After several late nights, early mornings, and staring off into space trying to figure out how to get my plot to work, I did it. The third draft is completed at 73,000 words, which is roughly 9,000 more than my first draft. The overall storyline has remained basically the same, but I've added a lot of elements to it. I love how it's turned out, but now comes the true test.
I've given it to my first beta reader. Beta readers are people who provide criticism for manuscripts before they're sent to agents or editors. So who did I choose to read it? One of my husband's coworkers - an English teacher and an avid reader of young adult literature who loves dystopian thrillers. I sent her an email asking if she'd be interested, and she said yes, but that she'd probably be pretty harsh. While this makes me absolutely terrified, it also makes me happy. There's something unnerving about handing your manuscript off to someone who you know as opposed to some literary agent whose address you pulled off of the internet. Your personality and thoughts are reflected through your manuscript, and to allow someone to critique it, it's pretty intimidating. I know that she'll provide an unbiased opinion on it, and that's what I'm craving at this point. So now I will wait until she sends me her critique before I look at the manuscript again. The best thing that I can do is to let it rest for a while so that I can return with an objective point of view.
Fingers crossed, here's hoping for good feedback and workable changes.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Reading, Writing, and the Olympics
Hello, again. Did you think I'd died after rejoining the gym? Thankfully, I didn't. Quite the opposite, rather. I've been soaking up every last bit of freedom that the summer provides for teachers such as myself.
The past two weeks have been busier than usual, not that I can or should complain. My sweet mother in law came to stay with us for a little over a week to celebrate the barage of July birthdays in our family. I enjoyed having her around, not just as a friend, but also as an artist. While here, she read the first third or so of my second draft and offered some advice and encouragement, which I really appreciated. I've been dying to get someone else's opinion, but I wanted to wait until the draft was completed before I let my husband read it. He's full of suggestions and ideas, but this time, I want him to receive it not as a participant, but as a reader. I'm nervous and excited to see what he has to say this time around.
But back to my MIL. In addition to being generally awesome company, she also volunteered to house sit Thing 1 and Thing 2 while my husband and I went to Chattanooga for a night to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was an incredible, highly-needed mini vacation, and I think I'm still working off the pounds of food that I ate while there. Seriously, I ate a lot. If you ever get a chance to go to Chattanooga, make some time to go to The Terminal Brewhouse. It's incredible.
Anyways, since we returned, I've been writing as frequently as possible, so much so that my neighbors probably think I've turned into a hermit since my car hasn't moved from the driveway in a week. That's okay, though. I'm making progress, and even stayed up till 3AM last night finishing the second-to-last chapter. I know it probably seems strange, but I'm hesitating to write the conclusion, not because I don't like it, but because I dread the next stage: Revision. Holy moly. The last time I started revising this book, I ended up completely rewriting it from a different point of view, and I changed several elements. It's taken a couple of months to do this, and I can already tell how much better it is as I reread it and skim through the beginning and the middle of the book. Here's the deal though:
It's worth the work to write the book that I picture in my heart and mind. Some decisions are hard, and I just decided to drop the prologue that I had so pain-stakingly written and revised several times. Why? Because I don't need it. I'm not big on taking every single piece of advice for writing fiction that's floating around on the internet, but I did listen to this one. There was nothing important in the prologue that I couldn't work in to the actual book, so that's what I've done. I'm also to the point where I'm trying to decide if I should delete a character. I like him, he's got a noble personality, but is he essential? I'm starting to doubt it. I also need to sift through the pages and pluck out a ridiculous number of unnecessary words, primarily adverbs. He whispered quietly? No joke. I don't want to be that person.
Another reason that I dread the revision process is because I tend to get overly optimistic about how GREAT my book is. I did this last time. I cranked out the story within a month, re-read it a few times and checked for errors, and then sent out query letters to a ridiculous amount of agents, who of course responded with a polite, but generic "no thank you." I'm pretty ashamed, actually, and I don't want to do that this time. I want to make sure that it's as tight and cohesive as possible, that the story is as irresistable to readers as it is to me. So, I'll finish my second draft tonight, hopefully, set it aside for a few days to get a fresh perspective, and then attack it with a red pen and lots of notes. Right now, it's just below 60,000 words, a little too short for my taste, but there's plenty of room to expand.
When I've finished the first round of revision, I'll hand it to my husband and maybe a few trusted friends who I know either read young adult fiction or write, and then we'll see. Until then, wish me luck and give me a kick in the pants if you see me wasting time.
The past two weeks have been busier than usual, not that I can or should complain. My sweet mother in law came to stay with us for a little over a week to celebrate the barage of July birthdays in our family. I enjoyed having her around, not just as a friend, but also as an artist. While here, she read the first third or so of my second draft and offered some advice and encouragement, which I really appreciated. I've been dying to get someone else's opinion, but I wanted to wait until the draft was completed before I let my husband read it. He's full of suggestions and ideas, but this time, I want him to receive it not as a participant, but as a reader. I'm nervous and excited to see what he has to say this time around.
But back to my MIL. In addition to being generally awesome company, she also volunteered to house sit Thing 1 and Thing 2 while my husband and I went to Chattanooga for a night to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was an incredible, highly-needed mini vacation, and I think I'm still working off the pounds of food that I ate while there. Seriously, I ate a lot. If you ever get a chance to go to Chattanooga, make some time to go to The Terminal Brewhouse. It's incredible.
Anyways, since we returned, I've been writing as frequently as possible, so much so that my neighbors probably think I've turned into a hermit since my car hasn't moved from the driveway in a week. That's okay, though. I'm making progress, and even stayed up till 3AM last night finishing the second-to-last chapter. I know it probably seems strange, but I'm hesitating to write the conclusion, not because I don't like it, but because I dread the next stage: Revision. Holy moly. The last time I started revising this book, I ended up completely rewriting it from a different point of view, and I changed several elements. It's taken a couple of months to do this, and I can already tell how much better it is as I reread it and skim through the beginning and the middle of the book. Here's the deal though:
It's worth the work to write the book that I picture in my heart and mind. Some decisions are hard, and I just decided to drop the prologue that I had so pain-stakingly written and revised several times. Why? Because I don't need it. I'm not big on taking every single piece of advice for writing fiction that's floating around on the internet, but I did listen to this one. There was nothing important in the prologue that I couldn't work in to the actual book, so that's what I've done. I'm also to the point where I'm trying to decide if I should delete a character. I like him, he's got a noble personality, but is he essential? I'm starting to doubt it. I also need to sift through the pages and pluck out a ridiculous number of unnecessary words, primarily adverbs. He whispered quietly? No joke. I don't want to be that person.
Another reason that I dread the revision process is because I tend to get overly optimistic about how GREAT my book is. I did this last time. I cranked out the story within a month, re-read it a few times and checked for errors, and then sent out query letters to a ridiculous amount of agents, who of course responded with a polite, but generic "no thank you." I'm pretty ashamed, actually, and I don't want to do that this time. I want to make sure that it's as tight and cohesive as possible, that the story is as irresistable to readers as it is to me. So, I'll finish my second draft tonight, hopefully, set it aside for a few days to get a fresh perspective, and then attack it with a red pen and lots of notes. Right now, it's just below 60,000 words, a little too short for my taste, but there's plenty of room to expand.
When I've finished the first round of revision, I'll hand it to my husband and maybe a few trusted friends who I know either read young adult fiction or write, and then we'll see. Until then, wish me luck and give me a kick in the pants if you see me wasting time.
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