I MET MY GOAL!!
Can you tell I’m excited?
This past weekend, I finished my first ever novel! Now it is just the first draft, and even though I have a constant self-editor going, have revised numerous times while drafting, and had the first 50 pages or so critiqued by writing friends (although those pages have changed a bit since the initial critique), I know I have some work ahead of me.
I have Noah Lukeman’s First Five Pages arriving today (I checked this book out from the library and loved it but wasn’t quite ready to use it. Now that I am, I had to get my own copy) and Browne & King’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, along with TONS of notes on revisions that I’ve collected from blogs over the past few months.
Next week my mother-in-law is coming up for the week for both Thanksgiving and my baby’s sixth birthday, and she plans on taking the girls for a few days so I’ll hopefully get a lot done.
If anyone has any wonderful or favorite revisions tips to send my way, please leave them in the comments!
I know I haven’t blogged all week . . .I didn’t read any blogs or log into Twitter until today either. But the writing happened 🙂 And I plan to be back to a normal schedule again next week.
Now, onto this week’s stats:
Current Word Count: 67, 430! That’s 9,628 words this week, although I did make one pass through the whole thing for a high level voice edit and cut a bunch and added some so at one point, there may have been more than that.
Little Hints: Signs! Signs are everywhere . . .or so my main character believes 🙂
Soundtrack Song of the Week: Summer Nights from the Grease Soundtrack. This song plays a surprising role in my story and who can resist singing along with it?? Go on, press play and then finish reading . . . I’ll still be here. (As always, email subscribers click through on the link to watch it on my blog since it doesn’t want to include itself in emails, grr)
Writing or Editing Trick Used This Week That Worked Particularly Well: I seem to be averaging one all-nighter a week. Last night’s was to finish up my first high level run through. . . my husband also pulled an all-nighter, so I also stayed up to work alongside him. The editing tip I liked the most this week was doing my read through for voice backwards. I found I understood my characters voices and my own writing style much better somewhere between page 60-80. Since the second half of the book sounded more like what I wanted, I read each chapter, then went back to the one before that, and so on. Not only did it help me keep the voice more consistent with what I was liking BUT it also helped me in seeing what new developments each scene brought and what the focus was, so I could make sure to point the chapter before it (the one I read after) along those same goals whether it be foreshadowing, dropping hints, etc;
Personal High: FINISHING! Just knowing that I actually saw this project through and finished is HUGE. I also found inspiration in the most unlikely of places–the new Karate Kid–for what I think will be my next story idea and I am very excited about it. (Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with karate, kung fu, China or Kobra Kais)
Personal Low: I don’t have anything particular here except that I have to keep reminding myself to slow down. That it isn’t a race. That it is worth it to make several revision run throughs and get critique partners to look at it more, before sending it out. I know from reading countless blog posts on this very thing that I’m not the only one tempted to do so but I must refrain 🙂
Writing Goal For the Coming Week: Revise, revise, revise. I guess also to create a personal game plan for how I want to tackle them.
What about YOU? Any news this week? Did you meet your goals? Any revision tips to share?
HAPPY WRITING!
