Ready. Set. Revise.

I've been steadily revising my first draft of Through the Woods (That Book I Wrote During NaNoWriMo). When I wrote the first draft, I left myself notes and reminders in the comments section for things I knew I would have to come back to and edit.

Some of these notes are just place-markers for major changes, like “From this point on, the cat is a girl not a boy. Make sure the cat gets turned into a girl from here back.”

But some of the notes are major [facepalm] moments that made me laugh out loud reading them. Here are a few of my favorites – I did edit the comments a bit so that my mom won’t shoot me for putting curse words on my blog. Love you Mama!

• Oh crap – remember that Sam’s feet are all bandaged up? I think you forgot that in the creek scene. Also, she needs dry clothes like bad
• Fix this; Sam doesn't have dry clothes.
• Don’t forget that her feet are all f***ed up
• Just realized I forgot to write that cat into the last couple of scenes. Got back and add the little critter.
• This is lame. Fix it.
• Dude. Did you forget that she has a sprained wrist and has her arm in a sling after this? Yes you did. Fix that shit.
• Wait…. Is this what we named it? Check on that.
• No really, fix this shit. 

I think I’m most entertained by how I started referring to myself in the plural by the end of the book. We have a lot of fun revising.

That Book I Wrote During NaNoWriMo

I've had a couple of people ask me what my novel is about. I've hesitated to post too much about it so far because I wasn't sure how much would change during the writing process. Indeed, one of my main characters did not care for how I was writing him, and I've already had to rewrite all of his scenes to keep him happy.

But now I have the meat of my first draft done and I’m halfway through my first round of revisions, so I suppose it’s time to share what this novel is all about.

My working title for this novel is Through the Woods. It’s a love story between a strong-willed outdoorsy woman and a gadget loving city guy. That city guy is the character who made me re-write all of his scenes. Apparently, he’s pretty strong-willed himself, more than I had initially realized at least.

Their story will take them on an adventure through Pisgah National Forest, a corner of the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina. What begins as a simple group backpacking trip led by our heroine and her burly brother will become a journey of new discoveries, recovery from deep emotional injuries, and (spoiler alert) a Search & Rescue Mission to save a lost hiker.

To keep things from getting too heavy, our heroine brings along her spunky hiking cat, and I provide the promise of a happy ending. It is a romance after all.

Feel free to post comments about what you think of Through the Woods. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be continuing my revisions and I’ll post some blurbs about each character along with a few scenes. Feedback is always welcome. Thanks for reading!