#WriterProblems: The Trouble With Revisions

I've been a little distracted lately (but in a wonderful, wonderful way) so my progress on revisions has been somewhat slower than I'd like- but I'm back at work now and getting back into the swing of things so revisions are picking up steam and that means that I'm wrestling with that age old problem of how to revise, what to revise and more importantly, how to make my story even better.

I'm not going to lie:  it's hard sometimes.   You throw a lot of energy into writing a book and when you get constructive criticism and feedback you can feel good about it because you suddenly have ideas that make your book better but there are also moments where everything seems bleak and you doubt that you can make any of it work.  

Right now, I'm sort of evenly balanced between the two.   I've got a lot of good feedback from people which is exciting because I've got a long list of plot problems and continuity issues to fix and characters that didn't seem that important suddenly have become very important indeed.  The most exciting thing of all, however:  the bones of my story are intact.  The overall plot still holds.  There's work to be done of course but it's nice to have that reassurance that your overall idea doesn't totally blow.

But then you plunge right back into the trouble with revisions:  keeping it all straight.   Making sure that when you're revising one chapter and polishing, burnishing, and making it beautiful you're not totally screwing up a chapter somewhere down the line and making a bigger mess for yourself.  It's also exciting-  elevating the characters you've created and the narrative you've painstakingly woven together.  I've always thought that it wouldn't matter how long or how short my novel is- all that mattered to me was that I could look back through it and be satisfied that it was the best possible story I could make before turning it loose on the world.

So far, I've worked my way through the Prologue and Chapter 1.   Chapters 2, 3 and the rest of them are up next- so be on the look out for a taste or two as I kick things into high gear to try and get this thing ready for the fall.   My biggest challenge remains lining up my cover art- but that's another problem entirely.

As for me, I'm going to roll up my sleep and get back to wrestling with my revisions.   Time to get this polished up and over the finish line.