My love/hate relationship with revisions

I'm going to take a wild guess and say I'm not alone in this.

Part of me loves revisions because there are all these places where I've left notes for myself in my manuscript to 'fix this' or 'bw' (better word) or 'bt' (better transition) or whatever, not to mention all the notes my CP's have left me. These are all opportunities for me to make my manuscript a thousand times better than it was, which is why I love revisions. Because they're going to turn my manuscript from good to great. I know this. I've seen it happen.

But.

Then I get to one of those places* where revising is suddenly a chore. For me it's usually when I've failed to adequately convey the necessary information. Like the scene I'm working on now where my mc has finally found something she's been looking for and is about to get a bunch of answers. In my first version, the dialogue didn't follow. It felt forced.

I know what information needs to be conveyed. The trouble I'm having is revising this so that the conversation she has with the other person seems completely natural. So that each question seems to naturally follow the answer that came before AND convey all that necessary information.

I am making progress (check my progress bar for NO REST and you'll see it's up to 63% complete) but damn sometimes it's slow and hard.

So. That's how it is with me, today.

How's it going with you?



* For me, this is usually somewhere after the first act. I tend to write a fairly decent part one of three (my strength). Part two tends to get loose or fall apart entirely (my weakness) but if I can get through that then part three tries to pull it all together and make an ending, preferably a satisfying one. It isn't pretty, but it is a first draft.

Agree or disagree?

"Don’t just finish writing a first draft and call it a day." 

Jim in a bag.

Having spoken of revisions before, you can all guess I agree with the above statement. And for that very reason I am taking another break in order to finish revising PEACE & FORGIVENESS. I will be back on June 27th for the Cephalopod Coffee House Book of the Month review and resume my (semi) normal blogging schedule. In the meantime Dianne and I are still looking for submissions for July's First Impressions (see sidebar for FAQs). I also have an availability in July for an author interview. I'll promote your book with pics, blurb, links, and an interview. If you're interested, click on contact me at the top; I'd love to promote someone and hey, why not you?

First time ever

So. The other day I got my very first editorial letter, outlining what was working in my novel and what wasn't. I was actually pretty happy to see that there was nothing unexpected, including the suggestion to jettison my title, PARADISE. Thankfully I have no problem saying good-by since I was never very attached to it. But now I have to try to come up with a new one, something that hints at the story. My editor suggested writing down all the words that have to do with my story in the hopes that something will pop.

Here are some of the words I came up with:

time-travel
the wild west
mistaken identity
thief
train robbers
mystery
murder
romance
bounty hunter
Pinkerton Agents
the past
change
love


I've got zip so far, but...it occurs to me that some of you are fairly clever and imaginative so I put it to you, after seeing those words and reading the query letter for the story (in the static pages at the top), does anything come to mind, title-wise? Have you ever had trouble coming up with a title for your work?