I don't have enough experience to know if I like revision or not. My goal right with this revision is now just to nail down the plot and characters. Next stop, make things more vivid.

Gud, your second pass there is much richer in detail. Great work. Although you want "shone" not "shown" in the second paragraph.

Also, I lie a little. I like to tweak sentences, paragraphs. Ask me switch out scenes or add scenes or change a storyline and I freeze. Because I'm, um, lazy.

I like to tweak sentences, paragraphs. Ask me switch out scenes or add scenes or change a storyline and I freeze.

::SNORT::

Man, what they had me do on Carmen would have driven you straight to the loony bin. Which, as we well know, it nearly did to me.

Oh, it would have.

The last time I was asked to that, I scrapped the book and started fresh.

Darn errors that the spell checker can't chance. Thanks.

I made it sound like my beta exchange people aren't good and wonderful too, they are, especially number 2 beta exchange person. I'm just a bit annoyed with number 1 beta exchange since I've been timely with turn-around and NSM the other way around.

Ask me switch out scenes or add scenes or change a storyline and I freeze.

I'd say 80% of the scenes in my current revision are completely rewritten. I knew my first two chapters would be complete rewrites, but I'm a bit shocked at how much has been ended up rewritten. The overall plot is staying mostly intact though.

You know what I REALLY hate? Waiting. Waiting for my agent to have the time to get back to me, waiting for editors to read and send feedback/rejections, waiting for notes, waiting waiting waiting.

Slow day at work. It's a little bit on the heavenly side after last week, but it's making my paranoia grow.

You need to chill, babe. It's going to be days, if not a couple weeks, before Kate gets back to you, I bet.

Try to focus on something else. Get into a new book (to read) or something to distract you.

That's not how it works, through, Amy. I figure, Kate will get back to me in early October, then if we're good to go, she'll try and get it out before publishing goes hibernating for the winter. And even if all goes well, I don't expect to know one way or the other until the new year if anyone will buy it.

But, you know, I STILL HATE WAITING.

Oh, I hate it, too, believe me. I waited almost five months to hear the editor at Harlequin is giving the zombie book to her superior. I'm just saying, try not to dwell! It only makes it worse.

I just admire Gud and Allyson and the rest of you who have actually finished books. I've never gotten to the point of knowing what my editing style on my own books would be.

My only equivalent would be the long, heavily researched magazine articles I've written. With those, I usually start with a version that's about 10 times as long as it needs to be, and then throw away words until it's the right length. I don't think I'm a very good beta reader of other people's stuff, because I have trouble thinking of it in big terms, like what's not working about this character or whether this scene should be elsewhere. What I think I'm good at is close editing: finding better words; making the subject and object agree; fixing punctuation; and omitting needless words.