There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

–Ernest Hemingway

Oh, what a mess I’m making!

I feel a bit overwhelmed. I’m tackling chapter one of The Name and the Key revisions and I’m trying to process each of my beta readers’ comments. I’m not going to listen to all of them, but I’m looking for a consensus of some kind, or feedback that hits me in the gut (in a good way).

The big gut-punching feedback I’m honing in on right now has to do with places where my protagonist Lily is a passive heroine, or lacks introspection for the reader. Yes, it appears early on in the manuscript. And…I never really thought I had a problem with this, but hey, we don’t always see outside our own perspectives. Hence the need for beta readers.

Truth be told, I’m kind of antsy about revisions. There’s more work to be done than I expected, but I don’t doubt the changes that need to be made. I’m just…inundated with self-doubt and fear. Part of it is because I’m not sure how to implement changes in the best way, and the other part is the fact that I’ve got a looming deadline. This baby is due December 26. I want this to be the cleanest manuscript possible before my editor takes an axe to it. First drafts are the train wreck drafts, but my publisher will not accept train wrecks as formal submissions. So I need to clean this baby up!

…I have 25 days left. I need to rewrite 1.25 chapters every day to meet this deadline. Oof!

Please wish me luck!