When the Revision Workbook Needs a Rewrite
Hello Friends,
This is the first blog post that will land on my website, and with the workday being back on the horizon after a lengthy block of leave, I wanted to reflect on this last week.
I joke that I cannot wait until I am working on my writing full time and can control my own schedule, but when given the opportunity while on leave to control my own schedule, I work from dawn to dark regardless.
My week started with editing an old novel.
To turn back, a year ago I put my completed romance draft into the drawer. I knew it needed editing, and I had completed a pass, but it still needed a lot of work.
At that point in time, I did not have the energy to complete those edits.
Life got in the way, and it ultimately got mostly forgotten.
Fast forward a year, and I have started developing my own novel workbooks and am having a ball learning about different genres and how they differ from one another. After working through several genres, I realized that while the genre-specific workbooks were great at getting to the draft itself, it was at that point that the process just drops people off of a cliff. Which tends to be how novel workbooks usually leave writers.
What was missing was the next step in the process... the revision. The part of the process that I myself struggle with, and it makes me question the reality of a finished draft on the daily. This started extensive research into the revision process. The tools that help writers get to the other side of the finish line.
This research helped me more than my tentative swim through the trenches of editing had before, and I felt like I had produced a product that would help other writers as well.
However, once I had put it together, formatted it in a way that felt cohesive, and it found its way onto my website, that was when I found my old romance file and felt that would be a great opportunity to put what I learned to the test.
Problem? Even after adding everything into the workbook that I could find, there were still elements that I found I could add or rearrange. Sometimes even the simplest of fixes can make the most impact. One of those elements was adding cut-out cards at the back of the workbook that allow the reader to rearrange the scenes.
Reorganizing, rewriting, creating new content, all of it to make The Novel Revision Workbook what it is now.
With work back on the horizon, heading back into the office tomorrow, I'm pleased with where the time off left me. The website feels more complete, especially with the addition of a methodology page, which felt all the more important after sifting through all of my workbooks and making edits.
I'm glad you're here, and I hope this day brings you peace.
May the muses favor you,
Chris
Comments