Monday, May 21, 2012

Putting on Your Revision Face

I was asked to do some revisions on my manuscript this on Friday. They were nothing impossible, but I'm a nervous person by nature, and I'm always afraid I'll wind up making things worse instead of better.

Which is probably why I go through several stages of revision faces.

The first is outright panic:

You want me to do WHAT?!

But I. Can't. Do. Thaaaat!!!

No, really, how am I supposed to make this happen?

The second is a kind of manic acceptance, when the ideas start to fall into place and I realize I everything might just work out after all. That was me on Saturday.

I've got it! I've got it! I'VE GOT ITTTT!!!

PREPARE TO BE MY BITCH, REVSIONS!

But by Sunday night, when I'd been through two revise-a-thons? It felt like someone had set my eyes on fire.



Now my revisions are safetly in the hands of my capable critique partners, and with any luck, I won't have to repeat the cycle too many more times!

What kinds of stages do you go through when you tackle revisions? Does everyone have a moment of panic, or is it just me?

8 comments:

  1. Ha! I usually skip straight to "You just don't get me or my ms!!" *shakes fist* But then ... always, always, I quickly realize the suggestions will make my story so much better. Congratulations on finishing your revisions!

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  2. As you may have noticed, I LOVE revisions. So I go through approximately three seconds of shock and the whole stages of grief thing and then IT. IS. ON.

    As I should've known and found out again yesterday, this works precisely up til the moment where I'm supposed to send a first batch of revisions to my wonderful CPs. By that point I FREAK OUT. *cough* *smile*

    Thank goodness you guys are there to talk me off ledges ;)

    Can't wait to read the new version of LYM!! It's sitting comfortably on my Kindle right now :D

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  3. I definitely panic. Then freak out completely. And then I get to work. :) Congrats!

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  4. I've come to like revisions... Making changes for the better, that I feel good about making, is fun :-) Though now I'm nervous I won't be able to get back into the swing of "first-draft-mania" that I had before, lol. Hope your revisions work out!

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  5. Apparently, I think it's a good idea to panic when the ideas are flowing nicely for the first draft. Revisions? Heck, the stages you mention here are probably calm compared to what I do. lol!

    But I'm glad you got them done. :-)

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  6. Wonderful post -- and it completely captures The Stages of Acceptance for Editorial Notes! Panic ... despair ...enlightenment ... smugness ... pride.

    Just went through three rounds of this with the editor of Book #2. In the last round, she only wanted the final scene tweaked. I sent it back this weekend. Fingers crossed that this is IT!

    (Until the copy editing department gets a hold of it.)

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  7. A friend shared her revisions with me and I freaked out wondering how the heck she was going to handle it all without rewriting the book.

    Luckily, she was like "This is so easy!" and fixed everything in less than a week.

    I sort of always feel like I wrote it the way I wanted to write it the first time, so having to revise is always difficult. I usually agree it is stronger afterwards though.

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  8. Revisions are something that I'm looking forward to because it will be fixing and not just creating. I always tell myself that I can fix crap - it is sometimes creating something from nothing that is the greater challenge.

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