It’s crunch season at my soulless corporate writing gig, so personal revision is proceeding at a creep. Since the last update, the revision has reached the point at which I’d left myself a note that Heroine didn’t have to participate so much in Hero spilling his guts. He wants to tell her. He’s not lying.
I still imagine that when I get to 75% of this revision pass, I’ll feel like the end is in sight. *plugs latest numbers into progress bar* I’m never going to see 75%, am I?
I left this review sitting in drafts for months because it inadequately expressed my like for the book, but since the book is currently on sale for $1.99 in preparation for the sequel’s release, perhaps the price can do much of the persuasion with minimal help from me. Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans The Burnished
In this round of revision, I unraveled the mystery of my repeated notes to “mention a train.” Trains are technologically appropriate for the worldbuilding, but no one rides one in this story, and Past Me harped on it an awful lot for it to be only a handy size comparison for one creature.
I’m at the point of revision where I’m unconfident any word means what I think it means. Cue looking up big, snooty words¹ like “rife” and “meander.” Spellcheck randomly putting a red squiggly under “extent” didn’t help. And spellcheck approves “troublemaker” but not “troublemaking,” so does or does not the latter need a space? A
In this bout of revision, I added some physical actions in the form of “exercises.” Heroine went through a lengthy convalescence followed by months of relative peace in the marsh and isn’t in her peak physical form. As soon as she admits she won’t be able to fade into the background and evade what’s coming,
Every time I mentioned Hero’s age at the time of his traumatic childhood event in previous drafts, I wrote “ten (or twelve?).” Unable to remember if I decided one or the other earlier in this revision pass, I wasted a fair amount of time searching for that answer and debating the pros and cons of
This isn’t a Never Do This Shit post because movies are great for teaching a lot of general storytelling concepts. Many of film’s lessons about pacing, rising action, characterization, doling out exposition, the content of dialogue, and more can be directly applied to stories that are meant to be read rather than produced and watched.
Since last time, I added a dark mode toggle to the site for folks who find a black background easier to read. The button floats at the lower right of the screen, and you can click back and forth to your heart’s content. Please be aware dark mode removes at least one accessibility feature (underlined
We’re now past the halfway point (as measured by how much of the previous draft has been eaten). Present working draft is around 95,000 words, which is 100% of many other books, so it doesn’t feel much like a celebratory milestone. I know I love this book because no matter how tired and defeated I