Monday, March 23, 2009

Revision Momentum

I'm thinking I should have planned a Revision Sprint to go with my First Draft Sprint. I found myself too easily distracted last week, and now I've got a major distraction in the form of a conference this week. And for the next two weekends after that, I have Major Family Stuff to also distract me.

Which means that I'm starting to worry that I'm losing track of the emotional arc of the story.

Which means I'm really tempted to stop and reread the whole thing before continuing when I return from the NECRWA conference.

Today I decided I'm going to try not to. I'll get as far as I can this week, make notes of where the characters are on that arc when I stop, then see if I can simply carry on from there when I get back.

I'm not going to vow that I won't back track, though. I'm not that confident that I'll be able to.

This fear of loss of revision momentum is something I'm going to bear in mind next time and, if it's possible, do the same kind of sprint when it comes to revisions.

3 comments:

Kaye Manro said...

To me, you have some of the best ideas and advice for newbie writers around. You show by example with your own problems and that's just so refreshing. I like that you mentioned emotional arc. And revision arc. I can so relate--I can easily get off track when other things besides working on writing get involved. Thanks, Margaret for being here and making us newbies feel better!

Margaret Moore said...

You're most welcome! And it's not like I'm not constantly learning myself. Or making mistakes. :-)

Maureen McGowan said...

So jealous about you going to NEC. Love that conference. Have several friends in the chapter. :-(