All I wanted to do December 1st was walk away from my writing projects and binge Dawson’s Creek on the nights I would have been chasing my word count. Did I do that? No. Because there was a goal I had set myself way back in January that I wasn’t going to let the general fatigue of 2020 coupled with post NaNoWriMo fatigue keep me from accomplishing.
One of my largest goals for 2020 was to complete the current revision/rewrite of MS:SB. It’s the manuscript I’d queried and I knew based on the rejections and feedback from my peer critique group and others who were gracious enough to be first round readers that the story needed some lovin’ before I wanted to continue sending it out to agents. Earlier in 2020 I made a detailed plan, I created place holders where new chapters needed to be added, smoothed out and bulked up the storyline to fill gaps, and was set to dive into the actual work of rewriting and revising the story. I made it through chapter five before the work stalled in the face of pandemic/life/NaNoWriMo/general-etc-2020-stuff. So, once NaNoWriMo was done, I set my fatigue aside and dove in.
Knowing what was going to happen and where the rewrites and additions were needed streamlined and expedited the process immensely. I also wound up cutting out chapters from one printed revision of the manuscript and shuffling them into the latest version in order to reference the two while I wrote. I thought I would want to look back to remind myself of where I was or reuse pieces I’d cut and wanted back, but honestly as I went through the process, I didn’t feel the need. It actually wound up being the best revision project I’ve ever undertaken and the story is more incredible than I imagined it would be.
This week, I’m going to push myself to finish it. I have about ten more chapters to go and then it is done. I peeked at my synopsis and query and realized those need some work too. I’m hoping to get that done before the end of December in order to start sending the story out again in January. It’s a lofty goal, but I’m going to give it my best shot.
In case you haven’t been told today, you are more than enough.
Happy Writing!
Nikole Breault 
Someday you are going to have to teach me your organized ways! I struggle so hard to revise especially when there’s a lot of work to be done. It’s so much easier when it’s just one or two scenes.
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😁 I know, it’s taken me up until this go-around to really have it all together and feel like the whole process just flowed. I’d love to talk revision process!
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