Revision Struggles
The writing process is a journey; one full of pitfalls and challenges beside every success. The first draft is just the first hurdle, one that feels far more challenging while you’re working on it. Yet the revision process is a whole different beast to tame.
I’ve been working on revising Chasing Destiny now for six months. Which, doesn’t seem all that long in retrospect, but it’s longer than I had expected; especially considering how far I am into the process. When writing the draft I found it fairly easy to sit down almost daily and write, even if just a little. Of course, NaNoWriMo helped tremendously with that. With revision though, I’m finding it much harder to make the time. A chapter that took, maybe an hour or so to vomit out the words on the page is taking at least four hours to change it from a pile of words to a cohesive story.
Don’t get me wrong, when I sit down and get things done, I’m enjoying the process. I rather like molding the concepts and foreshadowing in the early part of the novel to work seemlessly with the latter part. I like be able to see the character growth and development knowing how it’s supposed to end outside of my own mind. Yet it’s still far more difficult and I had anticipated.
I knew revising wasn’t easy. I’ve even heard it can be the hardest part of writing, especially since there’s so much of it to do in so many stages. Yet, I still expected to be farther along by now. My hope and goal of having the novel out to betas by the end of the month is completely shot. Even by the end of next month seems unrealistic. With NaNoWriMo 2023 closing in, I feel almost at a loss. I had plans to draft the second novel, Catching Destiny, at that time. Now though, I’m not sure if I want to distract myself in that way.
Of course, there’s always the argument that the completed draft of the second novel will encourage me to finish the edits to the first. It’s hard to say. I do hope that the July Camp NaNo will help with things. The April Camp wasn’t as productive has I had hoped, but July may be different. I think if I can get Chasing Destiny out to betas by the end of the year at the very latest I’d count that as a win.
