Revising

As you know, I've finished my manuscript and now it's on to revising. First step: printing out the sucker and reading through it. The first read through I try to look out for only big picture things--plot, characters, setting. I'll map out my scenes and see how they flow. I'll make a plot graph to analyze the pacing of the story. It sounds boring and to many people it is but for me this is the fun part. I get giddy as I think of all the potential the story has. It's pure creation--my favorite kind of high.

Writing Update: Finished Draft

I finally finished the draft of the story I've been working on all year. It's a very rough draft and there were multiple times I wanted to trash the whole thing. I'm very hard on myself during the drafting process that it becomes draining on me. Pulling the words out of me is like pulling teeth out. It's hard for me to just write and not edit as I go but I know if I don't get the words out I won't ever finish. Well, I finally did and now I've got a really ugly draft to revise. But I actually love revising. It's like a puzzle. The drafting process is when you create all your puzzle pieces and revising is when you actually do the fun part of putting the puzzle pieces together. I'm looking forward to printing out my manuscript and tearing up that sucker with a red pen!