I can relate to this month’s Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour topic — revision.\u00a0 I struggle to get my mind around it, but I have done it successfully, usually for academic papers.\u00a0 Revising fiction has been much more challenging for me.<\/p>\n
When I finished Polar Bear on the Loose<\/em> in 2004, I set it aside for a few months, but I began revising it in early 2005.\u00a0 At that time, I read the manuscript and identified all types of nit-noid typos and working errors.\u00a0 I identified timeline issues and a few other glaring problems.\u00a0 There were some nagging problems I didn’t know how to fix, so I wound up leaving them.\u00a0 I fixed the timeline problems and the obvious typographical errors.\u00a0 Then, knowing it was flawed but not knowing how to fix it, I asked a trusted friend to critique it for me.\u00a0 She graciously agreed.\u00a0 She nailed the problems with the manuscript — and identified some things she thought were good about it.\u00a0 I still had no idea how to fix the story, but at least I had some idea where it had problems — and I agreed with those problems.<\/p>\n Fast Forward to Fall of 2009.\u00a0 Holly Lisle was launching her “How to Revise Your Novel” course.*\u00a0 This course was built in response to people (me included) not “getting” Holly’s “One-Pass Revision” process. \u00a0 Taking the course (22+ weeks worth) proves that “One-Pass” revision is what the revision process can be for a seasoned professional.\u00a0 For a fledgling professional, it’s daunting.<\/p>\n I chose to use Polar Bear on the Loose<\/em> as the novel I revised for the course.\u00a0 I’ve been working through the course very slowly (I’m only on Lesson 10, and I’ve been taking the course since it was first offered), but I believe it’s been very effective.<\/p>\n I’m discovering conflict — or, rather, where it is missing or inadequate.\u00a0 I’m still seeing the individual parts, but my mind sort of grasps how it all comes together, but I’m struggling with implementing what I know needs to be done.\u00a0 At least with the course, I’m able to grasp the essence, and I’m slowly applying it to my work.\u00a0 I certainly hope the next iteration of this comes together a little more quickly — at this rate, the only option for me will be self-publishing, because no traditional publisher could operate on my extremely long timeline.<\/p>\n * That is my affiliate link for the class, and all proceeds from my affiliate go directly to Forward Motion.\u00a0 In the interest of full disclosure, as a beta participant, Holly did not charge me to take this class, although, I was fully prepared to pay full price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I can relate to this month’s Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour topic — revision.\u00a0 I struggle to get my mind around it, but I have done it successfully, usually for academic papers.\u00a0 Revising fiction has been much more challenging for me. When I finished Polar Bear on the Loose in 2004, I …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-merry-go-round-blog-tour"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16092,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105\/revisions\/16092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}