I’ve finished my revision of Truth About T.M.S. I’ve cut entire scenes; I’ve added entire scenes; I’ve moved entire scenes around, and…(this must be a first!) this version of the story came out one page shorter than the original! (Though, truth be told, it’s also about 200 words longer than the original, so I guess I’d be lying if I tried to tell you it’s shorter than the first draft. I must have made some paragraphs longer without going onto the next line)
What helped me the most with this revision was listing each scene and figuring out its purpose in the story. Any scene that didn’t have a definite purpose (or that fulfilled the same purpose as a previous scene) got cut (no matter how painful). And by laying out the scenes like that, I could see the gaps (some of which we discussed at my critique group a week ago…others of which I saw on my own) in the story arc.
I asked Preteen what he thought of the ending in THIS version (by the way, he did make it home from the ski trip in one piece…and so did the $400 glasses and so did my Columbia pants)…he said, “We-e-e-l-l-l-l, it could still be better, but I guess it’s okay.”
Okay. From him, that’s good enough…good enough to send to the tough critique group, anyway. We’ll see what they have to say…