I did some checking about the amount of time I spent writing Book 3. It appears it took five months to belch out that draft. During that time I did little else in the way of side projects and other distractions. Now that it is complete, a great weight has been lifted from me. Revision takes much less work because I go more slowly and only do small bits of work here and there.
This approach works well for me when revising and it gives me time for other things in my life. This is good timing because with Spring arriving I will want to spend time outside to tend to the garden, the tree, and the yard.
This means a lot more time thinking about the events in Book 2 and the new characters that are introduced. Given that the book is over 100,000 words (a personal best) it means I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Hope it it ready to go by December.
But that's not the only potential pitfall. In Book 2 several of the main characters get fleshed out. The issue here is the fine line between drama and dramatizing scenes and melodrama (the type of thing you see in soap operas and reality TV shows). I want drama; I eschew melodrama.
But the whole young adult crazy in fiction now seems to thrive on melodrama. I find myself slipping down that path. The good news is now is the time to revise it out of my story. This is one reason I am proceeding slowly through the book. I need to find the words and scenes that don't belong and remove them or change them so that the text sings.
Essentially this means I'm doing a developmental edit, a copy edit, and a review for word choice and sentence variation all at once. I doubt I could go much faster even if I wanted to.
I think the editor is getting this after I'm done, just to make sure nothing fell through the cracks.
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