Wednesday, June 5, 2013

The Ups and Downs of Revising and Other News

I'd like to thank Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this meme. If you'd like to learn more about it, click here.

The second round of edits on my upcoming novel caused my confidence to yo-yo all over the place. I went from this is good to oh my God this sucks to okay maybe it’s not so bad. The roller coaster of emotion is part of writing, I know that. When a scene is working, I love my story. Change a word here, add a sentence there—easy peasy. But when a scene isn’t quite right doubt sets in. I don’t remember feeling this way when I worked on Embrace, but I probably did. Thanks to my editor’s keen eye for details and suggestions on ways to turn a scene that wasn’t quite hitting its mark into one that flowed nicely, I finished revisions feeling good about the book again. Anyone else feel this way when you revise?

On other news, the Omnilicious Twitter Party last Friday was a huge success and tons of fun. We even trended in the US and a few other countries. Congrats to all the winners of the fun prize packs! And thanks to everyone who popped in and helped to make it a great event!

The cover reveal for HOLD TIGHT will be host by AToMR on June 26th. I’d love for you to join the fun! If you’d like to participate click here and fill out the brief sign-up form.

And last but not least, I have exciting news coming regrading EMBRACE and its cover. More on that next week.

12 comments:

  1. I totally feel that way during editing, at times asking "Can I write at ALL?" But other times you reread what you wrote and think, "That's pretty good!" Looking forward to the cover reveal.

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  2. I'm so familiar with the yo-yo editing emotional upheaval syndrome. I think it should be classified as an official writer disorder!

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  3. You're so not alone in the yo-yo. I think we're overly hard on ourselves because we feel like we should've seen whatever the editor finds ourselves -- but then there'd be no need for editing, would there? And as we've discussed many times, EVERY writer benefits from having a good editor, so you're only experiencing what we all do.

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    1. So true: EVERY writer benefits from having a good editor. I'm very happy to have mine.

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  4. Emotional roller coasters are the worst!

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  5. Revision can be tough and requires a lot of patience. I liken the whole revising process to wrestling. Sometimes it gets dirty!

    Btw, are you attending the SCBWI conference in LA this summer?

    Cynthia

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    1. Hi Cynthia. I like the comparison. I certainly did wrestle with a few sections.

      I won't be in LA this year. I know I'll me missing everyone come summer, though.

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  6. Hi, Cherie,


    Emotions always run high in revisions, especially when they are at the end and an editor is waiting.

    You'll definitely get to where you need to me... just remember to BREATHE. Talk a walk, clear your mind, and they go back. You will be ready...

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    1. Great advice. I do all those things when I revise, along with mumble to myself and ramble on about a scene to my husband only to run out of the room because an idea struck.

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  7. Every book edits differently. (Hopefully that makes sense.) It's never the same way twice.
    Be happy to help you with the cover reveal!
    And did you know that word verification is on?

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