The Revising Pity Party

I'm revising. I've been revising for a few weeks now and at certain points I'm thrilled with how the story is evolving. At other points I want to close my laptop and walk away. 

I'm finding that revising is an awful lot like pregnancy. You have huge bursts of energy where it seems like nothing can stop you, then you crash and want to do nothing but sleep. You are moody. One minute you're elated with the story you've created. The next you're frustrated, depressed and ready to cry from the lack of inspiration. You want to sleep, sleep and sleep some more. And then maybe, just maybe, you'll wake up and it will all fall perfectly into place. 

Okay, so maybe that's not exactly like pregnancy, but you get the idea. And there are definitely mood swings. Definitely. 

So yeah, last night I had a completely embarrassing revision pity party. I allowed myself to wallow in my self doubt and let myself believe my writing totally sucked, knowing that this morning I was going to shrug it off and move forward. This post is my way of letting go of that self doubt. 

And with that, my pity party is now over. Annnnndddddd back to revising!

The bonus of revising not actually being pregnancy is I can drink all the coffee and tea I want without feeling guilty. This I am grateful for.

Write, Revise, Rinse, Repeat

Twelve days ago I finished the first draft of my most current WIP. I sent it off to my crit partners and some betas and I've been twiddling my thumbs and playing around very gently with a new project. The new project isn't inspiring me as much as I'd hoped and I'm finding that I'm still very much immersed in the head of my MC of the drafted WIP. 

I had a few ideas swirling around for how to improve the draft and allowed myself to see how it felt to add that into the story last night. Let's just say it didn't fit and I walked away more than a little frustrated. After some brainstorming with my crit partner this morning, it now makes sense to me as to why it wasn't working. It wasn't where the story was supposed to go--at least not at that point. And now that I've talked it through and can clearly see it all playing out in my head I'm so ready to dig back in. 

Revising may not be the most fun part of writing the story, but it sure is necessary. It's also such an amazing thing when you have a crit partner (or two!) who really understand your characters and your vision. I honestly don't know what I'd do without mine. I'm absolutely a better writer because of them. 

Now, with all that being said, let the real revisions begin. I'm.....er......excited! :-)