I made grand plans for my Spring Break, as you may recall. I claimed that I was, over 11 days, going to try to (start and) finish first-pass revisions on my MS.
The 11 days came and went, and I did make hella good progress. I revised what ended up being 16 out of 24 chapters.
Last night, I finished.
Before the reflection, here are some fun stats:
Original draft word count: 86,115
Second draft word count: 88,362
Number of chapter totally cut: 3
Number of chapters totally re-written or added new: 5
I couldn't even begin to estimate how many new words I wrote, beyond the entirely new chapters. There isn't a chapter in the book that hasn't been tweaked, and most of them got some pretty serious scene re-vamps.
So, this has been my first foray into revising a novel. Honestly, I really like it. Drafting is stressful for me, and it's been nice to finally be on the other side: the path is already laid; I'm just planting flowers. (Is that a terrible analogy for it?) Really, I was doing more than planting flowers. I'd thought my "few" ideas for changes would require minor rewrites, but obviously that did not come to be.
And I came up with even more new ideas as I rewrote and wrote new chapters and scenes, so now I'll be going back to add in the needed groundwork for those ideas...
I suppose that will go on for a while until I've gotten all my threads neatly tucked. Then I get to make sentences pretty.
As for when that will be, I'm not sure yet. The semester is hurtling toward an end. I have to write 2 care plans in the next 3 weeks and take one more Pharmacology test.
Then we have the joy of having 2 finals for each nursing course and my A & P final and then... I'm done with my first year of nursing school. I'll be half-way done.
Holy crap.
12 comments:
Congrats on the revisions!!!! I'm so excited for you, getting to the end. You continue to inspire me :)) Good luck on finishing up the school semester. Rock those care plans and test/finals.
My kids start Spring Break tonight. So, I guess this is the last day of MY vacation! hahaha
You are just blazing through your writing AND nursing school! You rock. :)
Congratulations, Summer! The drafting stage stresses me as well. I like to be finished with that and have the story laid out before me so I can really see it. As you said, the path is laid.
You have surpassed yourself, amazing Summer!! Yay for you!!!
Take care
x
Sounds like you made some excellent progress. Congrats!
Congrats! I always thought finishing a draft of a novel would be the most exciting thing. That is, until I actually finished revising one.
What great revisions! And so exciting that you're almost done with your first year. You have a lot to celebrate :)
Woohoo on manuscript revisions! Why is it they always take longer than originally planned?
Congrats!!!
Yay for finishing draft two! :)
I know you'll do marvelous on your finals.
I hope E and kitties and you and the house etc. are all doing well.
Love,
L
This is why i need a list of scenes before i write a first draft, so it's less stressful and i have to do less cleanup.
YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR!
I would get bored and give up if i had to do all that work you did.
Also, i know you'll pwn those finals
Wow! quite a balancing act. You really have achieved a lot.
With all that energy, I think I'd believe you, if you told me you just run rings around the moon.
Congratulations girl!
I feel your pain with finals. Just comming up. Thank goodness this is the last day of classes so I can buckle down and start studying.
congrats on your novel by the way.
Post a Comment