Of course, the downside is that when the alarm goes off at 06:00hrs it's still like being in a cave and no-one wants to get up. Early mornings are traumatic in our household. The beasts don't like late nights either and start pestering for the entire household to go to bed at 22:00hrs thank you, very much.

In other, other news, a screech owl has decided that now is the perfect time to fly around. Screeching. The last time we went out in the evening, about 20:30hrs, we actually got buzzed by it. The beasts ducked and so did I but I think that if I'd stayed upright I could have reached up and touched it, it was that close. Fantastic. And on the positive side at least it didn't screech whilst doing the fly-by. I think the beasts would have legged it if it had.


(Cross-posted from LiveJournal)

19th September

I've started revisions on the YA urban (rural?) fantasy novel that's refusing to tell me its title and so far things are going well. I've cut out the first three chapters as being the wrong place to start and now it's more firmly in the action which is good. I did find, when making the revision notes, that there were a few scenes I need to write to make sense of things but so far I'm quietly confident and hoping that confidence will tide me over during the rough bits! I'll log how long it takes me to incorporate all the revision notes so that I have some idea +/- for future novels.

I'm also working on a couple of shorts in between as a way of breaking up the work and that seems to be going well, too so I'm pleased with that.

Revisions | Slice 'n' dice

Yesterday was fairly successful on the revision front as I managed to get through 21 pages on various breaks throughout the day - I didn't get home until late so I didn't do any more then. The last few pages (about 4, I think) I'll do today and then there'll be a final read-through before sending off. Then it's: tweaking Earth and sending it back out; a non-fiction article; and then--finally--back to the UF and the dreaded read through of the 235 (MS format) pages I've written so far.

However, while lying in bed trying to get to sleep last night, I realised something about my main character which would (a) excise two characters and a fair amount of words and (b) increase tension a bit more as there really won't be anyone to rely on. I decided not to depend on my brain to remember what I'd thought so I dutifully lurched out of bed, navigating round the cat and two of the dogs, who just drop wherever their energy runs out, and wrote myself a note. I love notes. And lists. Lists of lists. Lovely. ::hugs lists::

Ahem. Anyway. I'm on holiday in a week so I've booked in the UF kick off for then. I want the first, full, draft completed before the hell of induction etc. starts in mid-September, as for the first 4 weeks or so I'll be zombie librarian instead of incredibly alert and well-rested librarian.

Hmm. I need a zombie librarian avatar.