Revision Time

So I think I’m ready to dive in. So far I’ve made copious notes and I’ve thought long and hard and I’ve had ideas about what to do. It is going to be a full overhaul. But as of yet I haven't touched a thing. I'm one of those people that stand on the beach for a long time before getting into the water. But when I do go in, I get wet all at once.

This is where Scrivener comes in. Scrivener allows me to easily separate a document into many different documents and also fuse the documents back together. Originally when I wrote the book it was separated into chapters. I wrote it in scenes and then pasted scenes where I felt  they belonged. Usually it was more fussing than that, but the fussing was because of my imperfect writerly brain and less about the Scrivener program. So when I sent it off to my readers, I fused the whole thing together. One grand document of 56,877 words. Well, now my plan is to take a big scene from the center(a flashback that will no longer be such) and place it in the beginning and then weave through backstory. Separating by chapters will be less helpful than tracking the threads of backstory through present moment. I’m trying to imagine how this will work in the Scrivener program. I’ll keep you posted as to how this all works out. How do you all sort through this kind of thing?

I am sometimes amazed at my own blindness to the mechanics of novels. I’m a duration reader. I read for the pleasure of giving in and giving up. I always feel that I should be able to do this with writing as well. I think I have a new years resolution about this. What were they anyway? Oh, where is John Gardner when you need him?

As Always (today I start revision in earnest, tomorrow blog business),
Tina