finding all the problems with my book late stage revision and chatty project update

hello welcome to the video I'm Melissa write book the last time saw you in vlog was rewriting the beginning of my book and then was going to edit through to the end of the book like just to make sure all of the changes that made to the opening are fine don't impact anything that's happening on the page right because it was quite different opening so needed to change some things around and think left you off on chapter don't know 15 or something have now finished the book I've been kind of going crazy and what kind of happened was the first you know seven chapters were totally new from scratch first draft chapters and so went back to the beginning and read through those line edited through them just like made sure everything was good right so those chapters it was quite bit of work and it took probably like anywhere from half an hour to 45 minutes to an hour somewhere in there to edit one chapter right and then we got into would say chapters 10 through 20 which actually think probably took the longest they took similar amount of time like 25 minutes to 45 minutes because the scenes themselves were mostly the same but because had Rewritten all of the chapters right before them they required quite bit of tweaking and just like making sure that it all lined up and also they were lot of them were newer chapters from draft three I'm on draft four of this book if you're new because this read through was only to like make sure everything made sense kind of cranked through the rest in the last think yesterday edited something like 30,000 words but edited is very loose term because was like reading through made few line edits if they were obvious but it was good to just kind of read through most of it and then finished it up today this morning now the point of this video is trying to figure out what does this book need because true I'm like I'm now technically on draft five like the next thing do will be draft five and don't quite know what's wrong with the book and I'm at the point where know that there's something I'm pretty sure it's not developmental at this point like think everything that happens in the book in terms of the plot and the Order of things I'm really happy with but as was reading it felt kind of inconsistent like one scene and one chapter would be really great and like have really nice pacing and tension and like I'd read the whole thing and I'd be like wow we can write book right and then I'd read the next scene and it would be just kind of like mess like it would be repeating information from the scene before it would be bringing up things that didn't really feel very relevant and and there would be moments where I'm like okay know that was trying to like plant some information here but it doesn't really logically make sense with what's already happened in the book and it wasn't like would need to change like big structural thing it was just like that line was weird like why was she thinking about that like know was trying to plant something at some point but like since I've done all these other like like some scenes and chapters just felt very aimless like there were other chapters that did the same thing better but like the stuff in the chapter is still necess like it was just specifically in the second half of the book there were quite few CH not quite few maybe handful maybe like five or six chapters that were just little bit rough on the edges and was like could maybe just like cut this chapter so that's like one of the things was noticing and another thing was noticing was the pacing there's something weird going on but don't actually this is this is the one though that don't actually know if there's something wrong or if I've just like been in the book too much there's something off and actually don't think pacing is the right word think it's like description like the level of interiority varies lot like in lot in the early book there's lot of like really nice interiority that like takes us through the story really nicely and that am really loving there's there actually quite bit of it in act two as well or in this actually more like act three but there's quite few scenes like especially near the end where could tell like it just needs to be fleshed out like there's quite few or 900w chapters in the in like the ending chunk which like one or two is fine but think there was like quite few where was like this needs like we need to know where we are we need have little bit more connecting tissue of thought right like he like my character needs to be processing this little bit more and some scenes felt like was like we're just doing too much like we're just talking about too many things we're doing too many things like what's going on which brings me to what think need to do so it was actually really nice to read through the whole book yes was editing through but it really did feel like coming you know like it's very common advice to like once you are coming back to draft like do read through of the book and that's kind of what that felt like is just did read through and kind of need to figure out what this means next and say all of this but actually think the book is quite close to being done the issues that I'm finding are not as severe as before really love the opening just want to make sure everything feels like when you're reading it there's not moment where the writing or the scene structure or weird line like takes you out of the story and also just want to make sure like chronologically like logically the story makes sense because when you're outlining book you're thinking about how like does the story make sense and does the motivation for each character line up with what they're doing next but then think sometimes in revision tend to get really lost in the weeds because I'm like no I'm focused on which is like what revision is for is getting lost in the weeds need to fix this character relationship like need to describe this tree more it's never tree but you know what mean like need to amp up the action in these certain parts of this book like need to add in more scenes about this kind of thing because it's missing some of this but think sometimes when we think about that it's not in chronological way and so then as I'm reading I'm like does this make sense does it like logically make sense that this is what the character would do next that's what that whole giant whiteboard was though over the summer and so know have done the work and as was reading was like for the most for like for the like clear majority of the book it made sense and was like yes this flows really nicely one chapter into the next these scenes into the next but there's some things where was like don't know why we're here there's lot going on in this book which like but worry little bit that there's maybe too much going on but don't think there is cuz it's not like I'm introducing all of these separate plot lines it's just like the main thing that's happening there's lot of things that happen in that one plot line that like leads you down that road I'm not writing murder mystery but like if you were think of it in terms of murder mystery or of let's like use the example of murder mystery each time you like learn new clue or like the killer does something to leave you clue behind or kill someone else and now they kill another person and now they're leaving you another clue another doing like those are all part of the same plot line of the Killer killing people and leaving Clues behind for the detective right like that's one plot line but there's lot of like different instances of the killer like killing somebody leaving clue dropping body you know like there's lot of things that that killer does and it's it's sort of similar in the book there's like this through line that that just has lot of events and each of the events has lot of action which is good just really want to make sure that as I'm reading through it has nice balance of like an action scene