I’m now in the 2nd pass, doing higher level changes. I need to move some things around in the timeline, add scenes, cut others, and it’s tricky enough that I’m saving another version so if I screw up I can roll back. I also have version control on my backup server, but my first safety net is always that “save as” feature and renaming the document.

Of course, by the time I’m done with a book, I have a lot of previous version clutter, but it makes me feel safe when I really start to wave the knife around. Knowing I can get a do-over if I cut the wrong thing buys a lot of peace of mind.

These changes are going to go pretty quickly, I think. Which is good, because I’m making enough changes that I want plenty of time for another careful pass to check for continuity, consistency, and general polishing before it goes back.

The fun part of revisions is re-visioning. This part is more like writing, but dove-tailing with existing work. And I get a second chance to look at some elements that I don’t think I did enough with. So now it gets fun.