Cynthia Harrison

Novelist

Category: Revision

  • How to Fix a Book

    Novels are easy to write if you turn off your thinking and dive into the story stream. They might be easy, but the results are not always pretty. Such was the case with my WIP, Jane. I got a first very bad extremely horrible draft done in a couple of months last year. This year…

  • Spring Cleaning for Writers

    My kitchen counters are cluttered with the contents of my pantry. This is good news for a couple reasons. One ~ If I’m cleaning, I must be over the flu that hit our house just before the holiday weekend. Two ~ If I’m ready to tackle my pantry, my WIP revision will be a piece…

  • Revision & Research

      My favorite part of writing is the first draft. It’s like flying on a magic carpet inside my mind. I do not bring my inner critic along. I know she’ll be back for revision, when I need her. I finished that fun first draft in November. December I took a month off to enjoy…

  • Dear Diary,

    I have hit an impasse in my revisions. Written out and integrated all the new plots ideas I had. Was sure they’d add up to 65K but they did not. I need about 20 more pages. This is okay. I started out needing 50. Then 30. Now 20. So it’s progress even if it doesn’t…

  • The Rocky Road to True Love

    Got through 30 pages of revision yesterday. Five hours of steady work. And then last night, I realized they were all wrong. Really wrong. Like, unfixable. In need of swift deletion. The saving grace was that I also knew exactly how to fix the scene sequence. I didn’t have the words yet, but I knew the…