Speeding through Revisions
I wanna get there. I am doing my best to push through a major revision of The Devil's Wall, with guidance and support from my mentor J. Albert Mann. I'm really pleased with what I've come up with, but I just need to get there.Because.... Once I finish this revision, I want to do one more. I want to rewrite the novel in dual-POV, alternating between Evgenia and Anna, rather than all being told in Evgenia's POV.Heh. I don't think that's going to be as overwhelming as it sounds?I originally meant for the novel to be dual-POV. I started writing in Anna's voice. But when I switched to Evgenia in chapter 2, I just fell in love. I couldn't bear to pull myself away from her head or her voice. And, in my defense, it never seemed to make sense to do so. At that point it all still felt like Evgenia's story. It wasn't until book 2 -- which back then was just part 2 of a single book -- that I switched to Anna's POV.But my mentor mentioned the dual-POV idea during our last convo, and I have to say, it's been gnawing at me. I do think this story would be best told in both their voices. If it's going to accomplish what I want -- which is ultimately a story of a friendship across class and political lines -- then it'd be best to see that growth and progression in both of them.Haha. Sigh. Again, according to my plan, I'd only have to rewrite.... 4 scenes/chapters in Anna's POV. And as I move forward in this revision, I can just skip the scenes that should be from Anna's POV, and circle back. Which would mean then drafting... 6-7 new scenes/chapters.So, well, yes, that'll take some time. Damn it. See, the other thing is that I've been hearing about all these other Anastasia novels that are springing up in the YA field. And the longer I wait, the less room there'll be for me.... Yet another reason for speed.It's time to finish up. What I need is more time to focus on my writing -- the universal lament. I can't write more than once a week while I work full time -- my job exhausts my emotional energy. I could try dedicating my Saturdays in addition to Sundays, which would double my writing time (yay!) but not really leave much room for anything else in my life (hmm).My best estimate is that a brand new scene will take 3 hours to write. Not sure if that's optimistic, but that's my guesstimate. See, that's only 30 hours of work needed for the Anastasia chapters. That's less than one week if I could write full time!! But it's 6 weeks given my current rate. >:-|....I think I detect a vacation in my near future....