I am a plotter. A hardcore, twenty-page outline plotter. I can't even think about starting a new project without knowing a chapter-by-chapter account of what happens.
So, tell me why the first two steps in my revisions are always to cut the first two chapters and completely rearrange the next five.
I can't understand it. What's the point of my long, in-depth outlines if the end result doesn't match the outline at all? All that energy and time put into planning out the novel. All the meticulous crossing off of events as I write them, including bits of description and dialogue from the outline...argh!
Used to be, when I finished a first draft, I was fairly confident all the elements were there, even if they were a bit messy. But now...well, now I expect revisions to be a long, dramatic and complicated process.
In case you haven't figured it out, I've started revising my most recent WiP. And, just like the last one (that I still have to go back and finish), the first two chapters hit the cutting room floor. And then, reading through without those chapters, I realized some events occurred to soon and so I had to rearrange the next three chapters.
It's enough to make a girl go gray, I swear.
What about you? Plotter or Pantser? What does your revision process look like?
