Those of you who might read this know that I've been trying to get my final final revision done and my query package for True. At the same time life is happening. I've been quite busy at work and when I've got clients I really want to see them for thin days could be ahead. I was fretting about these two things - the fact that I thought I'd have a tonne of time in January and February to write and I don't - and the loveliness of having some dough coming in. This week I'm seeing about twelve clients and have a three hour supervision. So that's about 16 clients worth. A GREAT week!
On Sunday, when I looked at my book I was happy and freaked. Most of my deadlines are ones that I impose - moving them about is annoying but truly no big deal - so I put off fame and fortune for a month or so? But one of the deadlines for my manuscript is not self-imposed. It is a submission to a contest and it requires the whole meghilla! The complete manuscript, bio, longish synopsis and a few questions answered that pertain to the contest. The deadline is in 21 days.
My reasoning is if I have to have ALL of that out the door in three weeks - might as well have the other four submission packages ready too. For them it will be various lengths of synopsis - let's say if I have a four pager and a one pager I think I'll be covered, between the first four and the first ten pages of the novel, and a good query letter etc...
All this to say that I carved out a five day writing marathon for myself. I am only taking two days off from seeing clients (Monday and Wednesday) Tuesday is a writing day anywho and I'll start this Saturday. I think I can work up to seven hours a day - so that would be 35 hours of work - the bulk of which, I think, will be on some changes I'm making to the manuscript itself. I have them well in hand - met with my editor and she gave me some she'd like to see and I talked over a few I was thinking of. Some of these are minute (find all sentences beginning with 'And' and destroy), some are middling (slash and burn a few info dump scenes) and some are huge (change a major plot point).
My intuition tells me that the best way to go about this is to move between the revision and the writing the package bits. The work I've been doing on the synopsis is what led me to get that I needed to make some changes still. (thank you Alexandra Sokoloff at Dark Salon for your Hero's Journey Structure Cheat Sheet) .
To get ready for this I've cleared my decks, promised the lad if I did my hours I'd be free to watch Holmes and Watson at night or help with dinner etc... but that fundamentally I'm not here. I cannot afford to go away to a snowy cottage and write in that wonderful romantic way I have at times. No, this is journeyman stuff. I have to stay here - make my office even more geared to the novel and pitter-patter fly atter.
I think I will make a big mind-map for the wall - a bit of a beat sheet and see how she all goes. I have the copy of the manuscript my editor worked on and all the notes I've been making.
How about you and marathons? Should I carb-load to get ready? Do I have my lucky thingy? See you on the other side...
Showing posts with label writing goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing goals. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Where I Am Today on my Journey
It is bright and sunny and, I imagine, cold. I have plenty of clients this week and a course to give at the university. In other words - a full slate.
Today I'm meeting my editor to discuss next steps with the book. For all of you who thrill at the words 'my editor' let me explain. My editor isn't a representative of a publishing company that is ferrying me through the system. I'm not there yet. My editor is a woman who I'm paying to work with my book. I've known her for a long time in other capacities but was thrilled to find out this was an area she had expertise in and wanted to expand. A match made in literary heaven. And she is a total treat - she gets me and what I want to do AND very importantly has the best sort of detachment from my goals and ego. She will happily tell me what sucks and what works and I will happily listen. Not only that, but when I talk to her it is like talking to myself out loud. I get ideas, sparks leap between neuron receptors - it is thrilling. She has the knack of asking the right questions.
Today we'll be talking (or mainly me today as she hasn't had a chance to crack the newest revision) about what I want to do next. For the next two weeks, in my writing time, I want to gather together my package - my query letter, a number of synopses, and make sure my first fifty pages are CLEAN. I want to work that synopsis with my editor because she is extremely good at ferreting out what I want to say and how I might best do that. As well, I will be planning my campaign.
