Author’s Log: Breathing Is Good (& #ROW80)

 I’d say I were buried in Revision Hell (tantamount to Tech Week, aka “Hell Week” in theatre), except that I’m weird in that I like revisions. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Revisions are where true storytelling comes into play, for me. My rough drafts tend to be very cumbersome because I fast draft everything in my brain, and then end up taking out too much in the revision process, which is where my editors come in. I’m trying to learn to give too much that can then be pared back, which is a lot easier than adding stuff.

I have a lot of work on Waking Muse #1 to be getting on with.  There are things that are working, and other things not so much. I need to flesh out (heh) the romance arc, and work on the clarity and pacing of the timing of events. The musical aspects seem to be going well, however. I’m still hacking, slashing, and then adding a la Beautiful Mind, so that’s where all my focus has been lately–that’s where it has to be, because I need to get this story up to snuff before I release at the end of June.

I’m also transferring some of The Hammer’s feedback–mainly those things I’m most guilty of in Waking Muse 1, to the second book of the series. I’m going through red pens the way the highly allergic go through tissues, but this part is almost as fun as drafting.

Like I said–weird.

So I have content to add, and lots of rearranging to do, the latter part of which means printing it out and taking a pair of sharp scissors to it. Yes, I get that down and dirty sometimes. (Double “heh”.) There’s something about getting handsy (okay I’ll stop now) that brings that crafty part of my writing process that puts my mind in the right frame to rewrite. It makes it a physical, logical thing, rather than a creative one. Again, this hails back to my theatre days when you’re crafting a character or story with feedback from your peers and director, and you’re doing so in a physical space, face-to-face, corraborating. And that physical space holds a certain gravitas that lends to the energy of creating.

The performer in me still needs to always be learning, honing, making progress and improvements. I don’t think I’m wired to actually stop at this point.

While Waking Muse #1 is the only firm deadline I have at this point, I also know that Keepers of the Flame #3 will be coming back from Editor Awesome at almost any moment. And with the other revisions I have in my queue (currently there are something like eighteen chapters in my revision queue across three projects), I am definitely getting my craft on. But it also means I’m REALLY REALLY busy. And I don’t feel like I can do Waking Muse #2 justice until I get the first book squared away.

I don’t know if Genius is acutally Burning, but something certainly smells funny.