but then also we have reflection and we have time to like build the characters right the other thing is the romance this is just me talking about everything that feel about my book right now which welcome to the video the other thing is the romance actually feel pretty solid about it just think don't know actually think that's something that I'm not going to make any changes on right now in the moment I'm just going to like see if critique Partners have thoughts because here's like the trajectory am going to take the next couple minutes and essentially like write down in more detail what I've just told to you so all the things that with this read through am concerned about right or that think need little bit of work and then I'm going to kind of make some decisions cuz what I'm thinking of at this point is would really love at by February 1st to give this to like paid beta reader to give me some thoughts on all these things right does it flow does it make sense does the ending come together is there enough going on in each scene and have few other people who the book is with right now and so I'd love them to be able to read it too and give me some feedback but think before do that want to look at every scene individually maybe not every scene but most of the scenes IND individually think maybe I'll go through like I'll look through the document and note down which scenes like do skim through sort of and note down which scenes need little bit of extra love okay but here's the te okay the whole act three it just needs to be beefed up like there's always do this every time always 100% of the time do this every draft get to the the last act which is very boom boom boom Domino's falling reveals crazy explosion boom bada Bo you know get to that and do it all in one day if you look back on this channel draft one did it all in one day draft two did it all in one day draft three did it all in one day and today draft four did it all in one day where read through edited through and think that that is fine but I'm going to go through I'm honestly thinking might go through the book backwards is that crazy behavior but when look at the scene what I'm going to do is just like really look at the the mix between interiority dialogue action and description also got to show you something I've been doing like crazy woman taken all of these Thrillers and I've actually been highlighting them do you see this so like each color means something different like action interiority dialogue you know and I've been doing this for all sorts of different books did it for Finley Donovan is killing it for freedom fatm book for this book which is the girls I've been which has lot of Hostage it's like bank robbery book and that happens in my book it's pretty clear at this point and this thriller and I've gone through and it's interesting because like each book does it little bit differently like some books like it's lot of interiority right or some books it's lot of action or lot lot of dialogue but just want to kind of look at each of those scenes intentionally but before do any of that this video has really gotten away from for me really intended to like sit down and give you some actionable things that you could do if you're trying to figure out what's wrong with your book but instead just told you all the things that are wrong with mine but the the two steps I'm going to do to kind of investigate this is well kind of already did it in this video is like talk through or write down all the things that from my initial read through from this read through like immediately know want to go back to and then the second thing I'm going to do is write synopsis this is not something typically do until the querying stage honestly but think that at this stage which I'm about Ure draft five which is pretty late into the book life the changes I'm making now are very much so scene level and FL like they're related to flow and dialogue and consistency not necessarily plot holes right but think that writing synopsis is going to help me get some clarity about what if there's any glaring things that don't add up in terms of continuity because and cause and effect cuz the main honestly if had to like tell you the number one thing I'm worried about with this book right now is cause and effect does everything that happens make sense based on what has happened before it does every chapter like logically make sense does the ending of the book have cause and an effect or does it come out of nowhere like do you see the causes has the book built up to the ending in satisfying way and is the payoff good like that's the thing that I'm the most worried about and you might be thinking isn't that just like what book is like isn't that the main thing of writing yes yes and so think writing synopsis is going to help me to see very clearly does all of this lead to the right thing so that is my plan for right now I'm going to spend little bit of time mostly did it here but I'm going to like spend little bit of time writing down things that for sure want to address before send this to reader and then I'm going to write synopsis and from actually think I'm going to write the synopsis first and then I'll kind of write the list of things that want to fix so write the synopsis write down list of things like from the read through that could be tightened and then what actually want to do is first actually no the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go to act three and I'm going to beef up all those scenes the all the problem is this book is already at 80,000 words and need to beef things up and really wanted to be under 80k but there might be some chapters can cut I'm thinking of one specifically that can cut but I'm going to specifically go honestly I'll probably start with act two part two and just go through and really beef up and amp up those scenes if you want to do this with me if don't know how many people are at similar point where you are deep into revision maybe you've done four or five drafts and there's something wrong with the book and you don't qu know what it is encourage you to take the same step so do read through make notes write synopsis to see the book clearly and then if you can't like this is the thing is know there's going to be blind spots know that even when bulk up these scenes and make them better and feel like the book has good Arc know there's going to be things don't see and know there's going to be things that yeah that don't see and so giving it to other people who are going to be really honest and mean want somebody mean but also am afraid of that but it's fine so just need to finish this book and need it to be really good want it to be really really good and am think have in the past finished books before they were done were they fine yes did they technically make sense yes could have read it through few more times and Polished up scenes few more times and gotten few more rounds of feedback also think yes and that's okay this is learning process like writing books is learning process and would not have really known at the time that finished those books that they that could have done little bit more to make sure that every scene got what it needed you know and so that's kind of how I'm planning to level up my writing is by like coming fresh to every scene and treating every sentence and every scene and every interaction like it's the most important one in the book because it might be like if ignore one chapter that could be the chapter that an agent gets to and reads and says they can't finish book well they started it well but they couldn't finish it you know and don't want to do that in the way that might have in the past I'm and I'm not saying that that's how my other books are cuz really don't know but think the endings of those books could have used little bit more and so I'm not going to make that mistake again it's time to lock in everybody will see you so soon thank you for being here comment down below hey red check mark emoji and I'll see you next time