Words About Writing

Same old, same old... editing in reverse, slowly progressing. I found a vlogger who is hosting a "writing retreat" in June. Just a motivating way to remember to do a little every day. So I signed on and it's helping! Still slow going, but it motivates me to do the editing first.  I added another hefty work project to my task list, but the community group is less stressful already, so that's good. I think I will do this reverse-edit for every book. It helps me focus on the words. Of course, there will be subsequent edits. I know that. After I get back to the beginning, I'll have to print it out and do a full read-through to mark it up again. But for now, if I get back to the mid-point by the end of June I'll be happy. Keep on keeping on! 

("Progress" coordinates with the AtoZ challenge, if I was actually doing it.) I finally finished the Story Level edit.  It felt like it took a lot longer than it needed to, but actually, I had marked in my planner my goal dates and I was right on target! According to my Camp Nanowrimo goal, though, I am way behind. Some good days, some bad days, but the productive and underproductive days haven't balanced out yet. At this rate, according to Nanowrimo I'll meet my goal on May 8. Yikes! Today begins the Scene/Chapter Level edit. I had allotted just six days for this, but I now know for a fact I'll have 2 busy (underproductive) days in there, and might completely lose a day of editing due to LIFE. So I'm granting myself until the 25th. I've never NOT met a Nanowrimo goal yet. It seems silly. If you set a goal that's just you against a calendar, rearrange your time! It was in my power to set a goal that fit my schedule and I did so. The goal is achievable....

Well, so much for doing A-to-Z. I forgot about it for two days. But, in the spirit of it: EDITING CHALLENGES The way I'm doing this edit follows a "top-down" system I learned about, actually through a Nanowrimo virtual write-in. Four steps - 1. Read the manuscript and MAKE NOTES. Notes should be coded for whether the suggested change will effect a) the whole story (or at least multiple chapters), b) just the current scene/chapter, or c) just that sentence/line. 2. Tackle the notes that will effect the whole story. These could be big cuts, added scenes, or themes that stretch throughout the story. 3. Now, tackle the notes that will effect a scene or chapter. After the big cuts from step 2, there may be fewer of them left. 4. Finally, go through all those nit-picky line notes. Clean up the language. Make it flow. Theoretically, step one should only take a couple days, but this vomit draft needs a lot of work. I hope to get step one up to the mid-point of this WIP today. Tha...

About a week ago I finally finished that review/revision of Draft One. It's still Draft One. This was just a once-over that included some filling in of details. Some added tension, some improved dialog. It's still a bit of a mess, but the plot hangs together. I finished it just in time for my schedule to explode for the next month-plus. For now I'll do short writing projects to keep up the practice, and then in March or April I'll pick it back up and re-read it with fresh eyes. Prepare to edit! Meanwhile, I'm reading a lot.  Now, if only I could find a good resource for short, simple, writing prompts... 

I completed Nanowrimo, and had the bones of a manuscript at the end of it. Yay! This time, instead of setting it aside immediately, I wanted to read through it to fill in any holes before setting it aside for a while. I'm not even a third of the way through, and got hung up on one scene for the last two days. I just couldn't figure out the fix. Today, I went to my writing group - was the only one there, actually, which was kind of nice - and wrote new dialog for that scene. JUST dialog. It's easier for me to see the scene that way, and I can add setting and actions after I drop it into the manuscript.  I'm pretty proud that I thought of that! I had copied the whole scene into a new text page to re-work it, but now that I have this new dialog, I can delete that text page, start over with the dialog, and then pull from the original text any descriptions that I want to keep. It's a breakthrough. I now know that I can do this with any tricky scene.

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. I finished that edit and moved on to beginning the edit of my November WIP. I admit, I forgot what I had already done until I got into my first review! So far, I haven't actually changed anything. I followed the suggestion of "read and summarize" as a way to see if the story I wrote matched the one I had set out to write. I'm not sure what value that action is supposed to carry, but for me, reading straight through without any changes helped me see some scenes that seem to be out of order, or are repetitive. I made notes. As for my "bugaboos"... I go through this every time. And it's Time. The Time-line, specifically. In an effort to make sure things are happening realistically, I need to be sure that the timing fits together. For this WIP, certain chapters are full of a dense couple days of action, while others might cover a longer period of time. And the season changes during the course o...

I'm excited about this step, so must document it. I don't seem to have written about the Nanowrimo Youtube series I watched on streamlining the editing process. It was in 4 parts (or three?), and really helped me focus each step. I started while mid-edit for that last editing project, so it was hard to fit the steps they provided into my Scrivener drafts. (The presenters used a program called Fictionary.) With my recent Nanowrimo draft, I have decided to set it up now in such a way to make the 3 step editing process easier later. And I love it. I did a quick review of the Scrivener tutorial to figure out the best way to set this up. I'm in there, using the Meta-data options to highlight the path of each scene, so I'll be able to see at a glance what needs to be done. Next step (starting today), I'm going to add key words and reference tabs to make it easier to link up different scenes. Part of the hassle of editing, I've found, is when a change in one scene affe...

