Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday Obsession: This $%&#@#$ Revision

Hi, writing loves!

I have just the one obsession this week. And it's not cute or funny or fun.

I've hit a revision wall. A pretty big one. One that had me in tears all day yesterday.

At first, I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I would have reacted to the idea that there might even *be* a revision wall like this gentleman here:

nervoustruth:

Harry Potter and the Goofs and Trivia.| The platform attendant at Kings Cross who asks Harry, “You think you’re  funny, do you?” actually works for GNER. He is, however, a train manager  and not a platform attendant.'

There's no revision wall! There won't be one either! This whole project is looking pretty good!

But yesterday I finally realized there is an honest-to-goodness revision wall for this project, and no matter which way my poor beleaguered brain approached it, this happened:


(*wince* Poor Hedwig.)


I'm still kind of hoping to figure out a solution that will let me come through the other side relatively unscathed:



But I'm actually pretty sure it doesn't exist. I might come out on the other side, but if I do, it's gonna be an unrecognizable hot (cold?) mess.



Unfortunately, I'm a muggle, and there's no magical Hogwarts Revisions Express to take me from draft to queryable MS. *sigh*

Anyway. This weekend I'm obsessed with trying to make a decision about what exactly to do with ONE. My choices are: minor revisions, and hope for the best, or shelve for later and tackle a major overhaul some other time. Probably when this baby-on-the-way starts sleeping through the night. (Translation: about a year from now.)

You know? Now that I watch all these .gifs, and think of the snow falling outside in the 614, I might be obsessed with Harry Potter movies this weekend too.

Your turn! What were you obsessed with this week?

12 comments:

  1. been obsessed with distractions! so I've been watching shows and reading a lot. basically anything that's motivated me to write/work on my story before :) I have one more trick up my sleeve, though. maybe two.

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  2. this week I've been obsessed with... nothing :)

    Hope you can tear that stupid wall down. Maybe taking the weekend off, or a week off, let your mind rest. I'm sure you'll find a way :)

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  3. Don't forget... Harry eventually got through to the platform on the other side.

    Sit and stew for a while. That's what I'm doing, because I'm not quite in the revision frame of mind either. I'm actually more interested in seeing what I can do with yours than with my own, which tells me mine needs some marinating time. Or I need some sanity time, or both. Then when we're ready, we can put a ramp up against that wall, rev up our bitch bikes and go all Evel Knievel on our damn revisions.

    But right now... a nap sounds way better.

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  4. I'm 100% with Gina. Sit n' stew on your baby. You've obviously given it a TON of love. Give it some space, n' let it (and yourself) breathe. I go all crazy-freakin'-Incredible-Hulk-wanna-kill when I finish a draft, thinking I AM SO CLOSE TO THE END, n' then realize the journey has only really begun.

    Step back from it. Put your heart somewhere else for a couple of days. When you come back to ONE, your heart will be able to guide you again, once the smoke clears....

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  5. As always, your other CPers are so right--time away is magical.

    Or--talk about it with one of your CPs--getting out all those words about what you want to do with ONE and how it makes you feel to make those changes can also be magical.

    Or--have someone else do some of it. I know that sounds crazy, but Marie and I do it from time to time. Need a scene rewritten? Send it my way and tell me what you need. Odds are that you will end up changing it completely, but it makes the whole thing a lot more fun.

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  6. THanks everyone! You all are WONDERFUL! <3

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  7. I've been obsessing over the start (like first 150 words) of my new WIP all week. Hours and hours on just a few words. I think I'm almost there.

    Good luck with your MS!

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  8. AW, I hope you find a magical car (a.k.a. the hard but wonderful solution!) to get you through. Good luck!

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  9. Let it rest for awhile as you'll probably come back to it with a vengeance. Harry did get there by other means.

    All the best.

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  10. First of all, I did not know you have a baby inside you. So I scrolled through the last 9 posts I've missed during my travel frenzy to see where I missed the announcement. Apparently it was before I started reading your lovely blog (but I could be wrong; it was a quick scan). So here's a (probably belated) Congrats!!! That's very exciting.
    As far as your revision wall, I say put it away. Stephen King puts drafts away for 6 to 8 weeks. When you come back to it, your eyes will be fresh and you'll see the ms. in a whole new way and I'll bet it won't take you long to figure out how to fix the problem. Good luck!!

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  11. Aaah, good luck! I hope manage to kick that wall down :) (my obsession the past two week's has been outlining... -_-;)

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  12. I totes know what you mean. I've been revising for what seems like forever and realized I needed a major overhaul. I decided to outline/storyboard everything again, because it wasn't flowing how I wanted it; while I was outlining, I got a bunch of ideas on how to fix the major problems, so I think reorganizing is a good idea. Time away is always a good thing but when I tried to start something new, I realized I loved this story too much to start anything different, which propelled me out of my revision slump. (Also talking it out and bouncing ideas off other people always helps me).

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