REVISIONS & WHY THEY SLAY ME

So, if you've been following my Twitter today (and the past couple of days) you know I've been making that final trek through revisions. Mind you, these are all pre-beta revisions. I'm sure I'll be doing it all over again once I get comments back from my lovely readers. Anyway, as I was revising, I was (naturally) reading the notes that I made to myself in the manuscript. I thought I should share them with you. Just so you know how well revisions and I don't get along.

It started out great. I was calm. Collected even.

Do we need this? See if you can fit the showing somewhere else instead of exposition.

Manchester or Lancashire? Pick a city.

Do High Born have the mind eye?

Second. Right?

Keep this time frame in mind. This is in August.

But you have a full fledged garden later on. Fix this!

 We get in around fifty pages, and I'm really panicking. If you remember my twitter from the first read through, you'll remember how much I freaked out. It translated to my manuscript something like this:

THIS MAKES NO SENSE. WTF!? SERIOUSLY. WHAT. THE. F***.

THIS. WHAT. THE. F***?!

But she was seeing Presence in the beginning. WHAT HAPPENED. THINK ABOUT THAT, HUH?!

THIS LINE IS ALMOST AS BAD AS FIERY BEAST!

THIS IS ALL COMPLETE BULLSHIT. FIX IT. NOW.

 Somewhere, a little later on, I managed to find a balance between the crazy and the rational actual giving of advice to myself.

Maybe make him a more developed character? Add some more to the beginning with him? OR CUT HIM LIKE A BITCH.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?! WHY IS SHE IN A SPIRAL OF DESPAIR. (I know why – I’m just being mean.)

Changing this – she got there a few days ago. Oi – the rewrite.

Awkward phrasing.

 But somewhere after that I just...I don't know. One word pieces of advice. LOLCat speak. Clearly, I was at the end of my rope:

OLDER.

UNNECESSARY.

MORE REACTION. !!!!

SOMETHING ELSE TO CATALYZE THIS MOMENT.

Maybe replace with were. Duh.

ALI IS THE BETTER RIDER. DON’T YOU KNOW ANYTHING?!

MOAR EMOTIONZZZZZ!!!

So...yeah. Thankfully, I had a few weeks between the time I wrote these notes and the time I had to apply these notes. And, to my surprise, I actually understood what I was referring to. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to study for the finals that I should have been studying for instead of revising.