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I'm about halfway through the revisions for CROW OF CONNEMARA for the submission draft, which I'll send to my first readers and my editor for their comments before doing a (hopefully) final revision pass. The book has grown from 82,500 words in first draft to 88,800 at the moment, with an expected length of around 95,000 words when all is said and done (though we'll see).
I find that I'm generally an "additive" revisor than a "subtractive" one. Sure, I excise plenty of words (for IMMORTAL MUSE, which will be out in March next year, I deleted two entire sections from the book between the first draft and the last, one 6,800 words, the other 10,200 -- nearly a full novella's worth of material). But on the whole, my first drafts tend to gain weight during the revision process, not lose it. I think that's mostly because I tend to hurry through my first drafts, trying to get the story down and not worrying too much about the pacing, description, and prose. I often find missing words in the first draft… because they were there in my head even though my fingers never actually typed them out.
Maybe as a consequence, I love the revision process, because it's where a mediocre draft can become something good. I think I like revision more than drafting out the story in the first place...
It's what works for me. But -- as I've said far too many times -- there's no right way to write, and thus no "right" way to revise. I don't worry about the word count as I'm revising; I just make the changes I feel necessary and have the prose accomplish what I want it to accomplish. If I'm happy with the revision, I don't care whether I've added to or subtracted from the eventual word count.
But almost always, I have more words than I started with.
So what about you? What's your revision process? Do you end up with fewer or more words at the end, or does that vary, depending on the individual work? Do you enjoy the revision process?
(#SFWApro)
I find that I'm generally an "additive" revisor than a "subtractive" one. Sure, I excise plenty of words (for IMMORTAL MUSE, which will be out in March next year, I deleted two entire sections from the book between the first draft and the last, one 6,800 words, the other 10,200 -- nearly a full novella's worth of material). But on the whole, my first drafts tend to gain weight during the revision process, not lose it. I think that's mostly because I tend to hurry through my first drafts, trying to get the story down and not worrying too much about the pacing, description, and prose. I often find missing words in the first draft… because they were there in my head even though my fingers never actually typed them out.
Maybe as a consequence, I love the revision process, because it's where a mediocre draft can become something good. I think I like revision more than drafting out the story in the first place...
It's what works for me. But -- as I've said far too many times -- there's no right way to write, and thus no "right" way to revise. I don't worry about the word count as I'm revising; I just make the changes I feel necessary and have the prose accomplish what I want it to accomplish. If I'm happy with the revision, I don't care whether I've added to or subtracted from the eventual word count.
But almost always, I have more words than I started with.
So what about you? What's your revision process? Do you end up with fewer or more words at the end, or does that vary, depending on the individual work? Do you enjoy the revision process?
(#SFWApro)