Thoughts On Revising Pt 1

I am on DAY 11 of my revisions of my first draft. So, if you’ve followed along you know I’m endeavoring to revise my novel that I wrote in 2020 every weekday in May. That is 21 days (which as I type that out I realize is not a very long time to do what turns out to be a very big thing). 

My goal for the month of May was to FINISH my revisions of my first draft, and then I’d send my second draft to a few trusted writer-friends for some feedback. I knew my novel needed work, and I knew I needed to tighten up certain things before I could get feedback.

What I didn’t anticipate was that revising is not editing or rewriting. It is literally Re-Vision(ing) the novel. I took a year off from directly working on it (and just let it simmer in the back of my mind and in my journal from time to time). 

Now, as I sit down and rework each chapter, I see how much I need to do. There are scenes that don’t work any more, I changed my main character’s first name entirely (more on that later), and also I changed a pivotal part of the plot. So characters who did exist now don’t and vice versa. 

All this to say: revising takes time. It’s definitely going to take me longer than 21 days, even though I am proud of how I’ve shown up for myself and my writing. In the past few years I’ve learned to honor my writing space, my writing time, my writing self. 

Revising is about growth. It's about taking away, adding, and seeing your story in a different light. It’s ok if it takes time. It’s meant to. It’s ok if it’s hard. You’re learning how to do it. It’s all ok. 

I hope this little update encourages you to start somewhere, anywhere, even if it’s halfway through the story you want to tell, and try. 

We can do hard things. We can tell beautiful, big, important stories. 

P.S. - For any of you on tiktok, I’ve been documenting my journey every day…please check it out!