Resting It

The editing and polishing phase is basically complete. It's not 100% perfect, but it's up to a good standard. The next step is to let it rest at least 30 days so I can see it with fresh eyes and get to that 100% mark. After the manuscript is rested, I can go in and finish polishing and fixing things I missed and all that. After that it'll be ready to go out the door. I still don't have a title, but it's set in the future of Avatars of Espionage, though it's not related to that series. Avatars of Espionage is set in the near future. This new one starts in 2137.

Last night I started the preliminary work on finishing the B'vellah War series. While the new book is resting, the goal is get that done, even if it takes more than 30 days. I expect it to take longer, so I'm not artificially holding to the 30-day rest cycle, and that's okay. The longer it rests the better. Part of finishing the series will be trying to find a book cover solution. This has been a problem for years with no great answers so far. Maybe this time will be different.

Have a great weekend.

Editing and Polishing

After finishing the last of the read through, this week was devoted to editing and polishing the rough draft to bring it up to manuscript level. It was the first major pass of fixes and polishes. No big fixes were involved. I had to delete miscellaneous sentences, mostly for redundancy. Two minor characters in different parts of the book had the same name. The contradiction I mentioned last week about the video game that characters in the book played was easier to fix than I thought. A character was in a dark location. Not long afterward it was mentioned she could see in the dark. Since I didn't spend paragraphs describing how dark it was, I was able to delete or alter two or three sentences that referred to casting a light spell and her fumbling to find something. Now the character is operating freely in low-light conditions then soon after it's revealed it's because of her elvish grandmother, and it all makes sense. I tweaked the space ship chase scene mentioned last week, but I still need to take another look at it.

Once I'm finished with this step, I'll probably do another read through to make sure I haven't missed anything. After that I may let it rest at least 30 days and then look at it with fresh eyes for more fixes.

Have a great weekend.

Reading Through

I'm a little over 80% of the way through the read through on the book. It reads better than I thought it would. The plot points that got moved around had me worried that I was writing a train wreck. I feel better now. It feels so much more logical and natural in its progression than I'd feared. There are still things that need to be fixed, of course. The read through isn't for fixing any but the most minor of things like spelling and italicization and dialogue tweaks. Big fixes happen in the next phase.

I'm more encouraged than I thought I'd be. Going over the previous day's work every day instead of jumping into the day's writing gave the rough draft a certain level of polish that makes reading it through easier and makes me feel better about fixes.

One example of something that needs fixing is a scene in which the characters take a break to play a virtual reality fantasy game. The protagonist gets thrown into a dark area where her avatar can't see very well. Later after night falls she realizes that thanks to her character's elvish grandmother she can see in the dark. Hmm. Would it be more suspenseful if she could see in the dark or if she couldn't? I have to sacrifice something to make it consistent. Another thing that needs fixing is a scene in which a space ship is being chased. The pursuing ship drops back a little bit, which is confusing to the protagonist. There's a reason for it that's only revealed later. But. Regardless of the future explanation, does its dropping back drain too much tension from the scene? Does it feel too safe? I need to figure that out.

I need to think through some other things like the protagonist's confidence. It grows through the book. So, she starts out being nervous under pressure, but that diminishes deeper into the book. If the protagonist is worried, the reader is worried. Am I losing more than I'm gaining with that? The reason she's more confident is that her abilities are growing. Is becoming more bad to the bone enough to offset the tension that's lost when the character is not as nervous? I have to make sure it is.

If I work on it this weekend, the read through will be done and the fixing and polishing in full swing. When it's done, the plan is to let it rest at least thirty days. While it's resting, I need to work on the last B'vellah War book. On the side I need to be working on the plot outline for the middle grade trilogy.

Have a great weekend.

100% and Beyond

I finished the rough draft this week. I'd hoped to get it done by Monday at the latest, but it took until Wednesday. I spent a few minutes last night going over the final pages and fixing mistakes and such, as I usually do with the previous day's material. I went a little over the 80k word count goal I had, and that's okay. I'd kind of expected to. I've known that I was going to have to go back and fill in some descriptions of the environments. In some places I described things more. In some places I merely mentioned the name of the location.

Descriptions of people were similar. When certain characters first appeared, I spent some time on description but not so much later on. I probably need to add a few details here and there. None of it will take a long time. Then why not do that to begin with and save time later? For some things, mostly people, I did. However, in the beginning I didn't always have a firm visualization of a location, for instance. As the story progressed and characters visited the location more, the better I could picture it and the more details I could add. Using that, I can strengthen the original description of a locale.

After going over the previous day's work last night, I set the book aside and watched some television. I'm horribly behind on that. Part of figuring out a schedule that includes French and writing involved where to cut out time for writing. Television ended up getting cut, especially days when I was tired and words took forever to type.

The next step is to read through the book and see if it works. I know there are things I could've done differently. Are those things critical to the story? I hope not. I'm hoping it holds together and just needs minor changes. The scene in which the protagonist has dinner with her parents. Should I cut that? Maybe so. We'll see. If the read through goes well, the step after that is to go through fixing and polishing things. Dialogue, prose, descriptions, characterizations, etc. After that it'll be time to put it aside for at least thirty days so I can come back to it with "fresh eyes" afterward.

If the read through doesn't go well, I'm going to have to figure out how to fix the book. I'd like to sell it to a publisher if I can. That means it has to be perfect. Publishers' ideas of perfect are different from readers' ideas, so any changes would be for what I know publishers expect. The thirty days of letting it rest would come afterward. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. The silver lining to having to fix things this way is that it would make the story better overall.

Have a great weekend.

90% and Beyond

It wasn't a bad week on the writing front, and the week's not over. I made it to the 90% plot point and a little further. I said last week that it looked like I'd finish the rough draft during this week(July 1-7). Unless I run over the word count, which looks like a possibility, that estimate is on target. If I work on it this weekend, I could get it done on or before Monday. Otherwise, it would be on or before Wednesday.

After the rough draft is complete, the plan is to read through it to see if it feels like it works and probably make notes along the way for things that need attention in later stages. My outline did not survive contact with the keyboard, and I had to change some plot points to fit the story, which is good in a way. It means I didn't try to force the story to fit the outline. If I think it's working, the next step would be to go through it fixing and polishing and tweaking. That's something that gets done multiple times. I could do a pass focusing on dialogue and one focusing on prose and one focusing on description, etc. It's really important to write what you love to read. At some point I'd let it rest for at least 30 days and then look at it again with "fresh" eyes. From experience, I know 30 days isn't long enough, but it's an optimistic goal. If I'm in the middle of another rough draft, I'd want to let that deadline slip and be glad about it.

The middle grade series is looming on the horizon. But first, I need to finish the last book in the B'vellah War series. I'm estimated about three weeks or so to finish the rough draft for that. Then it's on to reading the complete book to see if I think it works. Then polishing and tweaking.

Part of my process for working on a rough draft is to go over yesterday's work and fix and polish as I read through it. At the end that saves a lot of work. If I'm typing too fast, I can leave out a word in a sentence. It's a lot easier to remember the word the next day than weeks or a couple of months later. There were a lot of ship name references in the book. It's amazing how many times I had to italicize them the next day.

As I mentioned a while ago, I spent a lot of time on plotting this book. It still wasn't enough, especially when plot points shifted around. I'm already thinking ahead for the middle grade series. I'm going to have to pre-think that series a lot. It's one that I hope to be able to sell to a publisher, but if it doesn't work that way, it's still going to be a solidly plotted work.

Have a great weekend.