Around watching a movie and tv today I spent most of the day brainstorming about my Dakotashi Book 2 revision. After reading over my first draft and trying to consider its problems, I decided the story needed more depth and for some of the conflict in the 2nd half to be moved up into the first half. So I’m thinking of some ways to move some things around, heighten others and add some also.

My problem now is trying to find the best way to map it all out in a way that I can see it all and make sense of what I’m changing and what is staying the same. Especially while I’m still brainstorming and figuring things out, this is very important so I don’t forget things and when I actually start the rewriting, I have a plan I can follow.

Wherever my revision goes, it’s still clear that my first draft is still a very rough first draft. I suspect if I ever want that to change I’ll have to stop writing so quickly over NaNoWriMo. But I’m not sure even if I took my time and wrote from an even more detailed outline, it would change the amount of work I’d have to do in revision. I discover so much of the story and characters while writing the first draft and probably more while revising.

Revision is when the story really takes shape.