how to revise a novel
Step One: buy cookies.
Step Two: eat lots of cookies.
Step Three: assemble an infinite playlist of musics that hit all of the right emotional buttons and can be played on loop for twelve hours with minimal boredom.
Step Four: stare at blank screen for hours.
Step Five: procrastinate on tumblr.
Step Six: give up for night.
Step Seven: wake up hideously early with dialogue and characterization fully formed in head.
Step Eight: write down scene while cat howls for breakfast.
Step Nine: eat more cookies.
Step Ten: have panic attack about Deadlines.
Step Eleven: revise like a madwoman.
Step Twelve: hack and slash and prune. Reword and rethink. Admire cunningly-crafted prose. Cuddle characters. Apologize for their imminent torture. Transform into obsessed hunchbacked writer-creature and forget how to stand up.
Step Thirteen: reward self with cookies.
Step Fourteen: remember that eating meals is sometimes a wise thing to do.
Step Fifteen: watch Game of Thrones. WEEP ALL THE TEARS. Have urgent emotional conversation with friend over ALL THE TEARS.
Step Sixteen: resume revising like madwoman.
Step Seventeen: admit that it is possible to love a story too much.
Step Eighteen: stop to notice pretty pink sunset.
Step Nineteen: fall in plot hole the size of Australia.
Step Twenty: console self with last of the cookies.
Step Two: eat lots of cookies.
Step Three: assemble an infinite playlist of musics that hit all of the right emotional buttons and can be played on loop for twelve hours with minimal boredom.
Step Four: stare at blank screen for hours.
Step Five: procrastinate on tumblr.
Step Six: give up for night.
Step Seven: wake up hideously early with dialogue and characterization fully formed in head.
Step Eight: write down scene while cat howls for breakfast.
Step Nine: eat more cookies.
Step Ten: have panic attack about Deadlines.
Step Eleven: revise like a madwoman.
Step Twelve: hack and slash and prune. Reword and rethink. Admire cunningly-crafted prose. Cuddle characters. Apologize for their imminent torture. Transform into obsessed hunchbacked writer-creature and forget how to stand up.
Step Thirteen: reward self with cookies.
Step Fourteen: remember that eating meals is sometimes a wise thing to do.
Step Fifteen: watch Game of Thrones. WEEP ALL THE TEARS. Have urgent emotional conversation with friend over ALL THE TEARS.
Step Sixteen: resume revising like madwoman.
Step Seventeen: admit that it is possible to love a story too much.
Step Eighteen: stop to notice pretty pink sunset.
Step Nineteen: fall in plot hole the size of Australia.
Step Twenty: console self with last of the cookies.