I finally finished the synopsis from hell last Sunday. All synopses are horrible to write, at least for me, but this one was far worse than usual and I had to slog my way through it. I'll have to revise it since I came in much longer than I intended, but for now, I get to revise the proposal chapters.
There are a few things that are on the list to handle. This is typical. Stuff often crops up as I'm writing the synopsis that requires some adjustment in the chapters. Sometimes it foreshadowing, sometimes it's details, but there's usually something. Then there are revision comments from one of my writing buddies. Things that I knew, but forgot to explain for the reader (oops!), shifting stuff around, layering. Nothing that should be too difficult--really--but I realized something about myself.
I always feel overwhelmed after reading revision notes, no matter who they come from.
I kind of had to remind myself that this is normal and happens every book. What I need to do is read comments and do nothing else that day. Just let my brain simmer overnight. By the next morning, I usually can wrap my arms around what needs to be done, but I always need that 24 hours to process.
And yes, it did happen this time, too. I felt overwhelmed as I looked at all the comments, but by the next day, I was breaking it into chunks to help myself work out how to attack the changes. I'm not talking chapters here or even scenes. I'm chunking it down to scene segments, for example the beginning to where my heroine has her number called (she's waiting in line).
Revising 20 pages might seem overwhelming, but revising a couple of pages? Much more mentally doable.
