Saturday So What: Revisions

Today, I am searching for the vision in revisions. I'm currently working on three different books, each of them in a different stage of the the revision process.


Finished being Fat, is in the line edit stage. No thought required. Just fix the grammatic mistakes, a few word choices here and there.. and voila. Done.

Trouble's on the Menu, is in the editorial revision stage. That's where my editor has read through the manuscript, accepted it, but has a list of changes she wants before it goes to press. These can get really nit picky or broad. Most notes are content based. One in particular has me eliminating an entire character from the book.  I'm not gonna lie, it hurts, and it's a lot of work. There's an element of pride involved. Finding out some of the things you thought were clever turned out to be lame. But I have to change it anyway. Why? Because they're paying me to and my contract says I have to. LOL

House of Emerald is so much trickier. It's still in the pre-submittal phase. I'm working on it with my critique groups and a beta reader or two. This is where I need to find the vision. My vision, because everyone else has one as well. I have notes that say I need more description, I have notes that say I am using too much description. If I followed every single critique I've gotten, my book would be a mess. It's easy to take everyone's advice as law. But it's not. It's an opinion. And in the end, I need to weigh them and then trust my gut and incorporate some of the suggestions.

Revisions can be tough. It's really easy to get lost, but the best advice I can give is to remember one thing. It's your book. You make all the decisions until you sign that puppy over to someone else.  And even then if you really believe something, there's a bit of wiggle room. Trust yourself and your vision. At the same time, realize that sometimes you have to let a few favorite lines go for the good of the book.  Make a separate word file and cut and paste them over there. Never know when they might come in handy.

Thanks for reading. You can pick up a few pointers on character voicing on my blog post Tut, tut, looks like rain. Or read about the post marathon let down in ... now what?  See you next week.