The Revision that Would Not Die got a stake through the heart just a few minutes ago. I’ve finished it, got to keep the ending I loved, and everything came together.
Tomorrow, typing. But not tonight. Tonight I just get to be happy. And DONE.
Never underestimate the power of pain, and having lying down hurt as much as sitting up. I’ve done an enormous amount of writing, rewriting, and revising today, and only have thirty pages of The Wreck of Heaven‘s manuscript left at this point — and most of those page, I think, are going to get the axe, since I let the book run on too long in the first draft. The end is in sight.
After this I have to type in all those revisions, of course, but that’s minor. I’m so excited. And relieved. I should finish tonight.
The set-up for this — it’s just a transitional piece, but it shows the effects of big magic a long way away, and the way worlds in the Sentinels’ universe connect. And it was fun to write, so I’m posting it here.
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Falling back into the writing yesterday was tough — and I’d actually gone to bed with little done. Thanks to ending up sick, however, I got a lot more done than I thought I would; I got back up and manages to do six pages of an insert demonstrating the effects of magic on Earth as it rebounds up from a war six worlds downworld, by tracking it through the other worlds before it hits.
I spent a great deal of time researching for small cut-scenes — the problem was that I quickly ran out of natural disasters and needed some new ones, but of very specific sorts. The internet is great for research of this sort.
I like the new material, and along with it managed to get a nice chunk of revising done. Sometimes it pays to feel too bad to sleep.
I needed some think time. Not quite sure how to deal with the next bit of revision. I’ll have to figure it out when I get back up today, but Saturday and Sunday I actually took off — first time I’ve given myself a whole weekend in a while.
And something silly:
Queen of Naboo. You could have a split personality – simply to hide who you really are. You are extremely polite and gentle. However, if needs be, you will take action and can be a very good leader. You have the power to make people believe in you – use this power. The one you love could also end up being the one you hate.
I never made it to the writing computer. I am frustrated beyond words — this is the revision that will not end. I have less than a hundred pages left, and usually I would look at that and think, “Right, have it finished today.” This time, I don’t even dare guess. Next week? The week after? With new storylines, multiple major plotline revisions, and the need to keep up with continuity throughout, and the need to not screw up the good stuff, this has been way too much work and nowhere near enough fun.
Oh. And the community it tits-up again, with no warning — emphasizing once again my need to get it off N54 and move it to my own domain and control.
I’ll look through stuff tonight and put something up tomorrow afternoon.
I’ve never written so much new material for a revision before in my life as I’m doing for The Wreck of Heaven. I’ve already done six new-from-scratch scenes that add an extra sixty pages to the manuscript. I’ve cut and rewritten and completely rethought two existing storylines, including the major one. I might have 20 pages so far out of the first 373 that have no marks on them at all — but certainly no more.
Damn, this is awful. Not the book — I like the book, love the story, and the revisions are making it even stronger. But I sat down today thinking, Yeah, I’ll finish this thing today and I’ll be able to start typing in the revisions tomorrow. But as of right now, just after ten p.m., I still have 148 manuscript pages to revise, and I know of at least one more complete new scene I’ll have to write.
My brain feels like pudding, and this revision reminds me of the staircase I created in Sympathy for the Devil, the one that keeps getting longer and longer until the person using it is precisely the right degree of late to get into the worst possible trouble. Feh! I want to get back to Midnight Rain already!
Well — bitchfest over. Onward.
I only have about 3/4″ of manuscript (measuring the stack) left to edit on The Wreck of Heaven. I’m going to have an amazing amount of typing to do when I get the edits done, but I still think I’ll be able to get the clean manuscript and disk done this week.
Matt’s fix on Lauren’s story has worked out well. I’m past that part now, and hoping that the last section of the manuscript won’t end up looking like the Frankenstein’s-monster patchwork that the first huge chunk does.
I’m looking forward to having this done. Once it’s finished, I get to get back to Midnight Rain.
And to think I thought these were going to be easy revisions. Hah.
Had to quit last night when I was too tired to think my way out of an unnecessary stupidity Molly committed in the first version of the book. Today, I sat down, did four lines of a timed writing, including a couple of sentence fragments, and the idea for the fix slammed me between the eyes.
So I’m flying again. Will probably be working on this most of the night, but I’m getting there. I had hoped to be done last Tuesday, but I’ll finish in the next couple of days, and that will be fine, too. I love the way this revision is going.