Revising a Book

So, today I’m going to ramble on about my writing process a little. Hope this doesn’t bore anyone!

I’m within 80 pages of finishing my line edits on Wedded to the Enemy, and I’m excited about sending that off to my editor. Usually I go through about 6 drafts on a book. Drafts 1-3 are blended together. I write the raw draft and the second time I open the file, I start to layer in character emotions. The third layer is usually the details, setting, and so on. Each time I write, there’s a need to revisit what I did the day before. Call it warming up, call it what you will, but it ends up being a process of multi-layers.

When the book is finished, sometimes I’ll think of scenes I forgot to add. Or other times, I’ll start back at the beginning, and layer some more. I’ll write the missing scenes and often I’ll reach a point in the book where I come to a stop. Something pulls me out of the story, and I often find that it’s because the emotions are off. I’ll try to fix the scene first, but often the scene will get cut. Knowing which scenes to cut can be tricky, and I can never do it at the beginning of a book. I have to wait until later because it’s much easier to knock out 10 pages when you have 390 than when you only have 20 pages total. But I’ll layer that rough spot in the book until I can read it back with no pacing problems. It’s a matter of gut instinct, and I have a great deal of trust in my inner critic when it comes to this revision draft.

Yesterday, I hit a spot where my instincts were firing off, telling me–”Get rid of that scene. That character would never do that. Take it out!” But I needed the scene for other reasons. I ended up taking that character out of the scene, and it worked. I’m feeling so much better about that segment.

I also double-check all the historical facts. Yesterday I was ploughing through my costume books, looking for information on shoes and boots. I’ve found that this is an area often neglected. I ended up trying to find museum websites that had photographs of antique shoes and old shopping catalogues. (I’ll admit, this is a great time-waster and you can spend so much time on the Internet looking at fun stuff. Here’s a really fun Victorian site: www.mrsbeeton.com.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with a psychologist, asking her to help me check my medical facts about amnesia. It turned out that she needed to consult another doctor, and she called a friend who’s a neurologist. I’m hoping to include the right medical symptoms to accompany my hero’s memory problems. Between the three of us, we should get it right.

The last thing I’m doing is adding recipes to my book. The heroine loves to cook (like me), and I’m including a few of my own family recipes in the novel. Whether or not the editors will let me keep these remains to be seen. If not, I’ll put them in the Extra Features section.

So, there you go. More than you ever wanted to know about what goes into book revisions. :banana: If you have any questions, ask away!