The Beginning of Monster Revisions

a.k.a. Make the NaNo project readable.

I finished going over the last three chapters of TTD last night. I'm not 100% happy with them, but that doesn't matter. It was only roughing out the shape that I was concerned with. So now I've put the ms aside and will not look at it for 2 weeks.

That gives me 2wks to do a first pass on my NaNo project, working title To Be Undone. I am going to need more than one pass to get this into any kind of shape to be seen by another human being. This is the first project I've ever done where I have kept it super secret from everyone. I've shared some details about the world, but no one knows what the story is about; no one has seen any of the prose, except for a few people who read a version of the first chapter several years ago. (My word, has that much time really passed???)

Anyhow, the goals with this draft are:

1) Expand it into a full novel (this draft is 225 pgs/ 55,581 words)
2) Add another POV
3) Name everything
4) Fill in all the worldbuilding holes I left.

I'm going to try to remember that I don't have to have all the nuances right just yet. I don't have to hit every emotional high and low just right this time around. I'm working with a broken draft and it is going to take time to add in the amount of layering that I like.

I DON’T THINK THAT SENTENCE MAKES SENSE.

That absolute gem is something extracted directly from my ms, caps and all. And it pretty much sums up the ms so far as a whole.*insane giggle*

Today I got to pg 67 of 223 (do you see that I lost two pages? Wasn't the goal to add?), and I came pretty quickly to the conclusion that I need to rewrite the ms from scratch. Yes, I will be able to use the rough draft as a map, or scene list, if you will. But I think I'll achieve coherency a lot more quickly if I don't waste time in trying to pretty up wooden, wingless prose. Tomorrow I'll continue with my reading. I do want to read the whole draft, something I've never done--I just stuck it in a virtual drawer when I finished it mid-December--to get a true feel for it.

It isn't all drivel. I did get teary eyed in one scene and I love one of the characters.

I didn't toy much with prose, just cut out stuff already marked to go, but I did start a Master Word List for the world. I already have one, but it lacks organization. I have two pages so far: names, animals, plants, countries, etc; a simple list so far, no definitions. Despite all the worldbuilding stuff I already did, I still have so many tiny details to figure out. So. Very. Many.  *chants: Worldbuilding if fun. Worldbuilding is FUN*

I predict mucho work and rework in my future.