Revisions, I have ENDED you

I have finished the editorial revisions on book #8, MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY!  This book will be out in April, 2012.

Book #7 MAGIC ON THE LINE, is already revised, copy edited, and proofed and will hit the shelves on November 1, 2011.

Some stats for fun:

• Started revisions: August 30, 2011
• Finished revisions: September 11, 2011
• Total days revising: 13
• Chapters revised: 26
• Average: 2 chapters a day
• Word count beginning: 85,896
• Word count end: 94,900
• Total words cut:  Many.
• Net words added above original word count: 9,000+

Favorite comment from my editor: “I’ve always loved Shame.”

Hardest scenes to revise: kissing scenes, battle scenes.

Easiest scenes to revise:  I think there were two chapters in which I made very little changes.  But I can’t remember which chapters.

Mechanics: So how, exactly do I handle revisions?  Pretty simple, really.  I read my editor’s revision notes, which she sends via email. Then I print out that email, and keep it next to my keyboard.

I begin at line one, chapter one, and go through the entire book making any adjustments I want to make, and also addressing her comments. I check off her comments one at a time as I’ve taken care of them  in text.

Every few pages or so, I check word count and write it down so I can watch it go up and down.  What can I say? It amuses me.  I also write down page count to note how many pages I’ve worked through.

Interesting bit this time around: One of my editor’s comments was that I needed to add a “reaction” scene in the last chapter, to further sum up, and process the events in the book.  I’d put in a scene for that, but it was pretty small, and I knew she was right. The scene needed more, or another scene to balance the action that happens at the very *end* of the book.  It took me half a day to decide what scene to put there, and how to do it. I knew Allie needed to be in it (point of view character, afterall) but who else?  I finally realized it needed to be Zay.  I think it might be one of my favorite scenes in the book.  Which made me very happy.

So what am I going to do now?  I printed the book out and am going to give it one last read-through.  There’s something about ink on paper that really makes mistakes stand out and gives me a better feeling for the “flow” of the narrative.

And maybe by tonight, I’ll be back to writing the steampunk book, TIN SWIFT.