Goal 1: Write for 40 hours. I wrote for 43.5 hours this month, so check!
Goal 2: Finish the Revision on Mender. As of today I am 87% done.
Goal 3: Give feedback on my beta swap partner's novel. Check!
Goal 4: Submit TOB to 10 more agents. Check!
Goal 5: Submit Mender to the Pitch Madness contest. Check!
Not too shabby.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
February is Two-Thirds Done
How did THAT happen??
I'm at 54% through the revision. I really am over the hump of the heavier revisions, though. I have one (short) entirely new chapter to write, and near the end of the book I am making significant changes to another (short) chapter, but other than that it's all little clarifications and cosmetic line editing. Still, I dunno if I'm going to finish this thing by the end of the month. It's school vacation this week, which means less time to work on it.
I'm at 54% through the revision. I really am over the hump of the heavier revisions, though. I have one (short) entirely new chapter to write, and near the end of the book I am making significant changes to another (short) chapter, but other than that it's all little clarifications and cosmetic line editing. Still, I dunno if I'm going to finish this thing by the end of the month. It's school vacation this week, which means less time to work on it.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Mid-Month Report
I'm at 26 hours of writing for the month so far, and I am 45% through the revision!
Friday, February 10, 2017
Checking In
I'm at 16.5 hours for the month so far, so right on track.
I'm currently about a third of the way through the rewrite. I wound up making massive changes to one chapter, and that took a while. I've also shuffled the order of a few chapters, to try to get the external action of the story going earlier in the book.
I'm hoping to be done by the end of the month, but we'll see. As long as I'm working a reasonable number of hours a month, I'm going to try and not get impatient about my progress. It isn't even a year since I started writing the first draft!
I'm currently about a third of the way through the rewrite. I wound up making massive changes to one chapter, and that took a while. I've also shuffled the order of a few chapters, to try to get the external action of the story going earlier in the book.
I'm hoping to be done by the end of the month, but we'll see. As long as I'm working a reasonable number of hours a month, I'm going to try and not get impatient about my progress. It isn't even a year since I started writing the first draft!
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
February Goals
The past two months I've set my goal at 60 hours and failed miserably. So this time I'm taking into account the shortness of the month, the beginning of the busy season at work, and the potential for being derailed by illness, and setting the goal at 40 hours. If I do more than that, great.
I am deep into the revision now, and starting to enjoy it. I've radically revised the opening from three chapters to one chapter of two long scenes. It's still not as short as I'd like, and I still think the first 2-3 pages need more oomph, but overall I think the changes are good for the story as a whole. Now I'm shuffling the order of some scenes to get the plot points rolling earlier. I do think that most of the heavier revision will be in the first half, while the second half will be line editing and clarifications.
In other news, I have a new beta/sensitivity reader lined up to read this draft once I'm done with it! We've swapped, so I'm reading her novel now and then she'll read mine when its done. A few weeks ago I was feeling really antsy to be done with this book and move on to the next project (probably the stand-alone Sci-Fi I mentioned earlier), but now I'm feeling like the quest for publication is such an agonizingly long process, an extra month or two spent polishing the book won't make much difference in the long run.
And that provides a nice segue to talk about my quest-for-publication goals. I still haven't submitted TOB to the final 10 agents on my list, maybe because subconsciously I'm trying to delay the moment of giving up on getting that book published. I think I need to move on, though, so this is the month I'm biting the bullet.
It's also Pitch Madness submission on Feb. 24. I've had mixed luck with pitch contests, but I'm going to give this one a whirl and submit a pitch for Mender. So another goal for February will be to perfect a 35-word pitch and edit the first 250 words of the novel.
I am deep into the revision now, and starting to enjoy it. I've radically revised the opening from three chapters to one chapter of two long scenes. It's still not as short as I'd like, and I still think the first 2-3 pages need more oomph, but overall I think the changes are good for the story as a whole. Now I'm shuffling the order of some scenes to get the plot points rolling earlier. I do think that most of the heavier revision will be in the first half, while the second half will be line editing and clarifications.
In other news, I have a new beta/sensitivity reader lined up to read this draft once I'm done with it! We've swapped, so I'm reading her novel now and then she'll read mine when its done. A few weeks ago I was feeling really antsy to be done with this book and move on to the next project (probably the stand-alone Sci-Fi I mentioned earlier), but now I'm feeling like the quest for publication is such an agonizingly long process, an extra month or two spent polishing the book won't make much difference in the long run.
And that provides a nice segue to talk about my quest-for-publication goals. I still haven't submitted TOB to the final 10 agents on my list, maybe because subconsciously I'm trying to delay the moment of giving up on getting that book published. I think I need to move on, though, so this is the month I'm biting the bullet.
It's also Pitch Madness submission on Feb. 24. I've had mixed luck with pitch contests, but I'm going to give this one a whirl and submit a pitch for Mender. So another goal for February will be to perfect a 35-word pitch and edit the first 250 words of the novel.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)