The Summer of Great Revisions

Yesterday, I finished my last final of this year and I almost did somersaults out of Farris Hall. To the loyal legion who read this blog, let it be well known that this day begins the Summer of a Thousand Revisions! Because of a fairly large shift in my writing style this past semester, the first eight or so chapters of my novel will need to be heavily revised and restructured. Short stories that I started a few weeks or so ago, will soon be finished and sent out, and I will keep updates on my progress on the blog.

I've moved furniture all morning, rearranging my room into more of an office and so far, being home has proved delightful amounts of fun, but the fact that I still have to unload my car, is anything but said fun. It's packed so full, I think it might explode. After that, I think I shall take a break and watch a little of Mr. Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Speaking of Mr. Eastwood, I think of Roland Deschain of The Dark Tower, then of Stephen King, and then I wonder - anyone want to go see 1408 with me?

So say we all.
Bri

On Revisions, Cliches and New Frontiers

For the past week or so, I've concentrated on editing What is Now: Easter Sunday and When Otis Met Everlyse, and received great critique from my best-worst critic friend. She discovered the miraculous and wonderful world of the Microsoft Word comment feature, and I benefited immensely from her advice! I know I'm probably a few years behind the revolution, but this newly discovered feature has enlightened me to the greatness of Word. Basically, this feature allows her to comment to specific pieces of my work in little comic-word bubbles without disrupting the flow of my original text. It's fantastic.

Another great realization of the week is that revision is a wonderful process - and I will spare you the horror of cliches like "like a snake shedding its skin" or a "phoenix rising from the ashes." But in all honesty, revision may be one of the greatest things I've had to do for class, mainly because I think it might greatly benefit my novel chapters when I revise them this summer.

The last thing for the evening is that I have started work on several short stories outside of my normal genre, mainly because of a writing/revision assignment in my fiction class. I'll keep you updated on the progress of these new ventures.

So say we all.
Bri

Thoughts and prayers are with those at Virginia Tech.