Nadia Lee :: Romance Writer

Can you believe it's already September? 2010 is two-thirds over!

I've been busy with the All's Fair revision -- the final round before I send it to my first beta reader.

The progress bar above shows that I've gone through ten chapters out of twenty-one (48% complete).

September's going to be pretty busy. I plan to wrap up All's Fair and get some beta feedback. Then I'm taking some time off to finish the final A Goddess to Love revision (already have the beta feedback) and read Neuromancer and Snow Crash. (No, I've never read either of them. I know, I know...)

Afterward, I plan to consider certain elements in All's Fair and its sequel plus a sekrit novella project. They're all stand-alone projects -- you don't even have to read them in order, but there is some definite overlap in world building (same time period, though in different parts of the world) and recurring characters.

P.S. I just finished Kresley Cole's Demon from the Dark. If you haven't read this book, OMG, do it now!

Most people think I listen to some really upbeat and/or tense tracks from action movies or something, but actually I listen to something like this when I'm working on the final fight scenes. The current WIP, which is going through some heavy revision, has a knife, a garrot, a gun, lots of blood, tears and a body.

BTW -- I adore the lyrics, though I will not translate them because I think it takes away from the meaning of the song for me. You can take a look at YouTube video subtitles, but the translation there isn't the best, either.

But the title means (in case anybody is wondering... and some Korean people don't seem to know exactly what it means either) "the wind at the end of heaven". (You can also call it "the wind that reaches the end of heaven" but I think it's not as poetic.)

I'm in the middle of revision right now. Though my process is different for each project, I'll share the revision method for my current WIP.

Step One: I print out the whole thing in whatever font strikes my fancy, but it's always double-spaced so I have enough room to scribble notes. Then I read it through in 3-5 days and make notes. They're not extensive, mind you. It's mostly for big things like:

• Yawn. This lags.
• This doesn't belong here.
• I have no idea what this sentence is trying to say.
• Oops. Misplaced punctuation / words.
• Who's saying this?
• Action choreography doesn't make sense here.
• This point deserves emotional depth upgrade.
• Whoa. Emo much?
• Repetitious.

Step Two: I consult my Maass notes and go through the hard copy draft again, this time marking places that could be changed / improved per my notes. If I run out of space on the actual manuscript page, I use a notebook designated for revision.

Step Three: I finally make all the changes on my computer.

Step Four: I spend about 2 weeks doing nothing but reading other people's books and/or working on some other projects, but I do not revise anything I've written, even if it's not my WIP. (I might beta for other people who I may ping later for Steps Seven and Eight below.) This helps me "reset" my eyes and brain, so to speak.

Step Five: I print out the WIP again. Repeat Step One. Then go through it again with ECE and EDITS.

Step Six: Make changes to my soft copy. Send to the 1st set of betas.

Step Seven: Make any changes as needed per the 1st set of betas.

Step Eight: Send it to the 2nd set of betas. (By this point, the manuscript should be more or less in shape.) Make final changes as needed.

Step Nine: Send to Agent. Give myself a week of detox time from revision so I can "reset" again as I know Agent usually has her own set of revision comments, etc.

How do you revise? What tools / books have you found helpful?

Can you believe it's already July? 2010 is officially half over.

Since finishing the first draft of my Sekrit Love Story in May, I took June off to give myself a little bit of distance before I start revising. Mostly I spent last month reading books I've been dying to read for a while and watching soccer. I finally got to read Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. What an excellent YA. If you like gorgeous prose and an interesting twist on werewolves, you ought to try it.

Now that July 1st is here, a pristine print copy of Sekrit Love Story is ready for my highlighters and color pens. July and August will be all about revision.

How do you plan to spend your summer?

P.S. For those of you who missed the announcement, don't forget about my Kiss of the Rose contest!

I'm in the middle of revision right now. It's going well, especially because I like the story. (It's near-impossible to do this if you don't really care for your own story...) I like drafting too, but sometimes revision can be more "fun" because I can clear away all the gunk that's "almost there" but not quite.

Below you can see my desk during revision mode. It always has lots of highlighters, my drink of choice (it's coffee in the picture because I took it in the morning, but usually it's a big bottle of water at room temperature; I don't like cold water because it sometimes hurts my throat), trusty Synonym Finder, a notebook to jot down any ideas or reminders as I revise, and several pens in different colors. I also use Word Menu (not in the picture), which is a reverse look-up dictionary. And of course a print out of my work-in-progress.

Now a close-up of some pages after I've savaged them. Once I'm satisfied that they've been sufficiently brutalized, I transcribe everything to the soft copy on my computer. That takes a while because...um...sometimes my handwriting's very bad. I try to write neatly as much as possible in normal settings, but when I'm revising, I jot down ideas very fast because I don't want to lose any gems that come to mind.

All of us have written and revised at one point, even if it's not fiction (school essays, personal essays / statements for college apps, etc.). How do you revise?