Re-vision

Last year I had cataract surgery. It was something like a miracle. Colors were suddenly bright and vivid. The sky was really really blue. The letters on signs were sharp.

I could, literally, see the world anew.

Revisions are something like cataract surgery. They take what you've got and make it better. They clean things up, sharpen them, tone them, focus them.

They are, as I said on the Love Is An Exploding Cigar blog, a second chance at getting things right in our fictional worlds. We almost never get chances like that in the real one.

I'm doing that right now with Flynn and Sara. I'm cutting and cutting and cutting. And every now and then I add something that seems to belong, that makes things clearer (I hope) and better.

By the time I've been through the book once and have a good draft, I have a feel for pacing, for mood, for the arc of the story. It's sort of there in the synopsis stage. But there's no sense of timing. Beyond the first chapter, I have no idea how long anything is likely to take.

Now I do. And that's what I'm working on. Things are getting clearer and sharper.

The story is getting clearer. The book is getting better.

Keep your fingers crossed. I'm going to keep mine typing!