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I did it! #IWSG

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Loni Townsend

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.

Sorry Cameron, but you’ve gotta change.

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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You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.

21 thoughts on “I did it! #IWSG”

  1. Ellen Jacobson says:
    April 7, 2021 at 9:37 AM

    Congrats on the latest revision! Love your character heads, especially the woman with the red eyes. She looks fierce.

    Reply
  2. Alex J. Cavanaugh says:
    April 7, 2021 at 10:50 AM

    Glad you finished! Sounds like you have a handle on what’s left to fix.

    Reply
  3. HRSinclair says:
    April 7, 2021 at 10:52 AM

    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!

    Reply
    1. Lori Bossert says:
      April 7, 2021 at 12:23 PM

      Congratulations on finishing the book! I hope the thrill of it helps with motivation to finish the series. Keep going!

      Reply
  4. M.J. Fifield says:
    April 7, 2021 at 10:54 AM

    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!!!

    Reply
  5. Lee Lowery says:
    April 7, 2021 at 12:33 PM

    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]

    Reply
  6. Chrys Fey says:
    April 7, 2021 at 12:41 PM

    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!

    Reply
  7. Sarah Brentyn says:
    April 7, 2021 at 3:22 PM

    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.

    Reply
  8. L. Diane Wolfe says:
    April 7, 2021 at 3:37 PM

    Congrats on a plan of attack!

    Some day I will return to my own writing…

    Reply
  9. Olga Godim says:
    April 7, 2021 at 5:08 PM

    Love your character heads. They are so different and so expressive!

    Reply
  10. Liz A. says:
    April 7, 2021 at 5:15 PM

    Yay! It’s getting there. It takes time, but in the end it’ll be all the better for it.

    Reply
  11. C.G.Coppola says:
    April 7, 2021 at 6:48 PM

    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.

    Reply
  12. Anna says:
    April 7, 2021 at 7:20 PM

    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

    Reply
  13. Damyanti Biswas says:
    April 8, 2021 at 2:57 AM

    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!!

    Reply
  14. Natalie Aguirre says:
    April 8, 2021 at 4:52 AM

    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.

    Reply
  15. Michelle Wallace says:
    April 8, 2021 at 8:07 AM

    Yay! Sounds like you’re well on your way.
    Congrats!

    Reply
  16. Joleene Naylor says:
    April 8, 2021 at 5:52 PM

    Yay! And I love the heads!

    Reply
  17. ChemistKen says:
    April 8, 2021 at 6:00 PM

    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.

    Reply
  18. Elsie Amata says:
    April 9, 2021 at 5:52 AM

    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.

    Reply
  19. Patty Josephine says:
    April 9, 2021 at 11:07 AM

    I’m confused. Did you finish? Is a congrats in order? LOL

    Reply
  20. Arlee Bird says:
    April 9, 2021 at 11:55 AM

    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

    Reply

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Welcome to my blog. I post here on Wednesdays most of the time, but you can find me on social media any day of the week. My topics include my stories and writing, life at the Town's End, creating and tinkering with graphics, things I learn and think might be helpful to others, and the occasional amateur photo. Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see you around.

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