Okay, so it's not the end of The Book (hence the absence of "frabjous day") but it is the end of the first round of revisions, and that I am quite happy about indeed. In the process I added thirteen new manuscript pages. Seven percent new stuff! That is a fine New Stuff Rate, and I can say that because I own the New Stuff Rate algorithm.
Now I am once again in the territory of writing all new stuff, a 100% New Stuff Rate for those playing the home game, roughly five chapter's worth, or 15,000 words if you want to think of it that way. Part of the reason I stopped writing new stuff and started retyping the entire existing manuscript was because I wanted to immerse myself in The Show So Far. It's easy to forget the little things in Chapter Five when you're barreling through Chapter Twenty-Two, especially if you haven't quite mastered the Ass In The Chair Every Day style of writing-fu.
That said: I don't think I want to do it this way again. Too haphazard. I think, for the Next Book, there will be a) more of an outline, and b) more Ass In The Chair more frequently. This stop-and-go nonsense results in writerly whiplash. And my thinking is, the more consistently you spend time in the world of your Book, the less need there is to stop everything and retype the manuscript to get that whole immersion thing going.
Part of that, too, has to do with keeping the head screwed on securely (notice I did not say "straight;" it can be crooked, but it has to stay on). So much of the first book--and thank whatever culturally constructed fiction deserves thanks for such things that there will never be another first book--is spent neck-deep in uncertainty. I still have no idea what the end result of all of this will be, but at least when I start on the second book I'll know how the first one turned out, so I will have just that much less uncertainty to deal with. Even so: any amount of uncertainty is more difficult to deal with when the head is wobbling all over the place. External factors impede the progress of the Art, you see. So if Art is the priority, it then behooves one to make sure that the wobbly-headedness is minimized, and that means doing mundane things like eating properly and exercising and drinking the correct amount and avoiding soul-crushing depression (unless that's key to your art, in which case, crush away).
And that is why I am happy that I got a little package of California roll sushi to eat late this evening, instead of my usual bag of Jack in the Box or pint of ice cream or other foodstuff that fills the synapses with sluggish bad fat. All of that crap makes it so much harder to get the words out, and it also means that the words that you do get out are also sluggish and full of bad fat, so that they require more attention in post-production. Part of the purpose of revision is going back through it all and making it seem like it was written in a single state of authorial intent with the clear genius of consistent devotion! And that process is made more difficult if you're fighting the head-based wobbliness, because then you've got to go through and eliminate the wobbliness that doesn't belong in the story.
So! Eat right, write more, know your algorithms.
LATER
Man, was I punchy when I wrote this.
Now I am once again in the territory of writing all new stuff, a 100% New Stuff Rate for those playing the home game, roughly five chapter's worth, or 15,000 words if you want to think of it that way. Part of the reason I stopped writing new stuff and started retyping the entire existing manuscript was because I wanted to immerse myself in The Show So Far. It's easy to forget the little things in Chapter Five when you're barreling through Chapter Twenty-Two, especially if you haven't quite mastered the Ass In The Chair Every Day style of writing-fu.
That said: I don't think I want to do it this way again. Too haphazard. I think, for the Next Book, there will be a) more of an outline, and b) more Ass In The Chair more frequently. This stop-and-go nonsense results in writerly whiplash. And my thinking is, the more consistently you spend time in the world of your Book, the less need there is to stop everything and retype the manuscript to get that whole immersion thing going.
Part of that, too, has to do with keeping the head screwed on securely (notice I did not say "straight;" it can be crooked, but it has to stay on). So much of the first book--and thank whatever culturally constructed fiction deserves thanks for such things that there will never be another first book--is spent neck-deep in uncertainty. I still have no idea what the end result of all of this will be, but at least when I start on the second book I'll know how the first one turned out, so I will have just that much less uncertainty to deal with. Even so: any amount of uncertainty is more difficult to deal with when the head is wobbling all over the place. External factors impede the progress of the Art, you see. So if Art is the priority, it then behooves one to make sure that the wobbly-headedness is minimized, and that means doing mundane things like eating properly and exercising and drinking the correct amount and avoiding soul-crushing depression (unless that's key to your art, in which case, crush away).
And that is why I am happy that I got a little package of California roll sushi to eat late this evening, instead of my usual bag of Jack in the Box or pint of ice cream or other foodstuff that fills the synapses with sluggish bad fat. All of that crap makes it so much harder to get the words out, and it also means that the words that you do get out are also sluggish and full of bad fat, so that they require more attention in post-production. Part of the purpose of revision is going back through it all and making it seem like it was written in a single state of authorial intent with the clear genius of consistent devotion! And that process is made more difficult if you're fighting the head-based wobbliness, because then you've got to go through and eliminate the wobbliness that doesn't belong in the story.
So! Eat right, write more, know your algorithms.
LATER
Man, was I punchy when I wrote this.
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