Who do I want to send this to first? I do have an agent in mind - an agent who liked my first book, Feckless, enough to ask for several lengthy chunks of it, but didn't think my writing was quite there yet. I'm hoping she likes this story and likes what I've done to improve my writing. And what would that be, some of you newbies might be asking? Let us others answer in resounding unison 'We've improved our writing by writing!' I have other agents in mind as well, ones I've been salting away in my 'possible agents' file, because I like who they publish or I've heard good stuff about them or perhaps just because of an intuitive hit.
For the next two weeks I'll be doing these tasks. Then on February 1st, I'll begin sending out the packages. At that time I'll also begin revising The Rock Walker. Think I have maybe a month of work on that and then another doing the same thing I'm doing for True. If I'm extremely busy then it'll take me longer. When I'm ready to send that out, I'm going back to Feckless and revising that. That's a HUGE job but it has been haunting me. I like the story, the characters and the feel of it. I need to tighten up the writing and the structure (the structure is always my bugaboo). Then when that is done, I'll finish the second Kitty MacDonald mystery (Earth Bound) and start the process of revising that. The thing is - the more I write, the less crazy revision time I have. Because I write them better to begin with. I'm not there yet, though.
Sending True out is terrifying to me, in case you haven't gotten that. I sent Feckless and The Rock Walker out before they were done and then had to beat a hasty retreat, so I've been ever so slow and careful with True. But I didn't write it to sit in a drawer, so here goes!
And how are your goals shaping up mid-January?
Today I'm meeting my editor to discuss next steps with the book. For all of you who thrill at the words 'my editor' let me explain. My editor isn't a representative of a publishing company that is ferrying me through the system. I'm not there yet. My editor is a woman who I'm paying to work with my book. I've known her for a long time in other capacities but was thrilled to find out this was an area she had expertise in and wanted to expand. A match made in literary heaven. And she is a total treat - she gets me and what I want to do AND very importantly has the best sort of detachment from my goals and ego. She will happily tell me what sucks and what works and I will happily listen. Not only that, but when I talk to her it is like talking to myself out loud. I get ideas, sparks leap between neuron receptors - it is thrilling. She has the knack of asking the right questions.
Today we'll be talking (or mainly me today as she hasn't had a chance to crack the newest revision) about what I want to do next. For the next two weeks, in my writing time, I want to gather together my package - my query letter, a number of synopses, and make sure my first fifty pages are CLEAN. I want to work that synopsis with my editor because she is extremely good at ferreting out what I want to say and how I might best do that. As well, I will be planning my campaign.
Who do I want to send this to first? I do have an agent in mind - an agent who liked my first book, Feckless, enough to ask for several lengthy chunks of it, but didn't think my writing was quite there yet. I'm hoping she likes this story and likes what I've done to improve my writing. And what would that be, some of you newbies might be asking? Let us others answer in resounding unison 'We've improved our writing by writing!' I have other agents in mind as well, ones I've been salting away in my 'possible agents' file, because I like who they publish or I've heard good stuff about them or perhaps just because of an intuitive hit.
For the next two weeks I'll be doing these tasks. Then on February 1st, I'll begin sending out the packages. At that time I'll also begin revising The Rock Walker. Think I have maybe a month of work on that and then another doing the same thing I'm doing for True. If I'm extremely busy then it'll take me longer. When I'm ready to send that out, I'm going back to Feckless and revising that. That's a HUGE job but it has been haunting me. I like the story, the characters and the feel of it. I need to tighten up the writing and the structure (the structure is always my bugaboo). Then when that is done, I'll finish the second Kitty MacDonald mystery (Earth Bound) and start the process of revising that. The thing is - the more I write, the less crazy revision time I have. Because I write them better to begin with. I'm not there yet, though.
Sending True out is terrifying to me, in case you haven't gotten that. I sent Feckless and The Rock Walker out before they were done and then had to beat a hasty retreat, so I've been ever so slow and careful with True. But I didn't write it to sit in a drawer, so here goes!
And how are your goals shaping up mid-January?
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