In Like Lamb, Out Like a Lion

This March has been nuts, weather wise. The first week of the month, we had super mild spring-like weather. Today we're getting a frakking blizzard.

Let's take a look at how I did with my macro and micro goals, shall we?

First the macro:

a) So. 30 hours on Mender. Did 40.

1) Finish the revision.

2) Spellcheck the MS.

3) Send it to my beta swap partner.

4) Work on my query. 

5) Give feedback to ~30 queries posted on Absolute Write. 

6) Submit my own query for feedback, and revise accordingly.

7) Write a synopsis.

8) Make changes to Mender as needed based on beta swap partner feedback. In progress. See micro goals.

b) 20 hours to figure out what I'm writing next  FAIL. I did maybe 3 hours, and didn't figure out jack. My head just wasn't in it.

I then split goal #8 above into a series of micro goals as follows:

1) Read through my beta swap partner's in-text feedback and make notes on the printout of the MS.

2) Make necessary changes to chapter 2 - the end.

3) Edit chapter 1. 

4) Give feedback for 8 novel openings on Absolute Write.

5) Post updated opening to forum for feedback. Edit again based on responses. In progress. This bit is killing me. I've worked on it for 8 hours so far and am not even kind of done. *sigh*

Fifteen Years

I can't believe it was five years ago I posted about my ten-year anniversary of meeting The Husband on the first and only blind date of my life.

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of that date, and everything I said five years ago still holds true.

Opening Scene Open-Heart Surgery

When I got my first round of beta feedback, one of the consensuses was that the opening three-chapter prologue-like chunk was dragging on too long and negatively affecting the pacing of the first half of the book.

For the next draft, one of the changes I made was cutting 3,000+ words out of that opening chunk and condensing it from three chapters of four scenes to one two-scene chapter.

The beta feedback I got on that version was that the whole book was pretty much query-ready... except the first scene, which was still not working. Which is awesome, since it's not like the opening of the novel is important or anything. (Self-directed eye roll.)

I tried my best to tighten it up some more, and then posted the first 1,000 words on Absolute Write. The feedback I got has made me realize that I'm pretty much rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic over here. There is just too much WTF in the scene to justify heroic measures to save it.

This is a scary revelation to have one week before you were planning to start sending out queries. But I pulled on my big-girl panties and made a list of everything that I felt had to stay in the scene-- Mary meeting Leopold, most of their conversation, some worldbuilding aspects, tension between the magic-users and religious extremists-- and mentally let go of everything else.

Interestingly, I got a new idea almost immediately, and as of today have worked out a full outline, including dialogue. The outline is 1,500 words, but my outlines tend to be wordy, so I'm hopeful I can craft a 2,000 word scene that makes sense. My plan is to work on it two hours a day until it's done, and then post the first 1K words for feedback again, and rinse and repeat until I have something I'm happy with-- and which at least gets me a "this doesn't suck" majority opinion on the AW forums.

Another Update

1) Read through my beta swap partner's in-text feedback and make notes on the printout of the MS.

2) Make necessary changes to chapter 2 - the end.

3) Edit chapter 1.

4) Give feedback for 8 novel openings on Absolute Write. In progress. I'm up to 7 now.

5) Post updated opening to forum for feedback. Edit again based on responses. In progress. I posted the opening today. I've gotten two responses already, both absolutely ripping it to shreds. I'm going to give it another day or two to accumulate responses, and then it looks like I'll be doing a serious re-think and re-write of the opening for the rest of the month.

Have I Mentioned I Love Me a List?

1) Read through my beta swap partner's in-text feedback and make notes on the printout of the MS.

2) Make necessary changes to chapter 2 - the end. In progress. I'm 2/3 done.

3) Edit chapter 1. In progress. I'm done with scene 2 and am working on scene 1 now. I don't think I'm going to be able to cut 2,000 words from this chapter, though.

4) Give feedback for 8 novel openings on Absolute Write. In progress. I've done 4 so far.

5) Post updated opening to forum for feedback. Edit again based on responses.

Son of List-tastic

Another list of goals for the last ten days of March:

1) Read through my beta swap partner's in-text feedback and make notes on the printout of the MS.
In progress: I did the first third of the novel today

2) Make necessary changes to chapter 2 - the end.
I thought, based on comments on the first chapter, that there would be a ton of changes to make. Turns out that most her problems were with the opening scene; the other edits are very light. So I'm going to think of the edit in two chunks.

3) Edit chapter 1. Ruthlessly trim first scene. Chapter should get down to 5,000 words.
This will be the heavy edit.

4) Give feedback for 8 novel openings on Absolute Write.
I did 22 queries, so I'll get to 30 feedbacks by doing novel openings, in prep for step 5:

5) Post updated opening to forum for feedback. Edit again based on responses.

Plodding Along

I'm at 22 hours for the month so far.

The goal update:

1) Finish the revision. 

2) Spellcheck the MS.

3) Send it to my beta swap partner.

4) Work on my query.

5) Give feedback to ~30 queries posted on Absolute Write.  I'm at 22 queries and calling it good.

6) Submit my own query for feedback, and revise accordingly.  This could stand one more fiddle-- I think the last line could be punched up. But I'm laying it aside for now and will take another look in ~2 weeks when I start submitting.

7) Write a synopsis. UGH. I probably need two versions of this, since some agents want 1 page and some will give you up to 3. I took a look at the list of the first ten agents I plan to submit to, and the ones that want a synopsis all want 1-2 pages. So I decided working on the long synopsis wasn't the best use of my writing time right now. I have a full outline and it's 1/4 done, so if I suddenly needed it I could knock it off in a few hours. I finished the short synopsis and, as with the query, am letting it rest for now.

