Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Why The Revamp?

I just recently read a book that said if you don't condense your book in your revision, then you are doing something wrong.

So why am I doing a revamp of The Ultimate Evil that's clearly making the story much longer?

Simple: It needs it.

The Ultimate Evil, I believe, has the potential to be a great story. It was good in the old version but the reason I'm revamping is to flesh out the story and edit those iffy parts that every story has, whether it's to keep or chuck them.

With this new version of my fantasy, I also have to re-work the query. Heck, I had to do that anyway because my query, which I thought was good, turned out to be crap. And with new plot twists, I have to focus on different things than I used to. But I have to say, writing a query for this story is hard. Khaladin and Help! My Parents Are From Outer Space!'s queries were easier. I guess it's because they don't have as many twists and turns as The Ultimate Evil does.

Another thing. I normally keep you all updated on my word count progress, whether it increases or shortens. Well, I'm now going to hold you in suspense. I will not post The Ultimate Evil's word count again until it is finished.

Happy writing! :D

6 comments:

Ray Veen said...

You're not alone, most of revisions wind up longer than the previous versions.

I tend to write first drafts really quickly, and I gloss over a lot of things that need to be expanded. The normal pace of my fiction is 'speeding bullet', and I usually have to slow those suckers down.

Anita said...

Hey, like Big Plain V, my revisions make the story longer, too! And have you ever noticed how different fonts substantially increase word count? Courier Vs. Times Roman, for example.

Carradee said...

"I just recently read a book that said if you don't condense your book in your revision, then you are doing something wrong."

*grabs self by throat and plops self down firmly before self pitches a fit*

I HATE when people who write one way assume everyone else must do it that way, too. Sure, most people are naturally wordy and have to cut stuff.

Most. Not all. And we naturally concise people are frustrated when people ignore our existance.

Carradee said...

@ Anita:

Word count change with FONT?

...

*checks*

*blinks*

*checks again*

*also checks preferred font, Verdana*

...

O.O I never noticed that, before.

*thinks*

Maybe different fonts treat different punctuation marks differently?

*off to figure that out*

Cindy R. Wilson said...

Ugh, I hate writing query letters. That's why I purposely wrote a bad one over on my blog today. It was a lot more fun than writing a good one, and a lot easier, too!

Madison said...

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! That was the first time I had ever heard that before, and I was a bit puzzled. The book was fantastic, but that one line bothered me a little.

Anita, I had absolutely NO CLUE about the font and word count thing. That is weird!

Cindy, I love reading bad queries. Think I'm gonna go check yours out! :D