🪶 A Solid Week of Writing
editing two chapters of my book
Monday
Pages edited: 0
Time spent: 0 minutes
I was on such a roll last week, as it was my first time touching my manuscript in a month and a half, and I was eager to get back into it. I probably worked on my book for 3-5 hours every day. I knew it wasn’t exactly a sustainable pace, but I had a ton of inspiration, so I let myself ride out that momentum.
But today, I crashed. Several things happened in my personal life recently that drained me, and I just didn’t have the time or energy to write today. In the past, I would’ve beaten myself up for missing a day. But I’m learning to give myself more grace. So I’m just going to brush it off and try again tomorrow.
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Tuesday
Pages edited: 2
Time spent: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Today I worked on chapter four. Initially, I didn’t think it needed a ton of editing, but it ended up needing the most out of any chapter I’ve worked on so far.
One of the things I noticed during the read-through of my third draft was that my chapters didn’t flow together very well. They were more like short stories that abruptly started and ended. Apart from the fact that the characters and overall setting stayed the same throughout the chapters, there was nothing else that tied them together. So I knew this was something I needed to focus on more in this draft.
For this chapter specifically, the beginning needed a lot of work to make it flow better with the previous scene. At the start of this chapter, I had my main character digging through her suitcase. It was a way for me to tell the reader about her situation through her clothes, like how she’d thrifted them because she couldn’t afford to buy new ones. But it felt a bit random and forced, since it had nothing to do with the previous scenes.
To create a more seamless flow, I incorporated an element from the previous scene into this one. In chapter three, I had my main character agree to go to a beach bonfire. So I slightly changed the beginning of chapter four to her digging through her suitcase so that she could find an outfit for that bonfire.
It’s a minor shift, but it makes it feel more like a string of continuous events going from one chapter to the next. And it still allows me to develop my character by sharing about her clothes/suitcase.
Wednesday
Pages edited: 2
Time spent: 1 hour, 20 minutes
I finished marking up the fourth chapter today on my printed-out manuscript. It took me a long time to edit only two pages, but there were a lot of things that needed to be fixed, so I was OK with the slow pace.
Something that I worked on in this chapter (and am trying to focus on in general) is adding more visceral emotions. I want the reader to feel what my main character is feeling, to be immersed in her shoes.
And the way to do that is by adding visceral emotions as a response to things that are said/done/thought. This can be phrases like “my pulse raced,” or “adrenaline shot up my spine,” or “my stomach dropped.” They’ll take the reader on a roller coaster of emotions along with the main character.
In my previous draft, I didn’t incorporate a ton of visceral emotions, which made it seem like my main character wasn’t having the appropriate emotional response to things. I think the reason I fell into this trap was that I (the writer) already knew what was going to happen. I knew the plot twist, so I didn’t have my main character’s chest tighten in disbelief when she found out. I knew the mean thing her half-sister was going to say to her, so I didn’t have her blood boiling with anger when it was said.
But I have to remember that my main character is experiencing all of these things for the first time, and therefore she will be feeling a certain way. So I’m focusing more on getting out of my “writer” shoes and into my main character’s shoes so that I can make her emotional responses more accurate.
Thursday
Pages edited: 0 (but kind of 4)
Time spent: 1 hour, 52 minutes
The reason I technically edited 0 pages today was because I didn’t work on any new ones. Instead, I typed up all of chapter four’s edits that I’d made in my printed-out manuscript. Once everything was typed up, I read through it a final time just to make sure the changes flowed together well.
This chapter was a tricky one for me, as I was trying to incorporate a lot of my character’s backstory into it. While the previous chapters were focused on my MC having conversations with new people she’d met, this chapter gave more backstory to make the reader better understand why she was the way she was.
But despite the edits being a bit difficult to navigate in this chapter, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out. The things that I needed to tweak were all done successfully, so that’s a win!
Friday
Pages edited: 0
Time spent: 0 minutes
Let’s not dwell too much on today, shall we?
Saturday
Pages edited: 5
Time spent: 3 hours, 10 minutes
Wow. I surprisingly cruised through my edits today, which I’m grateful for because I needed to make up for my lack of writing on Monday and Friday. My goal for this draft is to get through 2 chapters a week, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hit it this week, since I’d only completed one chapter by Saturday morning.
But we did it. We pulled through.
I was able to edit an entire chapter today from start to finish. This chapter was a relatively easy one to edit. It was already fairly strong, and there weren’t any big character/plot things I noticed in the read-through that I needed to change.
The only character thing I needed to tweak slightly was the dynamic between the male main character and his sister. They’re supposed to have a lighthearted teasing relationship, but it was coming off a little too aggressive, like they actually hated each other. So I just changed a few of their responses/reactions to each other to make it feel more aligned with their actual relationship.
Overall, it was a successful day, and I’m closing out the week on a good note!
Sunday
Pages edited: 0
Time spent: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Since I just finished editing the fifth chapter, I took today to read through all five chapters that I’ve edited so far in this draft. I’m planning to do a read-through like this every time I finish editing a chunk of five chapters, as I want to see how they’re flowing together as a whole.
I did catch one major thing in chapter three that I ended up deleting, as it came across as too info-dumpy. But otherwise, I was fairly happy with how this part of the story flowed together.
How is your writing week going? Are you making a lot of progress on your book, or is it more of a creative rest week? Let me know in the comments!
Getting to the point of revisiting my first two novellas for edits while still back-burner planning (in my head at the moment) the third one that actually slots in between the two completed ones.
Thank you for writing this. It makes me realize that all my ups and downs, and my zero-page-edit days while revising my manuscript, are normal!😅 And I love how this journal-type blog post helps with accountability.