Oh dear.
I'm a dope. To the people that know me well, this is probably not big news. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and Shawna's a dope. How this keeps coming as a surprise to me though, I just don't know.
Basically, I'm taking both of Holly Lisle's writing courses simultaneously, How to Think Sideways, and How to Revise Your Novel. Both courses are smart, full of amazing information in plain English, and worth every cent. Holly's approach so far has been absolute gold, and she's been in the game for a lot longer than I have.
The novel I'm revising, my NaNo travesty, is, well...a travesty. I'm going to have to take it apart and put it back together again in a way that will barely resemble the original to make it something worth reading, let alone something that potentially sells. As such, I know that 95% of what's been written will have to go, and I was this close to stopping the revision process and going back to square one.
Luckily, some of the other students informed me that this was a completely dunderheaded thing to do, and they were right. If I stop the course now to rewrite, I'll just wind up flailing around another rough draft making the same mistakes I did the first time. Even if I still have to rewrite that 95%, I'll do it with an arsenal of knowledge and skills I didn't have the first time.
So yeah, dope. Good thing I have other people looking out for me, or I'd have drowned myself in a mud puddle by now. ;)
Basically, I'm taking both of Holly Lisle's writing courses simultaneously, How to Think Sideways, and How to Revise Your Novel. Both courses are smart, full of amazing information in plain English, and worth every cent. Holly's approach so far has been absolute gold, and she's been in the game for a lot longer than I have.
The novel I'm revising, my NaNo travesty, is, well...a travesty. I'm going to have to take it apart and put it back together again in a way that will barely resemble the original to make it something worth reading, let alone something that potentially sells. As such, I know that 95% of what's been written will have to go, and I was this close to stopping the revision process and going back to square one.
Luckily, some of the other students informed me that this was a completely dunderheaded thing to do, and they were right. If I stop the course now to rewrite, I'll just wind up flailing around another rough draft making the same mistakes I did the first time. Even if I still have to rewrite that 95%, I'll do it with an arsenal of knowledge and skills I didn't have the first time.
So yeah, dope. Good thing I have other people looking out for me, or I'd have drowned myself in a mud puddle by now. ;)