good advice

The new goal is two posts a week, regardless of date.

A subtle yet important difference for me. It relieves the pressure and guilt, and I’m still writing two posts a week. It also means the new two post goal is a minimum, unlike the maximum it used to be.

I have pages of notes in my WritShel blank book that I will make into posts. I have books on my shelves that I have read that I will review as posts. I still have a lot to do with this project and revising my plan will help me achieve that.

There are many ways to do many things, especially when it comes to writing. Having observed myself over the past eight months, I have a much better sense of how I can make this website what I want it to be: a resource for writers featuring original art and posts that take less than 3 minutes to read.

I’ll also be investigating an email opt-in for those who would find it easier to have my posts delivered to their in-box. I do this with several writing/agent blogs and find it very convenient.

Thank you for visiting and reading and I hope you found some useful information. I look forward to continuing this project with my revised writing plan, knowing it may face another revision eight months from now. Such is the writing life.

Aaron: Because what the world remembers, the actuality, the last revision, is what counts, apparently.
- Primer

I just got a copy of Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon. In the introduction, she presents three completely different ways three prominent authors revise their work:

• 32 pages of revision for every single final page – Dean Kootz
• revise no more than 3 times, then start your next work – Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• throw away the first 2 drafts, keep and polish the third – Jonis Agee

more spooky buds

As Lyon notes, “These examples represent but three philosophies of revision, but as many methods exist as there are writers.”

I’ll admit, throwing out my first and second draft did not occur to me. But now I know it’s an option. As is revising every page more than 10 or 20 times. I haven’t tried that, but it could work for me.

I am going to finish reading Manuscript Makeover first, just in case I find something else I want to try before the 32 Page Revision Method.

You’ll know when something works for you. If you’re not sure where to start, find out what other people do and try that out. If it works, remember it and do it again. If it doesn’t, try something else.

Thomas Edison: If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed.