Saturday, May 4, 2013

Fighting perfect


I was doing my normal procrastinating and came across this set of entries- where DWS gives us a chance to follow along as he writes a novel in small bursts of writing throughout the day.
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=8935

Very interesting. I can't give up the need to revise- I wonder if his books would sell better if he edited at least a little bit, and he would say it's my loss as I've been making this the 'PERFECT' book for 7 years now, with no income to show for it.  Book = Event  (definitely a myth I cling to and believe)

Now off to do some more redrafting  - currently at 29/127 scenes

***Update 10:30pm (after a movie break)

I procrastinated most of the day but around 4:30pm or so, I settled down to work. Turned off the internet. Weirdly enough the DWS entries actually encouraged me to dial back in on my revision (which is completely opposite of what DWS preaches). But he does preach 'trust the process' which is something I haven't been doing consistently.

The last 4 scenes or so that I revised didn't have any plot holes but they just didn't feel right. And I was trying to soldier right on past them. Anyway I went back and fixed them.

One thing revision is teaching me is not to be afraid to let the characters ask each other difficult questions and to not to be afraid of letting in some more consequences. After fixing these scenes that were dragging on my psyche, they've added a nice bit of layering to plot points that happen later in the story. All thanks to getting out of my characters' way(s) finally.