REVISIONS. REVISIONS. REVISIONS

 

One of the hardest things a writer has to do is revisions. After writing two previous books, I thought I knew what to expect when it came to revisions. Turns out, I was wrong. Revisions for my third novel, The Healing Stones was the hardest I’ve ever had to do. Here’s why.

It all started when I asked two talented writer/friends to be Beta readers for my new book The Healing Stones. I cannot tell a lie, what they came back with made me question my ability as a writer. I wondered how I could have missed all of the things they suggested. What business did I have being a writer if I had to make so many changes before my book was good enough?

Part of me knew that this was an opportunity to improve my writing skills, while the other part of me balked at taking the next steps to make it so. I stewed about it for months wondering where to begin. I knew the first thing I had to do was remove three entire chapters that were from a different point of view than the main character. But I didn’t want to lose the information in those pages, so I had to somehow incorporate them from the main character’s point of view. I ended making hard copies of the three chapters and highlighted what I thought I could incorporate into the main storyline. I lost at least a whole chapter doing this, but I realized that some of it was redundant anyway. And that’s only the beginning.

One of my Beta readers sent pages of suggestions that she felt was missing from my first draft. I was overwhelmed. How could I possibly remember them all? Let me just say at this point that there were much both of my Beta readers liked about my first draft. One even said that she felt The Healing Stones was my best book yet, and she’s read them all. At this point, I didn’t know how that was possible. However, I admired both my Beta readers as wonderful writer’s in their own right, and therefore, felt it necessary to at least consider their suggestions.

It's a difficult thing to know the best course of action when revising a story, especially when I didn’t trust myself anymore. For me, it was a matter of checking a few key suggestions with another writer friend who is a best-selling author, to confirm that I was doing the right thing by heeding the advice of my Beta readers. Once I felt confident enough with what needed to be done, I began the very slow process of revising The Healing Stones.

It’s amazing to me how long it can take to polish a scene or make dialogue sound natural and not stilted. I also had to make sure that any changes I made in one place were consistent with what came next or previously. It helped that I had a story board with chapters briefly outlined so I knew where to look for scenes that needed to be updated. Many times I felt paralyzed with the job ahead of me. I found myself looking for interruptions so I wouldn’t have to face doing the necessary work. I even told myself I needed time to think about how to approach the necessary changes, thus postponing what needed to be done. And social media became my place of comfort, so I didn’t have to face the written page. I became thoroughly disgusted with myself. It was time for action.

I knew I needed to stay the course and push through those challenging scenes. And guess what. Once I did, I surprised myself and was able to figure out how best to smooth out the rough edges. This gave me the confidence I needed to do the same thing again the next day and the next until I eventually got it done. So, stay the course, my writer friend. Stay the course if you want to complete your revisions and you will end up with an amazing story to share.

Now I’m excited to start work on my next book, Hands Across Time. It’s been an idea in my head for a long time. I’ve already got research material ready to go, and my main character popped into my head the other day ready to play her role. I can hardly wait to get started.