Hello, writers. Several dkos writers attempted NaNoWriMo, the challenge to write 50,000 words during the month of November. Here's the report of who made it to the finish line. At the risk of embarrassing him:
People completing NaNoWriMo as reported 12/5/13
terrypinder 50,100
This is the second year in a row for terrypinder, suggesting he's hit his stride. Way to go, Terry. Write on!
Did anybody else make their goal?
Of course, even if you didn't, if you wrote a lot and learned a lot then it was well worth doing.
I'm going to talk about revision. Again? Well, yes, because this job is 99% revision. And in revision, just as in writing, you have to learn your process. I'm going to talk about mine in hopes it'll help you find yours (if you haven't yet).
My manuscript for Jinx 3 has just come back with an edit letter, so I'm beginning a revision, with a January 15 deadline...for publication on January 6, 2015.
This is the timeline for this book so far:
April 15, 2013-- began drafting Jinx 3 (very late)
July 26-- finished loose draft of 77,073 words; began revising
August 20-- finished first draft of 73,743 words, sent it to awesome critique partner
August 24-- received ACP's comments; did some more revision
August 28-- sent draft of 74,405 words to agent and to some friends and family members
Sept 13-- received comments from agent. Already had comments from friends and family members. Started next revision
October 14-- sent manuscript of 73,820 words to publisher
December 6-- received edit letter
December 10-- physical manuscript arrived w/markup (this is unusual nowadays). Began revision
The word counts don't really give an adequate idea of how much the manuscript has changed over the revisions so far. I'd guess that probably only about 25% of the words in the 77,073-word “loose draft” were in the 73,820-word version I sent to the publisher.
Anyway, now I've got:
- a physical manuscript (If the editor hadn't sent this, I'd print one.)
- a printed-out edit letter from my editor
- various additional comments from friends and family
- ideas and lines jotted in my notebook during the 8 weeks the story was with the editor
The first thing I did was to divide the physical manuscript into three different-colored folders, labeled 1st Movement, 2nd Movement, and 3rd Movement.
Then I went through the edit letter and marked each paragraph according to which Movement it applied to. I did the same with the emailed comments I received from friends and family.
On the computer, I opened a new document in the Jinx 3 folder on my desktop, called December 2013 Revision Notes. I used page-breaks to divide it into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Movements. I copy-and-pasted the comments from the edit letter and from the emails I'd received from friends and family into the appropriate movements.
Now I'm going through my notebook, plucking the notes I made about the Jinx 3 revision from amongst recipes, to-do lists and story ideas, and typing them into the Revision Notes document under the appropriate Movement.
Already I'm seeing that nearly all the revision work is going to be in the 1st and 3rd Movements... the beginning and end. The middle is probably already very close to how it will appear in the finished book.
Next, I'll try as much as possible to reorganize the notes within each movement so that they appear in the order in which they do in the manuscript.
After that, I'll print out December 2013 Revision Notes, which will be about 8 pages long. I'll place each section into the appropriate colored folder, on top of the manuscript pages.
By Saturday or Sunday, I hope to pick up the first folder, read over the notes, and start dividing the manuscript pages into smaller sections to work on.
Sorry if this was boring... but that's the glamor and excitement of the 2nd most competitive job in America, I'm afraid. (See the item at the very top of the job description? Revision.)
Tonight's totally unrelated challenge. Take your pick of these two:
Belinda sees Lord Postlethwaite-Praxleigh (pronounced Puppy) leaving the ballroom on the arm of her rival, Adelaide, who isn’t even capable of appreciating all he went through in the Peninsular Wars.
Write the scene. However, add in a character from Lord of the Rings.
- A callow youth and his/her stout companion, having just received word that someone was overheard talking about the whereabouts of the sacred Jewel of Togwogmagog in the bar at the Startled Duck, have gone to investigate.
Write the scene. However, make sure it contains the phrases “Change we can believe in” and “I'd rather be a cantaloupe”.
Write On! will be a regular weekly diary (Thurs 8 pm ET) until it isn't.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.