*bursts out of the revision cave with squinting eyes and pasty skin*
Guys. I just hit the send button on my first round of revisions. 53 days later.
It's been a full 53 days. With Christmas and the holidays. My 25th birthday. 3 weeks without central heating in the apartment and one case of mild food poisoning.
There was the typical angst. The oh my gosh this is going great stage quickly followed by the is this working i have no idea my eyes are crossing and the words are all blurring together oh gosh stage. Basically I flummoxed between these two extremes and more about three or four times a day.
Here's what I got done:
This song Shadowman (which I found via "The Long Way Down" soundtrack) (<-- which is an awesome documentary about Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman motorcycling through Africa) is the perfect blend of African and Celtic sounds. I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it's good.
My Pinterest board for Luminance Hour also really helped keep me sane. Whenever my mind got too fried for words I just started browsing the internet for pretty pictures that reminded me of my characters and settings. A good way to get stress off of the brain!
So... I'm going to go take an entire week off now. I'm sure I'll be around the blog and Twitterverse though. See you soon, loves!
Guys. I just hit the send button on my first round of revisions. 53 days later.
It's been a full 53 days. With Christmas and the holidays. My 25th birthday. 3 weeks without central heating in the apartment and one case of mild food poisoning.
There was the typical angst. The oh my gosh this is going great stage quickly followed by the is this working i have no idea my eyes are crossing and the words are all blurring together oh gosh stage. Basically I flummoxed between these two extremes and more about three or four times a day.
Here's what I got done:
These are the notes I went by. Each little block on the left-hand side of the paper is a scene and the block on the right side tells me everything I have to do to FIX said scene. As you can see there was a good deal of fixing. And doodling to loosen up the writing block when it struck.
The final product, which I had bound at Kinko's so I could read through it and make all of my last minute adjustments. My face is both for the weight of said manuscript and the fact that Kinko's wanted to charge 50 cents PER PAGE to print out everything. I almost fainted in the store, but promptly sought out cheaper printing. But printing it out into physical form really helped me get a different sense of it as I was scanning for final errors. I'd recommend it for all your WIPs.
I had a few things that really helped me power through my final days of editing (which gets very wearying, let me tell you.)
I love La Reux and this remix had just the perfect amount of electronica to get my concentration set.
My Pinterest board for Luminance Hour also really helped keep me sane. Whenever my mind got too fried for words I just started browsing the internet for pretty pictures that reminded me of my characters and settings. A good way to get stress off of the brain!
So... I'm going to go take an entire week off now. I'm sure I'll be around the blog and Twitterverse though. See you soon, loves!
Holy crow! You must have a massive creative hangover! Congrats, Ryan! I'm going to see if I can find your Luminance Hour board now. :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing the first round. I loved reading about your process and the pictures. Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the congrats, guys! It feels good to be on the other side of the finish line for now!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! That is a lot of notes. I like the side-by-side thing though. Super good idea.
ReplyDeleteYes, it really helps to have a "map" of scenes. I don't know if I'd be able to function without one!
DeleteYayyyy congrats!!! Yes I do realize I'm going backward through your blog. Sorry! :D Wow, 53 days of revision! And you're all done! So many exclamation marks!!
ReplyDeleteI finished my revisions after a month on Thursday, but have to proofread and make sure all my ramblings make sense before I turn it in tomorrow. I wanted to let it sit a few days but now I'm paying the price of reading for hours looking for typos and plot holes and my brain is turning to mush.
Anyway, you're an inspiration! I'm almost there and I will survive too! :D