I'm trying to break up my time more specifically between editing the WIP and prepping the next one. The line edit is still very slow, sometimes three days on a scene or chapter, but it is still rewarding when it comes out right. Breaking it up by doing some work on another thing helps boost that "serotonin" that hits after I accomplish something. I've noticed that my books don't have a ton of conflict. An initial conflict of course, and struggles - internal or external - on the way to resolving the main conflict, but I don't tend to "up the ante" as the book progresses. The next work I'm planning will have more of that. I'm lining up what conflict will happen at what point in the book, and trying to do a better job of outlining. A lot of the conflict points are now set. I'm moving on in recent prep-work to focus on the characters. I know who they are, but I haven't yet gotten into their heads. Characters usually come more easily to me...

Whew. All feedback is compiled and the consensus is: I need to curate a better list of readers. Two got back to me a week early. One had very general, gushy comments. (One of the friends that they say never to use as readers.) The other early finisher had more complete notes, and valuable ideas. Which is good, because the last two never finished the book. I managed to pull a few detailed notes from them, but will never use them as beta-readers again. The good news is, I have good ideas for fixing the beginning, which I knew was a problem for querying. So I'm into the final reading and edit. All the simple changes are done, and I started working on the troublesome beginning, but need a little more work there. Then I'll just do a final reading and fix tiny things I notice as I go. As far as querying, I finished the list I was working on, then went to one of the other websites I'd found. I made a new page on my spreadsheet (to track which website I'm getting names from) an...

Yesterday was exhilarating. After a day or two focused on tracking down readers (two noes, two yesses, one ghosting, and finally a third yes) I started looking into querying. I re-watched an old Nanowrimo video about the process, then started on my own process. So far I have: 1. Created a spreadsheet to track agents, letters sent, responses received. 2. Composed a draft of a generic query letter. This will be vastly changed: personalized to each agent, as well as updated after I receive reader feedback.  I've asked my readers for feedback "by October" so I have a little over a month to research agents and work on my elevator pitch to go in the query letter itself.   I'm also debating about a possible 4th reader. Three readers is my minimum, and I'd like to be over my minimum, but not if it's the wrong reader. So there's something to think about there. I honestly can't believe I'm here. And I'm actually doing it! Doing the legwork to get it don...

Done! As of yesterday, I finished this edit. It felt weird to step away from the novel with that idea. This is, officially, my last draft. Next is lining up my readers and sending it off to them to get their feedback. I didn't want to slacken off - I'd been so good at getting in and working on it every day - that right away today I made it my task to send out the messages verifying readers. I had a growing list of possible beta-readers, collected from people I'd met in person and on line, names of readers from the first time around, and a couple old friends who were interested. They say not to use people who know you well because they are likely to be less critical, but these two are significant for different reasons and I didn't want to leave them out. This morning, I sat down and sent out 5 messages to 5 people who had expressed at some point an interest in doing this. As of tonight I've heard back from three of them. Two definite yesses and one with questions bef...

Over a week later, and all the files are moved into their new home. I've matched up the comments as best I can, and I'm okay with that. A lot of the comments were notes to "delete this" or "use a better word" so they could be anything and I didn't stress too much about them. I'm still 6,000 words short, but they're there somewhere. Or, they would have been deleted anyway. A word count is a flexible thing. I'm not bothered too much. I want to play with the timeline a little and see if I can come up with a format I like. I got busy recreating the novel and forgot to pull out timing information. So I'll do a little playing with that part of it these next few days and then... FINALLY jumping into the book my reader had. It's been turned into a shared file, so I can start with the notes that are there and just keep going as they finish the task. I'm looking forward to that. It gives me motivation. 

It's no good.  This dead girl story is wrecking me. Until my other draft comes back from my reader I need to change my pace. I'm going to pick back up my "magnum opus" (as I call it).  This is the one that I worked on last winter. It's very big and needs a lot of work. Of course, I don't want to get too deeply into it, because I must edit the one from my reader as soon as it comes back. I'll open it, and maybe I'll start to work on the timeline and characters a little. I recall that while I was writing the story more characters were coming into play that did not get a character sheet. Doing it during a writing contest meant all my words went into the document, not the background information. One thing about this current challenge being time-driven: I've worked on the character sheets and been adding to them as things come up. It is actually helpful to have them right there when I want to decide who will do what in a scene! So it will probably help ...

woof. 2 days into Camp Nanowrimo and ... It's actually going well. But not as I expected. I am working in the nightmare torture work I mentioned previously, and am diverted from pressuring my volunteer reader about the WIP they are reviewing for me. On day one, after writing, organizing, and filling in blanks about characters, I had what was either a startling revelation or a passing flicker of thought:  This might be better as a different genre altogether. It's not going to change my direction for now. I'm just passing time and keeping my creative juices going. Besides, this book will never see the light of day, so it's just for me. Still, later - today, in fact - it occurred to me that this novel could be my "play" novel. Play around with changing a book from one thing to another, just to see how well I can do that.  Maybe. Doubtful, because that seems like a lot of work for something no one will read, but maybe. 

