Yeah! Only five more scenes to go!
I love revising. Every time I finish a scene, or a chapter, or a draft, I look back and think “man, this is so much better than it used to be!” Later, maybe, I look at it and say “okay, it still needs work,” but to know that I made something good into something better, that’s satisfaction!
My self-imposed deadline for this draft is this weekend. I’d like to finish it tomorrow, but if all else fails, I’ll finish it on Sunday. Shouldn’t be too hard. I’ve done a lot of work to get this far, averaging about 2,200 words a day. The ending is a lot trickier to fix than the beginning, since I’m much better at beginnings and middles than at endings (not as much practice), but it’s coming along.
Yesterday, I wrote about 3,500 words in this beast. It felt so satisfying at the end of the day! Finishing up another chapter, knowing that I was right on target.
Today, for some reason, I haven’t been able to get into the writing mindset, but that’s not too bad. I spent some time looking over the last three or four chapters, making spot edits, re-arranging a couple of the chapter breaks to make them more coherent, etc. Chapter organization is still a challenge for me, especially towards the end of a project. Hopefully, I’m doing it better in this draft than the last one.
Today is Pioneer Day, a holiday in Utah. I’m spending the afternoon and evening with family, so I probably won’t do much more writing today. Maybe another scene sometime tonight, but that’s okay–the way I’ve re-arranged it, the chapter I need to revise for today needs just one more scene to be complete. I’ve been working hard these past three weeks, and I’m looking forward to having a fun holiday with family. The break will probably help me to write better, anyway.
So, that’s how things are looking from here. In the meantime, I’m getting psyched up for my next big project: revising Bringing Stella Home and getting ready to start something completely new in the fall. Once Genesis Earth is finished, I’ll be able to commit more creative space to those projects. Looking forward to it!
