Today is the day I get down to business. Today is the day I make all adjustments and revisions to my manuscript before sending it off to my faculty mentor.
Revisions = arts and crafts. Those things on the floor are orphaned scenes.
This is a task I’ve been putting off, because it horrifies me. The first draft of this novel is not finished. Revising feels like going backwards. I don’t particularly want to read what I wrote in the first chapters. I hate having to put scenes in order when not all the scenes are written yet. I really hate the idea of making cuts to the manuscript this early in the game.
But since this is for a structured academic program, that’s what I’m going to have to do. And let’s face it: my mentor is probably going to want to read a draft with as few misspellings and typos as possible, so I have no choice but to make the manuscript presentable now.
The good thing is this: By the end of the day, I’ll have a very good idea about the shape of the story I’m trying to tell, and all of my scenes will be, roughly, in order.
So let’s do this thing – no Facebook, no Twitter, no email until I am done revising. I may have my husband unplug our router.
Clean manuscript or bust.
Today is the day AJ kicks ass and takes names.
How did I miss this?
I don’t know. But you and Phil somehow found it at the same time.
You are a goddess. I gave up on revising yesterday and just sent everything I had. Kudos to you.
Why thank you, Phil. I don’t blame you for giving up – you’ve been working on your novel for more than a year and you probably have shelves worth of revisions from workshops and writers’ groups.
All I have are the comments from the last residency and I still am not done with all my revisions. It’s probably going to take me until the end of the weekend.
you can do it!!!!
Thanks Erin! It’s almost done – I managed to rein in my ADD and focus for once!
Good for you Ann! I’m revising my samples based on the excellent comments from my fellow students and then….will be doing something similar to what you’ve laid out on the floor. No Facebook! If I see you on it, I’ll yell at you? OK? We’ll get there yet!
Thank you Jane! You are the first of two people who offered to yell at me if they saw me on Facebook today! I got through almost the whole manuscript today. How did your revisions go?
A creative day, in its own way, ahead of you. Good luck!
Thank you, Donna!