Scene #12 Done!

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go

– E. L. Doctorow

Scene #12 Inspiration

Short, sweet and very fast paced. Pacing wasn’t something I actively paid much attention to when writing but being more aware of time and how it moves between your fingers has really helped me in this revision. Since I knew this scene would be fast and short I chose to type it over longhand.

Took me an hour, the shortest rewrite so far.

704 words.

How are your words and pacing going? Do you think of time and how it passes?

Love and light,

Anushka xx

Scene #11 Done

Writing is an escape from a world that crowds me. I like being alone in a room. It’s almost a form of meditation – Neil Simon 

Scene #11 Inspiration

Had a revision free Friday yesterday so I am a couple of scenes updates behind. I was going to indulge and engage in the real world today and take today off as well but I just wanted to work on the scene which has been a little bit of a trouble maker – Unlucky #13…of course. Why am I even surprised?

Just a quick update today.

2079 words.

Love and light,

Anushka xx

Scene #10 Done!

If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. 
–  Toni Morrison

Scene #10 inspiration 

It feels like I reached a mini milestone – double digits!  I was meaning to post this soon after my last post but got caught up in my other scenes. I normally just work on one at a time then polish it, blog a quick update and never look at the scene again. But this time I just kept on writing and writing. These scenes are written completely from scratch so maybe that’s why. There are no where near up to standard though but it feels nice to have the bones of the scene there ready to work with.

1904 words.

Love and light,

Anushka xx

ps- I just want to take this moment to say that I have been enjoying reading about everyone else’s updates and that you all inspire me with your progress 🙂

Scene #9 Done!

Little by little one walks far.
– Peruvian proverb

Scene #9 Inspiration

Just a quick update because I want to get some headway into scene #10 before bed. Like all new rewrites this scene took me completely by surprise. It was fun to write once I let myself just write and not think too hard about it. I have found that handwriting a scene really helps my process. If I’m not feeling inspired by the pen I will type it out then print it before transforming it completely…with a pen. It’s hard to describe, but if writing longhand is not something you do normally you should definitely shake things up a bit and try it. You might surprise yourself. 

This scene was longer than anticipated but I feel like it is the perfect length it needs to be.

2656 words revised.

How are your words?

Love and light,

Anushka xx

Scene #8 Done!

A novel is a rare place you can simultaneously find yourself and lose yourself – Stephen Parolini 

Scene #8 Inspiration

This scene officially gave me biopolar.

In the first draft this scene was rather clean and one that I loved. So I went into it – rather stupidly – thinking that revising this scene will be a breeze! RUBBISH! I had put so much pressure on myself to make this scene dazzle and sparkle. Since this scene was already pretty much in tact, I didn’t have much to do which then made me paranoid. Maybe I was cutting a corner and not giving it justice? Or maybe I was just missing something important hence the fact it did not take me that long? Maybe the WHOLE DAMN THING WAS JUST STUPID TO BEGIN WITH.

I should obviously delete it and burn all remaining evidence.

I should feed it to the cat.

I should get a cat so I could feed it to the cat.

Amazing what a goodnights sleep and distance can do 🙂

I printed the scene out and read it like a ‘reader’ would. And I surprisingly enjoyed it. It wasn’t even as bad as my head made it seem.

This revision is turning me into a crazy woman.

But I can happily say 1756 words revised.

Ever had any of these scenes that make you question your mental sanity?

Love and light,

Anushka xx

Scene #7 Done!

We must risk going too far to discover just how far we can go

– Jim Rohn

I really loved writing this scene. In the first draft the character introduced in this scene was a HE…but round two finds him officially a SHE. Same name and far less stupid. I love how this gender swap has added a richness to this character. I also cleared up the murky back story I had for her which was an unexpected delight and something I hope to sprinkle in later scenes. 

It took me two sessions to overhaul this scene and 3.75 hours all up. Again, it felt like I was revising it for much longer.

1753 words.

A quick coffee break (overdosed a little too much on the green tea yesterday) and onto scene #8!

Then…I shall enter the world we call real life.

I hope today is an inspiring day for you all 🙂

Love and light,

Anushka

xx

Scene #6 Done!

The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath

 – Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart

Scene #6 Inspiration

 

Technically it was done two days ago but I wanted to let it sit for a while before tweaking it a little bit. I took a day off from revising yesterday which was very difficult for me. But as I became more connected to the real world I enjoyed giving my brain a break. I make it a point to stop my rewrites when something exciting happens so my next session isn’t as daunting. So having that day off actually made me more excited to get back into things! 

Tomorrow marks one week since I began this phase of my revision and I did not expect it to fly by so fast. Unfortunately I did not make the 50 hours I was aiming for since I did not take into consideration that my love had just undergone knee surgery and that I would want to be there to take care of him – of course he comes first in my life! Despite that, I still managed 24 hours, 6.5 scenes and 11,820 new revised words. I learned a few good lessons with this.

1. I cannot revise for a whole entire day
2. I revise well in two session, one in the morning and one before I go to bed.
3. 50 revision hours in a week might kill my brain because time works weirdly when I revise

It is nice to know what works well for me during this stage. When i’m typing away at my first draft if is all day everyday full steam ahead. Not quite the case with rewrites. 

So Scene #6 – 1076 words.

Thank you everyone for your encouraging support and your WIP updates. It feels so great to be connected with people living in the same writer’s cave I do 🙂

Love and light,

Anusha xx 

Scene #5 Done!

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer is either writing or thinking about writing

– Eugène Ionesco

Scene #5 Inspiration

 Scene #5 was a rewrite of an existing scene that was really, really bad in the first draft. Really bad. Probably because I wasn’t sure what was meant to happen in the scene either which made my heroine come across dramatic and stupid.   Took me a few tries to get this right and there were moments when I wondered if I could even write this the way I wanted it to be written.

All done now.

1904 words.

I couldn’t find a specific image that inspired this scene so I found one that captured it since it felt weird not posting a picture up with these scene update posts!

Let me know how your WIP is going, always interested to know.

Love and light,

Anushka xx

Scene #4 Done!

Scene #4 Inspiration

This scene was fast paced and flowed onto the page quite easily. I thought it took me 30minutes, turns out it was a full two hours.

Now off to the gym to embrace a healthier lifestyle. 

Today is about green tea rather than vile instant coffee.

Goal for today is to make headway into scene #5 during my evening revision session. Until then, brain needs a break!

910 words. 

What are your goals?

Love and light,

Anushka xx

Scene #3 Done!

Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there

– Chuck Palahniuk

Scene #3 Inspiration

Just a quick update. This took me a little under 6 hours to rewrite and capture everything I wanted to (but felt like 20 hours of brain power). Looking forward to revisiting it during the read-through after letting the new words sit for a while.

I will forever associate this scene with copious amounts of instant coffee –  I was desperate. 

Scene length 2346 words.

Love and light,

Anushka xx