I finished my book! Again. For the third time. Kinda.
The big revision plan I had for Isto is done (woot!), but as I reread from the beginning to see if all the changes are cohesive, it’s instigated a few more changes. No problem. I can deal with that. But then a member of my critique group expressed his dissatisfaction with two of my early chapters and, well, now I’m changing another POV.
I’m not frustrated by this, though. In fact, this other POV I’m changing is my oldest writing in this book. He’s the POV I pantsed like 8 years ago during NaNoWriMo, and though his latter half changed during the great timeline rewrite of 2017 and changed again during the tension realization of 2019, I’ve hung onto the first handful of chapters, unwilling to rewrite everything for this character.
I’ve taken a deep breath, stepped back, and now I’m ready to let them go. I’ve already got a plan of attack. And I congratulate myself on the forethought not to add chapter numbers just yet, in anticipation of rearranging events.
I’ve been swamped these past few weeks at work, scrambling to get a project done that went live on Monday. Now I’ve been fighting fires and fixing things. Hopefully today it’ll calm to the point where only minimal maintenance is needed. It hasn’t left me a whole lot of time to work on writing. In fact, it might be a while before I make return blog visits, for which I apologize.
IWSG Question of the Month – Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?
Not in the spirit of the question, no, but I’ve come to realize these past few years that I’ve committed writing sins I didn’t know I committed until after the fact, and they are so ingrained in the story that I’m leaving them. Characters were made. Characters were killed. And though I know I’m contributing to the greater problem, I’m still going to finish my series keeping the problematic choices intact. Once I finish, I will choose either not to publish, or publish, but not advertise/market it.
And I’m okay with that. My goals were never to succeed as a full-time author, but to finish the series before I die.
Here’s a picture of a few character heads, the first 4 being the main POVs of Isto, the last being a POV from the previous book. I’ve been hanging onto them for a while, not yet posted to social media or anything.
Have you ever made writing decisions that you now feel bad about? What do you do about them?
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Congrats on the latest revision! Love your character heads, especially the woman with the red eyes. She looks fierce.
Glad you finished! Sounds like you have a handle on what’s left to fix.
CONGRATS! That’s a great feeling. I totally understand the hanging on and then letting go and just rewriting the opening chapters. I did that too, I think like the first 5 or 6 need to be redone to fix a problem.
And your character are is fantastic!
Congratulations on finishing the book! I hope the thrill of it helps with motivation to finish the series. Keep going!
It can be so hard to accept the need to kill/change those early darlings. I recently had to kill a subplot early in my WIP that required a lot of shifting around of what was left, but the improvement was immediate. And I have nothing to blame but my own stubbornness.
Congrats on getting through that big revision plan!!! YAY!!!
Congrats on the revision! And brilliant advice, not giving the chapters numbers until the very end. I learned this the hard way. I now use short titles indicating the scene(s) content so I don’t have to word search 300 pages for rearranging.
I recently cut two paragraphs from a short story that I love love love. But the editor was right, the story started at paragraph three down, no matter how clever the first two were. [big sigh]
Woo-hoo!!! I am so happy that you’ve finished Isto and that your revisions are do-able and not stressful. That’s a plus!
You go with your writing sins (and I do hope you decide to publish). Love the paintings of your characters. 🙂 Congrats on finishing (again/kinda) and hope the scrambling at work slows.
Congrats on a plan of attack!
Some day I will return to my own writing…
Love your character heads. They are so different and so expressive!
Yay! It’s getting there. It takes time, but in the end it’ll be all the better for it.
Yaaasss girl!! Excited for you! You are kicking butt – and not just with the writing. Your pics are gorgeous and I love all the colors for each and how different they are. AND you’re putting out fires at work? Loni, this may be your year, girl.
Two thoughts for you today. 1) I love, love, love your artwork. 2) There is no sin in breaking rules as long as you do it with forethought.
Okay. Three thoughts. Congrats on your success. I’m really proud of you. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
I think as long as there’s a mastery over rules, they can be broken in the service of the story. Congratulations on finishing the draft!!
That’s great that you have a plan of action for your changes. That makes them so much easier to make and you can get them done faster. Sounds like you’re making great progress on finishing this project.
Yay! Sounds like you’re well on your way.
Congrats!
Yay! And I love the heads!
I hope reading my story didn’t set your writing back too much. Considering how much rearranging you do with your story, you should consider using Scrivener.
I’m doing a Happy Dance for you, Loni! Congratulations on finishing and only having a small number of revisions left to do. Your excitement shines through your words! Also, great job on your character’s artwork.
I’m confused. Did you finish? Is a congrats in order? LOL
Congratulations on finishing!
The only writing decision that I’ve felt bad about is not writing. At least I discovered blogging which has given me some creative outlet for writing.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out