My First Revision Project of the Year...

Hey! How are you? Long time no blog. Well, it hasn't been that long since I keep posting book reviews, but you know what I mean. 

So, now that January is over and my brain finally feels like it's ready to concentrate again, it's time to get stuck into a new Revision Project. Last year I posted about the Revision Plans I had to finalise a bunch of novel first drafts that have been sitting (forgotten) on my hard drive far too long.

I had big plans to get six out of the nine drafts revised. That was very ambitious because life got in the way several times and we're living through a never-ending pandemic. Also, these projects involved a LOT of work and I needed breaks in between.

Anyway, this is what I achieved in 2021:

1. April: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
2. May: Full revision of Destiny
3. June: Full revision of Victoria
4. August: Full revision of Possess
5. September: Full revision of Monsters

Not what I originally planned, but still a very good start to this very ambitious plan. I mean, each revision involves two drafts and a final read-thru. Phew!

As of now, I have five outstanding projects left from the original backlog and a new one because I wrote a new draft during NaNoWriMo. 😊

So, this week I got stuck into what I'm tentatively calling Cosmic. It's a YA thriller that I've dubbed Roswell meets The X-Files, and takes place during an Aussie summer that changes the main character's life forever. It's whimsical and full of SFish stuff plus features a complicated but sweet love story between two girls.

This is how my progress turned out:

• Monday: 56/134pgs (52,897w)
• Tuesday: 105/130pgs (50,958w)
• Wednesday: 126pgs / 48,910w

As you can see, the second draft is now done! I ended up cutting 4,713 words and deleted a chapter that didn't need to be there. I did keep several paragraphs and moved them somewhere else. Plus, I've decided to change the date it's set. 😬

The reason I chose this story first is because it's the project I was hoping to complete back in December. It's also one of the shorter ones, which is great for getting back into the swing of things. Actually, after finishing this draft, I realised this might become a novella instead of a novel.

This draft always turns out to be my getting to know this story and characters all over again, so I deleted quite a bit. I made plenty of changes/additions and have a Third Draft List started already.

It feels good to get back into the swing of things. I'll put this aside until Monday and take a few days off to keep adding to the List. Oh, and I'd like to get some reading done too.

Have a great day!