And the deconstruction begins!

[rolanni]

As mentioned elsewhere, I've begun work on revising Fledgling. It occurred to me that some folks might find a description of the revision process instructive, or even enjoyable. While I'm not going to put up every revised chapter, I can post the ever-changing word count and discuss a little bit about why it's changing in a particular direction.

This will be, I expect, of interest only to a few, so I'll try not to bore y'all. Revision, however, is going to be my Life for the Next While, so my topics of conversation are likely to be otherwise limited.

So, let's see if this works.

Beginning word count; Fledgling first draft:

97,483 / 100,000 (97.5%)

Fledgling second draft:

97,910 / 100,000 (97.9%)

Revised through the end of Chapter Two. Inserted the hooks for two plot points and introduced all six of the main players. Dinked around with a lot of sentences, and added, hey, a whole 427 words to the cake.

Comments

[xinef.livejournal.com]

How do you two manage the editing? Does one read through and edit then the other do a second pass? Or not that tidy? Just curious!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm doing the first pass on the revision, in consultation with Steve. When I'm done my pass, he gets the whole manuscript to go through one! more! time! Usually, the on-going consultation means the third-draft changes are really pretty minor and at the end of them we've got a clean manuscript to turn in.

...then, of course, the copy editor gets it.... *g*

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

My partner is a few weeks behind on Saltation, and so it's really, really hard not to squee with spoliers when the new chapter goes up. Y'all are evil people...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Y'all are evil people...

Us?

*strolls away, whistling*

[keristor.livejournal.com]

All the writers I like best are evil. In a good way, of course, the same as the young man converted to Christianity said "Jesus is wicked!"

Tell you, it's going to be really interesting reading the final version, knowing the story but at the same time not knowing it...

[marniferous.livejournal.com]

It's very interesting! Thanks for sharing it with us.