Another day of revisions

[jpskewedthrone]

So after the gym (and the what sports car are you quiz) I managed to get busy with revisions. Today's music was "A Thin Red Line" and yesterday's was "Smilla's Sense of Snow", for those interested in what writer's listen to while working. I write first drafts to these as well. I have about 5 CDs that have music that soothes me and doesn't distract me with words while I write. At this point, they serve as triggers that put me in the right mindset for writing, although as I discovered yesterday, they only seem to work if I use the earbuds.

Anyway, I reread chapter 1 and checked the minor revisions I made to it yesterday. All good. Then I started in on the major revisions I'd done to chapter 2 to see if they worked. Surprisingly, they worked rather well. I had to fix a few sentences to make things smoother, but other than that. Oh, and I had to fix the end of the second new scene, since I pretty much ended it mid-sentence yesterday when I realized what time it was and that I'd miss my cycling class (and since I TEACH the class, that would not have been good). I think chapter 2 is now alot more active.

In the end, chapter 1 and 2 are done. I won't go back and revise them anymore, unless something I add later forces a change earlier on. And I don't expect that to happen. I really like the new scene between Westen and Varis. It really brings Westen to the fore, and since I use him later on in the book . . . I realize that none of you know who Westen is. I keep mentioning him just to annoy you. *grin*

I also read through chapter 3, mainly to look for possible places to make it more active and to make some minor changes. There's an obvious spot to make it more active, so tomorrow's goal is to write that scene. I'm not entirely certain how the scene will go yet, but hopefully I'll figure it out in my sleep tonight. I know how it starts, but I can't just do that, it wouldn't be interesting. So I'm trying to figure out how to tie the scene into something else, either something my editor suggested I add, or something that comes up later in the novel. No clue what that will be.

But in the end, I should have chapter 3 revised by the end of the day tomorrow. Which means I'm still on schedule. In fact, I may even get to look at chapter 4 tomorrow. At least a first re-through.

Comments

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

To some extent, different books require different music. But not all that much. Mostly I can only write to certain kinds of music. Always soundtracks, and orchetrations at that. I can't have someone singing words while writing. And some soundtracks that you'd think would be obvious choices don't work for me, like LOTR and Gladiator. They're too . . . active. I need something relatively calm. I end up humming along to the music while I'm thinking or trying to figure something out . . . or trying to figure out what to write next in the middle of a scene (do I go for the dagger or does someone talk next, etc).

But occasionally what I'm writing won't allow me to use a particular soundtrack that I've used before. The two soundtracks I've mentioned in LJ already seem to work for everything.

Glad you're enjoying the postings on the revisions. I intend to keep it up, although there will be a lag during the regular work week.