14k Lighter

Finally done with the streamlining edits. While everyone else is madly adding to their NaNoWriMo word counts, I've been cutting :)

Starting word count: 114k words
Ending word count: 100k words

I cut over ten percent of the novel. Some of that will be put back on when I do more revisions--and boy do I have a long list of those! I'm mulling over a possible change from first to third person POV, and adding in other characters' POVs. I think it would deepen and flesh out the story, and several scenes jump out at me as being better not told from my main character's POV. I plan to try it and see if it works; if it doesn't I can always go back to the previous version.

The novel's already much stronger, but there's a long way to go before I'd be happy sending it to an agent again. Now, luckily, is the fun part, where I get to play around and really bring out my MC's voice :)

Revisions Update

Thought I'd pop up to share an interim stats report. I'm still in the streamlining phase; I've gone through 30/38 chapters, and expect to finish the streamlining this week. Then I'll go through for voice, and although I'd expected that pass to be quicker after the first five chapters, it's now clear that it won't be. The second half of the novel needs significant surgery on execution and voice; though my MC's voice does come out a bit, it's very choppy.

How many words have I cut so far? A cool 10,000. And I'm not even done! This thing was bloated with excess wordage, sentences that didn't add anything, and 'darling' paragraphs. It's very satisfying to see that word count go down :) Now the novel's at 104k words, which is much better for querying a debut novel. I'm hoping to cut another couple thousand so that I'll have wordage to play with for the voice revisions.

On a side note, there's a particular maple that I pass on my daily walk. Its leaves have turned the most wonderfully clear, bright red, and now that a bunch of the leaves are on the ground, walking past that tree feels like walking through a meadow of red rose petals! It never fails to make me smile. I tried to take a picture, but my camera simply couldn't capture it. I love those little snippets of the world that technology can't recreate :)

Reviving a Novel

Happy November, everyone! First things first: for Halloween, I was ... an aquarium! I wore a cute blue dress, stuck fish stickers to it and fashioned a frame out of black posterboard. I also got to wear fishnet stockings, since it fit the theme :) The costume was a hit, and pretty easy to make. Fun times!

Good luck to everyone doing NaNoWriMo! I'm not doing it this year; furthermore, progress on Revitalized has stopped because I'm revising Shell and Stone. Some of you might recall that I'd basically given up on this novel because although it got several requests, as of a month ago everyone but one agent with the full had passed.

However, that last agent finally emailed back with a very friendly pass ... and a referral to another agent! I was stunned. I'd long since moved on to other novels and hadn't expected to submit S&S further, but I couldn't pass up an agent referral, right? I hadn't even looked at S&S in six or so months, so I read through the manuscript again.

My thoughts:
1. The bones of the novel are great; there's a reason I got so many requests, and it's because of the world and story.
2. There's a reason (several, really) it got rejected in the end: it's overwritten, tries to use very formal language but comes off as stilted and distant, which is likely why my beta readers didn't connect with it as much as they did with my next novel. Also ...
3. My MC's voice doesn't show up until a third of the way through the novel. Before that I'm telling a cool story, but even though it's in the first person HER story, HER personality isn't there. I think that's why my beta readers thought the first third of the story was slow, despite all the cool things that happened.
4. With all I've learned while writing Wavecrossed, 2-3 can be fixed. Beneath all the flaws, there's a really great novel hiding.

So I'm taking the next couple of weeks to revise. First pass will be to streamline: clean up the language so it flows better and cut unnecessary words/sentences/paragraphs. I've already cut 4,000 words and I'm only halfway through the manuscript! The next pass will be for voice; I expect to overhaul the first five chapters completely, but the rest should only need touch-ups.

When I'm done, I'll send it to the referral; I'm also thinking I'll query a few agents I didn't get to on the first query-go-round. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson about taking time between drafts to let a novel rest. In my case I needed both time and an increase in skill (which I earned by getting another novel under my belt) to see the flaws in S&S and have the ability to fix them.

Having a great time, and falling in love with S&S all over again :) I think editing is my favorite part of writing!

Interesting

October is apparently my month for personalized responses from agents :)

Word Counts, Roses and Costumes

I hit the 20,000 word mark today! A little bit later than I'd planned, but I'm now about a fifth of the way through Revitalized :) So I'm in a good mood.

Also putting me in a good mood: October roses. I'd thought roses bloomed in the early summer and wilted before the heat faded, but just in the last few weeks my neighborhood has had roses pop up everywhere. So beautiful :)

The third thing contributing to my good mood? Halloween parties! I've got one this Friday, and another next weekend. For the last few years I've wound up concocting haphazard costumes at the last minute, but this year I put some thought into it and really love my plan! I won't divulge it here, since it's to be a surprise, but I promise to reveal it next week :) I'm excited!
What are you (or your kids) planning to dress up as?

Thank You Library, but Brr!

Apparently my hiatus from blogging isn't going so well ;-)

The change of pace worked wonders, however. I trundled myself and a notebook down to the library when it opened, started chapter five, and kept writing until I finished around 12:30. It was lovely: no distractions, no internet to browse whenever I got bored and wanted a break. When I got tired, I just gazed out the windows at the beautiful fall foliage until the words came again.

I ran errands in the afternoon (errands=scouting components of halloween costumes!) and in the evening transcribed my work from this morning: about 4,000 words! It's rough, but the chapter is basically complete.

I'm hoping to finish at least two more chapters by the end of the week. One thing I have to remember to do, however, is dress more warmly because the library is freezing! Breaking out the heavy socks ...

FYI

I've decided to take a hiatus from blogging and the internet, since surfing the 'net is my biggest distraction. I might check in on weekends, but until I finish the rough draft of Revitalized it's going to be mighty quiet around here.

What prompted this? I'm frustrated about my efficiency, or lack thereof, so I'm making some changes to my work habits. One obstacle to my efficiency: right now I write from my apartment, but between errands and chores and cats, I have no end of distractions from which to choose. I'm planning to pack up after breakfast and head to the library. It's only about five minutes away, so it's close enough that I can come home for lunch.

Another big obstacle is, as I mentioned, the internet. But how do I cut myself off from the internet when I work on my computer? Yes, I could disconnect, but reconnecting is just a mouse-click away. The solution I'm going to try is to write longhand for a while. That should put the focus back on my writing instead of checking email and reading industry blogs :)

Those are the big changes. I'm off to finish some stuff for the pay job, then I'm going to buy a few notebooks and pens/pencils. Happy Friday, everyone!