Big Picture Revision

Imagine you've just put together a very complicated 1000-piece puzzle. It was tricky, but you beat it. All the pieces are in place... except one. You count the pieces. There are 1000 pieces. It should be perfect, but it's not. Somehow you put the puzzle together wrong, leaving a hole where none should be.

It's time for revisions. Not polishing-the-pieces revisions. Taking-the-whole-puzzle-apart-and-putting-it-back-together revisions.

Aaack!!

That's how I feel today. I'm working on BIG PICTURE revision. That's not the line-editing type where you change out "floated" for "walked" or get rid of excess adverbs. That's the kind where you pull up full-grown sunflowers by their roots and try to replant them elsewhere.

Too many metaphors?

Sorry. I'm in BIG PICTURE revision mode, which means my brain is in creative overdrive. It's fun because I get to write completely new scenes and plug them in, or add in a sneaky character detail that I just now thought of to make my villain more present, even though he's kind of behind the scenes like Voldemort.

But as I get closer to the end, I'm getting anxious. At some point, I'll have all 1000 pieces put together again, and I'm terrified of that gaping hole that shouldn't be there. What if it's always there? What if I can't close it up with some brilliant plot twist or rational explanation?

Writer fail.

How do you organize your big picture edits so they don't sneak up on you with a million untied strings at the end?

Abandonment Issues

"Books are never finished, they are merely abandoned." Oscar Wilde


Is a book ever really finished? Is an author ever truly pleased with her own work?


I'm at the end of my fifth book, so I wonder. I mean, I still love/hate my other four books. They're awesome/crap and I'll never forget them. But I have moved on. I have to. 


I'm a writer. Writers write, right? Or else they're not really writers. They're just thinkers. But it's kind of depressing to imagine finishing this WIP, revising it, and then letting it rot on a hard drive somewhere (as if I don't know exactly which hard drive it would be rotting on!). 


Is it naive to believe every time that this will be the book? I mean, at some point, it IS the book! 


Ask Beth Revis! Or Kiersten White. Or Elana Johnson. I could go on naming my favorite writers who became published authors after years and forgotten manuscripts built from hard work and perseverance. But I'll let you fill in the blanks with your favorite authors. 


________ made it after ten years of writing and rejection.


________ almost gave up, but good friends and writing partners wouldn't let him.


________ changed my life with her one and only book. 




Yes, I have abandoned more books than most people ever write. Maybe you have, too. But believe this (repeat it if you're alone): Someday a book by me will be finished by the hardcover binding that's more satisfying than typing THE END.


And real people who have never met me will pick it up and read it. 


And I will be pleased with it, even though it will never be perfect.


Because it will be a piece of me shared with the world. 


When do you feel your work is finished on a particular book or project? Is publication the end? Or do you feel satisfied just in finishing your final round of revisions?