You know how I wasn't sure what to do next with my WIP? I figured out a plan of action. Before I dive in and do yet another edit, I have one person reading through to make suggestions on which sections could stand some beefing up or fat-trimming. Meanwhile, for the last few days, I've been itching to just get in and start skimming it myself. But today I came to a solution that will work. I think. It would be a waste for me to go through and start looking for places to fix, when someone else is doing that for me. After I get back their notes, I can tackle everything. In the meantime, what's a writer to do? I'm floundering. Solution: Review a different book. I have five novels in various draft stages in my computer. I don't want to get sucked too deeply into a side project, though, so I'm going to take the one at the simplest stage and fix some background work. One of the five novels is not even a complete first draft yet. I started it to try my hand at "lett...

I finished the manuscript review before 9:00 a.m. today, and I think I found good places to keep both subplots connected. That's the good news. I've been struck as I read it by what a terrible writer I am. That's the bad news. Not everywhere. There are some scenes that I think are truly great, just not the whole thing. And that's not good. That makes me want to re-edit again. But enough is enough! I'll start going in and adding the text chats and the small edits I made. (A few small edits are larger changes, as the book continued and I grew disgusted with myself.) It shouldn't take too long because I'm not doing a wholesale edit. I'm not! Then, the readers, and by the fall I hope to be ready to query. Anybody interested? 

Yes! A few days ago I finished the edit of my WIP. Woohoo! Such a relief. It's not done, of course. I printed out the manuscript (I had exactly the right number of pieces of paper for it - whew) and now I'm going through to find places to add a new element. To connect the two subplots, I want to insert some text chats between the main characters while they are apart. So now I'm reading the manuscript to do that... and trying not to add edits. 🙈 I am noting typos and a few word changes, but refraining from wholesale editing. My reasoning for the small edits is simply to make the next version more readable for my BETA READERS! The last time I sent this to readers, at least one of them consistently pointed out typos (not her purpose). If I can eliminate them, it will not be a distraction and my readers can focus on characterization and plot-points. SO, to sum up: 1: Now adding text convos and minimal typo corrections into printed manuscript. 2: Next putting those into the sc...

I find it's important for me to track what I'm doing. While editing I don't count words. I don't count hours. I ensure that I get through a scene a day, sometimes two. ...If I'm honest, this month there have been days when I've gotten stuck in a scene and flip into writing mode instead, finishing the scene the next day. Overall I'm being more diligent with what matters, though.  Every day I: edit, write, study. I also read daily, but I'm not tracking that this month. Too much writing and editing, and I'm trying to build the habit of daily study. It's hard when I'm not going for a degree or anything. Next month I will add a goal to be more diligent on this blog. Weekly, most likely. For now, I'm going through the process. All the nitty-gritty that needs to be done in order to prep for publishing. I just hope I'm doing it right.

 Actually, I finished on the 31st of January. YAY!  I'm actually pleased with the ending I created. I know there are mountains of work to do on this novel, and editing will be at least a year of work, but for now I'm setting my draft aside and working on a shorter piece that might be quickly published. So my new process will be editing, and seeking a venue for publication, and submission. Hopefully all that can be accomplished this spring. With absolutely no knowledge on how short stories go, I'm guessing a couple months? Maybe three?  I'd love to be editing one of my other - non-gigantic - novels during the summer.  A toast to new beginnings!

Stab me with a fork, this is interminable! First, TWO MONTHS since my last post? How did that happen? Second, I'm back in the old WIP I was trying to finish before Nanowrimo. 😥 Yes, I won Nanowrimo. The story, as I felt, will never see the light of day. There's some story, some musing, some theory, some personal exposition... Maybe I could salvage a short story out of it or something.  That's a possibility. Hmm... So, I'm back to the WIP I did NOT finish before November. Now, though, I'm pushing myself to write every day. Maybe not as much as I did during Nanowrimo, but at least daily, something.  I'm getting closer. New issues cropped up that I realized needed to be resolved before arriving at the conclusion, so that's where I am now. But I'm closer. I can feel it. This month, maybe early February.