February 12th 2025. I haven’t written a diary entry for a while. It’s been a good week now. Some minor things have been coming up. I can’t completely disregard the guitar. I also started this website, the one you’re reading now, which has taken an enormous amount of time to set up. I still don’t have it where I need it to be. The main thing that’s lacking right now is there is no way to subscribe to the website, and there’s no way to contact me other than to send me an email through Google. Quite frustrating.
It’s also true that, even though I haven’t made a diary entry, I still have been writing. I’m very pleased with myself that I finished revising the first act. That’s the second draft that I’m talking about. I reduced the first act from 14 scenes to 8. I haven’t done the calculation about how many pages I’ve cut out, but it seems like a two-thirds of them.
During this afternoon, I read over what I’ve written for the second draft. The 1st three scenes read pretty well. I had to make a number of cosmetic changes, but I was not throwing out everything and I was not rewriting half of the second draft. I’m coming closer to when I may search out beta readers. I need to go over the book a number of times before that happens. Looking back on the last five years, I believe I should have spent more time revising, and not been in such a hurry to get things done. When you’re in a hurry to get things done, what is sacrificed is quality. And quality can be measured by how many little things exist in the book. For example, I’ve been focusing on symbolism, particularly in the 2nd and third chapters of the revision. I’m also doing more with simile. Particularly similes that use the word “like.” It’s been a very conscious effort on my part. Similes are fun. They tell you a lot about the character, and quite a bit about the author, and perhaps the message that he or she’s trying to send.
I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Smack dab in the middle of the morning. So that will impact how much revising I can get done. I’ve also started teaching a Creative Writing class at the Community Center. No revision Thursday night, but all of Friday presents an opportunity. I’m very anxious to read the rest of my first act. I’m hoping that it coheres as well as the three scenes that I read earlier today. There’s some chance that I could have the rest of the first act revised by the end of the weekend. It would be great to start the 1st part of the 2nd act next week. Things are going faster than I expected. Not to be too optimistic, but, by the end of the month, the whole second draft could be done. Very exciting.
Many more drafts to go, though. A writer I heard present in Florida says she always does 7 drafts. How can she thoroughly revise so quick?
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