8) Make changes to Mender as needed based on beta swap partner feedback. In progress. I've printed out the latest draft and stapled the chapters together, and made notes on the first chapter. My plan is to make notes from the feedback on 1/3 of the book a day for the next three days, then evaluate where to go from there. I'm still hoping to be ready to start submitting by end of this month, but I don't want to skimp, particularly when it comes to fixing issues of representation.

Mid-Month Goal Update

1) Finish the revision. I might be able to do this today-- the edits needed on the last 13% of the book are very light.

2) Spellcheck the MS.

3) Send it to my beta swap partner.

4) Work on my query. I have a draft of one, but I know it will need a lot of work. Queries are a bitch.

5) Give feedback to ~30 queries posted on Absolute Write.--in progress. I've done 16 queries so far. I think I'm adjusting this goal to ~20.

6) Submit my own query for feedback, and revise accordingly. --in progress. I've made notes on all the feedback I got, and am halfway through revising it. I hope to be done with it tomorrow. Then I'll post the revision for more feedback, and probably fiddle with it a little more before calling it done.

7) Write a synopsis. UGH. I probably need two versions of this, since some agents want 1 page and some will give you up to 3. --in progress. I've done exercises to create an outline for the long version, and for the short version I'm following the template I used for the short version of the TOB synopsis. Short version is about 1/3 done; long version is about 1/10 done. My goal is to have both versions done by Monday.

8) Make changes to Mender as needed based on beta swap partner feedback.--planning to start this Monday. I've gotten the feedback from my swap partner and read through her e-mail of general comments. The meat of her feedback is in the in-text comments, though. Today I sent the most recent version of the MS to be printed so I can make notes on a hard copy.

March Goal Update

1) Finish the revision. I might be able to do this today-- the edits needed on the last 13% of the book are very light.

2) Spellcheck the MS.

3) Send it to my beta swap partner.

4) Work on my query. I have a draft of one, but I know it will need a lot of work. Queries are a bitch.

5) Give feedback to ~30 queries posted on Absolute Write. in progress. I've done about 12 so far.

6) Submit my own query for feedback, and revise accordingly. in progress. I just submitted the query today. I'll give it 2 days to accumulate responses, and then dive back into it.

7) Write a synopsis. UGH. I probably need two versions of this, since some agents want 1 page and some will give you up to 3.

8) Make changes to Mender as needed based on beta swap partner feedback.

I've worked for about 9 hours on the submission stuff so far, which puts me exactly on track for 30 hours for the month.

Things have been significantly less successful with part 2 of my goal. I did spent about 2.5 hours rereading the last draft of Eleven Names, but it was painful. To be honest, I am just not feeling the love for any project right now. And there is zero point to story building something you aren't super-psyched to work on. I'll see how I feel about it at the mid-month mark, but right now I'm thinking this "figure out what to write next" goal might have to wait for April.

How I Love a List

1) Finish the revision. I might be able to do this today-- the edits needed on the last 13% of the book are very light.

2) Spellcheck the MS.

3) Send it to my beta swap partner.

It was a productive day yesterday!

The List-tastic Plan for March

I'd like to go for 50 hours this month, but I'm going to split them 30/20 between a) making the submission package for Mender, and b) figuring out what I'm writing next.

a) So. 30 hours on Mender. I need to:

1) Finish the revision. I might be able to do this today-- the edits needed on the last 13% of the book are very light.

2) Spellcheck the MS.

3) Send it to my beta swap partner.

4) Work on my query. I have a draft of one, but I know it will need a lot of work. Queries are a bitch.

5) Give feedback to ~30 queries posted on Absolute Write. I am counting this toward my writing hours for two reasons: a) because analyzing what's going wrong with other queries makes your own stronger, and b) because some critters on AW only give feedback to users who also give feedback, and even though I've given tons of feedback in the past, it's been a while, and people have probably forgotten me. I don't want to come off like I'm barging in and asking for something I'm not willing to give back.

6) Submit my own query for feedback, and revise accordingly.

7) Write a synopsis. UGH. I probably need two versions of this, since some agents want 1 page and some will give you up to 3.

8) Make changes to Mender as needed based on beta swap partner feedback.


As for b) figuring out what I'm writing next, I have four possibilities to consider:

1) Going back to Eleven Names and rewriting it. I still think the concept for this one is strong, and I feel like I've grown enough as a writer to do it justice. But I have such a history with it; it's giving me pause. It's like trying to decide whether to go back into therapy to save a relationship that's been dysfunctional for years. Do you have the energy? Do you care enough?

2) An adult Science Fiction novel that technically takes place in the same story universe as Eleven Names and The Owl Bearer, but is unrelated to that plot line and can totally stand alone. I can clearly envision the first 1/4 or so of the book, which is a good sign it's close to ready to be written. It will be my first story set on another planet, which means I'll need to do more ground-up worldbuilding than usual.

3) The first book in a YA Science Fiction trilogy/series. I have a lot of ideas floating around my head for it, but they don't all make sense. My instincts tell me this one needs to marinate longer, but if I did some story-building work on it maybe it would all fall into place.

4) A Fantasy/Romance novella that is completely unrelated to anything else I have written or plan to write. I got the idea and the first two pages just poured out effortlessly. Then I wasn't sure what to do next, and I set it aside to start writing Mender. That was year ago, but the idea is still nagging at me. And maybe it's worthwhile to have something I can shop around to magazines and online publishers like Book Smugglers while I'm also trying to get dead-tree published with the Big Six.

So, the plan: I intend to spend five hours on each of these possibilities in March. For five hours, I will pretend that THIS is the one, and do the first five hours of stuff I need to do to get it ready to go. At the end of the month, I'll evaluate where each one stands, and-- fingers crossed-- will be able to determine which is best choice for now.

And with that, I better go get the hell to work.