Revision Reflections: 01
THE TLDR
I am currently on the exciting, yet trying, adventure of writing my first full-length novel that I aim to get traditionally published!
Project Disco a.k.a The Last Dance in the Disco Inferno tells the story of reclusive former starlet Elaine ‘Dayna’ Sims, spending the past three decades hiding from the glitter and grit of her past, when she’s unexpectedly approached by ambitious curator Tori Robinson, on her own costly rebrand undertaking, to archive Elaine’s life for a new exhibition. A dangerous dance of memory and mirrors begins as ghosts of Elaine’s disco era resurface, and the deep shadows of New York City threaten Tori’s exhibition. Are the secrets they’ve kept to protect their reputations worth more than the cost of the truth? For this final performance, they must decide to preserve the legacy of a public persona or reveal the truths behind the curtain.
In the disco inferno, the truth is the only thing that doesn’t burn.
ON BEGINNING AGAIN
I’ve been in the midst of revision for Project Disco for the past 3 months, and WOW is this a different experience from writing a first draft. I learned quickly that revision is where the magic happens; it’s where the mold begins to bend and fold into the structure you’ve envisioned all along. I had a clear vision of how I wanted to revise the first three chapters of my manuscript as soon as I wrote THE END on the first draft. The story expanded so much by the end of the first draft that I knew I had a clearer direction for how I needed to introduce characters and conflicts in the beginning, but it still felt so intimidating! I felt the task at hand was too large for me to take on.
“Art happens in revisions” — Leigh Bardugo
As I was working on those beginning chapters, I was reading a book on editing called The Artful Edit: On The Practice of Editing Yourself by Susan Bell, it was the right book at the right time. It examined structural and thematic editorial collaboration done with Max Perkins and writer F. Scott Fitzgerald for The Great Gatsby. I didn’t know that the majority of the chapters would focus on their collaboration, but I decided to rewatch the 2013 film adaptation simultaneously. I was able to visualize, along with the written examples, how certain editorial choices of the story enhanced elements of the plot structure and character arcs that were not there before Max Perkins’s editorial touch.
Now I’m obsessively, more than before, examining books and films’ openings and story structures. I’ve become so fascinated with how beneficial a detailed and passionate editor’s eye can be on a writer’s work.
“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting.” —Ray Bradbury
With the reassurance and promise to myself that I can take my time with this manuscript, that there isn’t a metaphorical gun to my head to get this perfect in one go, I dove in and revamped my ACT I outline. Fleshing out with details and changes I knew I wanted to include, some new chapters and some deleted and meshed together, it all started forming sharper edges to its mold. Now having finished writing/revising ACT I, I can see it’s sooo much stronger, and that much closer to the story I know it’s meant to be.
Now to completely re-outline ACT II. (spoiler, it’s giving me a temporary aneurysm...to be shared in next Revision Reflections)
— Alina
Feb 01, 2026
