Pants vs. Plot and ROW80 Check-In

After much red ink, I finished the first round of scribbling and notes on my book. Here’s a pic as an example of the work I’ve done so far:

Next step: I need to make all of my changes in the Word file. Some of this is easy, some not so much. The rewording, removing of overused words, and fixing spelling and grammar isn’t so bad. The challenge is going to be filling in the spots where I wrote something to myself like “fill in Elizabeth’s backstory here,” and “figure out why this happens.” Nothing sucks more than a plot hole.

I’m planning to start with the easy stuff and work my way up to the bigger challenges. The more I read over the MS, the more familiar I become with what needs fixing. I’m also brainstorming new scenes, so by the time I’m ready to write them, I’m hoping to have a good grasp on exactly what is going to happen in them.

In general, I’m more of a pantser than a plotter. I prefer to write the first draft by the seat of my pants. I don’t have more than a vague idea of where the story is going. It’s fun to see what is going to happen as I write. It’s impossible to avoid plotting my way through edits though. Maybe that’s why I find editing more challenging – because it’s not exactly natural for me. Still, it’s going well so far.

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

Advice from Janet and Steve – Books on Writing

In between the fiction books I love to read, I try to squeeze time here and there for a non-fiction book or two. When I’m editing, like I am now, I pull out a few books for tips. Tonight, I grabbed How I Write by Janet Evanovich and On Writing by Stephen King. These are two of my favorite authors, and I love their distinct voices.

Janet first. I flipped to the chapter “Revising and Editing.” She gives a great rewriting checklist that I think is especially helpful. A couple of these items are some that I’m finding I have to revisit in my book: “Is the villain strong enough to give the main characters a true challenge?” “Is it clear what the main characters want and what are their motivations?” “Have you edited out words that have no function?” My villain isn’t nearly as vicious as she could be, I haven’t yet introduced one of the main characters, and I’m hacking through the forest of unnecessary words: really, very, just, that, etc.

Stephen King is also full of fantastic advice I’m taking to heart. One of my favorite pieces of wisdom is the Rewrite Formula: 2^nd Draft = 1^st Draft – 10%.  I’m tossing quite a bit from the rough draft, from those unnecessary words to sometimes full pages of things that just don’t work.

I also find myself stumbling a bit on the backstory. This book is a sequel, and I have to bring the reader up to speed on some topics. S.K. says “(a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. Stick with the parts that are, and don’t get carried away with the rest.” I’m doing my best to trim the excess and leave only the info that directly impacts the storyline in this book.

But I am making progress! And I’m pretty pleased with it so far. I started with a printed out copy of the book and a red pen. I’ve made notes and changes for 15 of 24 chapters. It’s clear, though, that when I translate my notes from the written pages to my Word document, I’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s a little daunting, but I’m encouraged by how the book is shaping up so far.

I think I have just enough time to edit another chapter before bed, so I will sign off here. Happy writing, ROW80-ers!

Updates and ROW80 Day 3 Check-In

I’ve been busy over the last few days! I’ve been working on a new blog project with Sam from 13 Magickal Moons, and I’m happy to announce that the Ask-A-Witch blog went live yesterday! It’s a place on the web where your spiritual and magickal questions will be answered by practicing Witches. We have a list of questions that we’re working on answering for you, so please keep checking in if you sent a request.

This past weekend, I joined a read-a-thon that Back of the Book Reviews was hosting. It was a blast, and I finished off several new books that I can recommend. I’ll post a couple of reviews later this week!

        

ROW80: I started a new writing challenge in an attempt to finish my latest re-write. I have to admit, I was procrastinating about opening the rough copy of the book. As much as I like the story, right now it’s a mess and I was dreading wading through it all. But I pulled out my printed copy of the beast last night and started whacking away at it with a red felt-tip. The pages I’ve worked on so far are now so red they look like they’ve been sitting on the floor of Eric’s dungeon! I have to admit, though, perhaps the story isn’t quite as messy as I thought.

I will sign off here and get back to work! Good luck, ROW80-ers!

New Writing Goals

In the spirit of shared insanity, I have decided once again to join a writing challenge. Every year for the past five, I’ve done NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – write 50k words in the 30 days of November) and met my goal each time save one – and that’s only because I didn’t set my time zone correctly on the website. It makes November crazy, but always productive!

I recently discovered another writing challenge site, called A Round of Words in 80 Days. In this one, you set your own goals to complete within 80 days. Sounds a little less hectic than NaNo! I do well with deadlines, so I figure I’ll give this a try.

Anyone who’s been asking me when my next book will come out has heard me say that it is written, but unedited. Every time I get into editing it, I get frustrated because it’s not going to be so much an edit as a compete rewrite. Especially after my recent trip to New Orleans. There are so many things I want to incorporate from that trip into my next book, that a rewrite really is necessary.

So here’s my goal for the next 80 days: Finish the rewrite of Free Spirit. I’m not going to say it’ll be completely edited by then, but I’d like it to be in pretty decent shape with only some cleaning up and polishing to do before I send it in to the folks at Crescent Moon Press.

I have to make this goal! And here’s why: I have another book that I’m working on that is due to the publisher in less than a year. I’d really like to complete my sequel before I get any farther into that book though. Also, I want to be able to answer people’s questions about a sequel with a date! And the only way to do that is to get it into my editors’ hands.

I’m very excited that my husband, John, already jumped into the challenge with me. We may not have a very clean house for the next 2 and a half months, but I think writing a couple of books is a fair trade!

The 3^rd round of ROW80 just began July 4^th – who wants to join me? Yes, Sam and Amy, I’m talking to you!