And the revisions have begun.

So over the last two days I've managed to recoup a little lost sleep and start the revisions process on Well of Sorrows. I worked on the first four chapters (out of 25). So far, I've managed to cut 750 words. Only 79,250 more to go!! *manic grin with thumbs up*

Actually, I knew that the first four chapters were rather tight and that not much would be trimmed. I'd already gone over them repeatedly when they were first written. It isn't until after this that I hit material that hasn't already been reviewed a few times during the writing process. So hopefully there will be more significant cuts in the future.

I figured I'd blog about my revisions process, in case anyone out there is interested. During the writing of the novel, I always end up with a bunch of notes on things that I needed to add in earlier in the novel based on events that happened later on. For example, I have a note that Lotaern and Colin need to (at some point) discuss the Faelehgre in the forest and the Drifters on the plains. This scene will also allow me to work in some of the history of the world and the religion of the Alvritshai. I didn't realize how important Lotaern would be initially, so such a scene never occured to me, but as I wrote further and further, it became apparent that Lotaern needed to be developed and integrated into the plot much sooner. Hence the note. One idea of how to incorporate him more meaningfully into the story (not just throw him in a few scnees for the sake of him being there). I have a bunch of those types of notes already.

After finishing the novel though, I sat back and tried to clarify all of the changes I needed along the way as a whole. So I have a bunch of notes on that as well. Think of this as a summary or world-view of the changes, rather than specific scenes that needed to be added. This is where I have things like "emphasize the relationship between Colin and Aeren earlier". So I don't have anything in particular in mind, but I need to keep a watch for potential places where I can make that emphasis apparent as I read through the novel.

There are also just stupid notes at this stage, things like, "remember Colin has a freaking staff!" because of course there are many scene where he doesn't use the staff and I conveniently forgot he should be carrying it at that point, so it never gets mentioned. But it may cause problems if he suddenly "has" the staff again later on, when he needs it, especially if the reader has also conveniently forgotten that he has a staff. This is just me being stupid as a writer at the time. It's also a consequence of the prolonged way books are written. Readers read a chapter in an hour or less. It took the writer days to write that, if not more. So things that the reader thinks happen close together because they ARE close together in the book . . . typically happened days apart in the writingt process. Which is why the staff got so lost in the first place. (It might not have in a first person POV. I think it got lost when I was bouncing around to different characters.)

In any case, none of those notes were relevant to the first four chapters. Hence the minimal cutting and quick revision. I expect the rest of the book to take much longer to revise, as those notes come more and more into play. Also, I'll have to analyze the upcoming scenes more closely, looking for whole sections to cut.

In any case, it's started. As different things show up in the revision process, I'll let everyone know what they are and how I handle them. Keep in mind that everyone's revision process will be different, so just because it works for me doesn't mean it will work well for you.

Now, off to see "The Incredible Hulk", followed by ice cream at Cold Stone. Yumm . . .