One word horror story: Revisions
As many of you may remember from a couple months back, I said I was finally ready to start submitting my book, Just Us, to publishers and agents. I would like to formally retract that statement lol.
Photo by @kellysikkema from Unsplash.
“I’ve found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it.”
After a few months of rejections and being left on read (as well as a few generous beta readers giving my book a once over), I’ve decided to go back and work through some pretty heavy revisions. That’s not to say I think the book is bad -- on the contrary, I think it’s the best book I’ve written to date. But, it’s lacking the depth I want for it -- and I still need to determine which genre/age group category it fits into. So there’s a lot of work left to go into it.
My scribbled notes trying to figure out what makes a story good lol.
I wrote Just Us over the span of a month last November for NaNoWriMo (my first time completing the [in]famous 50,000-word challenge), and much like my last book, Probably Nothing, it was a book I needed to write. It was a book to help me sort through trauma and healing, as well as understanding the complexities of my relationships with my family and my significant other. I think of other books, like On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, or The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and I wonder if they felt the same way. That these partially autobiographical, fiction novels were things they needed to write to come to terms with their own feelings about their childhood and their current relationships. I don’t know. I do know it was necessary. And that, above all else, it was healing.
But here we are back to the crux of the issue: depth.
My book tells an interesting story, I believe, about relationships. But other than that, it lacks dimensionality. It’s at once a story about a couple struggling with their past traumas, but also focused on an apocalyptic scenario...that doesn’t really add much to the story except being the impetus for them to discuss their traumas. Does the world really need to end for them to broach this subject? No. Major flaw lol.
So what does it need? Revisions. Literally the scariest word to a writer. I spent one month writing this book and then about half a year editing it, and now I’m back, realizing I have a lot more writing to do. Terrifying. There must be a meme for this somewhere.
(there was)
At least I get to do some cool writing again, I guess. But it does push back my internal schedule for my new book idea. Which is cool. Maybe I’ll finish these revisions in time to do a NaNoWriMo round two.
I’ve got some cool ideas for my Patreon account, too (which may potentially include Just Us in the future), so now is as good a time as any to become a subscriber! It starts as low as $3/month, and if you’re fiscally able, I would appreciate your support!
Chat soon, loves. Have a great week ahead!
