Speedy new draft
Nov. 7th, 2011 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaThe sheer irony of this subject coming after the one below is pretty much exactly what I deserve for trying to predict my own writing patterns. Apparently I am in an on-phase!
I finished flowing the new scenes from this weekend into the rest of the book, and added three short bits to later scenes. Two of them were for tension-related reasons, and the third was for finishing's sake.
So, since I've added four thousand gorram words to this draft, making my wordcount an incredibly-too-high-for-middlegrade 54k, I think this is it for Draft VII.
Fortunately, my plans for Draft VIII include A LOT of cutting. I marked whole scenes with strikethrough in ms word as I went today so I would be able to find them easily next time around. Cutting wasn't the goal of this draft, so I didn't do that actual deletions, but I figured I should make it easier for myself in the next draft. Also, this allowed me to do an advanced find, select all the strikethrough sections, and figure out approximately the wordcount I'll be cutting in Draft VIII: 7k. Now, I'll be rewriting some of this, so likely I won't actually be cutting 7k from my manuscript in one fell swoop, but if I make "somewhere in the neighborhood of 7k" my goal words-to-cut, it'll bring the manuscript back down to a managable-for-MG length.
I know I spent months bitching about my wordcount, but I am eating that now. I had no idea I'd be adding so much so late in the revision process!
My outlines need to get better and more realistic. The Novel needed a new ending, Skywatch has had more scenes added, deleted, rewritten, added, altered, and moved then I had any idea could happen, and the werewolf book imploded because of the twin hecklers of lack of time and totally wrong approach.
I thoroughly outlined all those books. And I dislike the revision process in general--it's completely necessary, and I always like what comes out of the other end more than what I started with, but I find it painful and frustrating. The only solution I can see, though, is to write better rough drafts, which means essentially that I need to develop a much more discerning eye for problems like "lack of tension and stakes-raising in the middle," "needs an entirely different ending," and "should start 20k words after you planned to start" in the outline stage.
Experience and continuing to write might be the only way to fix that, but BLARGH PROCESS IS NOT FUN.
I finished flowing the new scenes from this weekend into the rest of the book, and added three short bits to later scenes. Two of them were for tension-related reasons, and the third was for finishing's sake.
So, since I've added four thousand gorram words to this draft, making my wordcount an incredibly-too-high-for-middlegrade 54k, I think this is it for Draft VII.
Fortunately, my plans for Draft VIII include A LOT of cutting. I marked whole scenes with strikethrough in ms word as I went today so I would be able to find them easily next time around. Cutting wasn't the goal of this draft, so I didn't do that actual deletions, but I figured I should make it easier for myself in the next draft. Also, this allowed me to do an advanced find, select all the strikethrough sections, and figure out approximately the wordcount I'll be cutting in Draft VIII: 7k. Now, I'll be rewriting some of this, so likely I won't actually be cutting 7k from my manuscript in one fell swoop, but if I make "somewhere in the neighborhood of 7k" my goal words-to-cut, it'll bring the manuscript back down to a managable-for-MG length.
I know I spent months bitching about my wordcount, but I am eating that now. I had no idea I'd be adding so much so late in the revision process!
My outlines need to get better and more realistic. The Novel needed a new ending, Skywatch has had more scenes added, deleted, rewritten, added, altered, and moved then I had any idea could happen, and the werewolf book imploded because of the twin hecklers of lack of time and totally wrong approach.
I thoroughly outlined all those books. And I dislike the revision process in general--it's completely necessary, and I always like what comes out of the other end more than what I started with, but I find it painful and frustrating. The only solution I can see, though, is to write better rough drafts, which means essentially that I need to develop a much more discerning eye for problems like "lack of tension and stakes-raising in the middle," "needs an entirely different ending," and "should start 20k words after you planned to start" in the outline stage.
Experience and continuing to write might be the only way to fix that, but BLARGH PROCESS IS NOT FUN.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-08 02:36 pm (UTC)Congrats on finishing the draft! Sorry I didn't get back to you on the ending--surprise solo road trip to Kentucky for a job interview sort of erased any free time I had. (Hello from Merrillville, Indiana!)
Perhaps, for future books, having someone critique your outline might help?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-08 08:36 pm (UTC)GOOD LUCK! And hello, Indiana. Though you will likely no longer be in that state when you check this.
Not getting back is fine--that's not an edit that's the rest of my revision depends on, so whenever you get to it is fine. Especially since you're job-stalking!
Re: critiquing the outline: I did, actually, get someone to critique Skywatch's outline. She saved me from a totally terrible ending, and a few other things, but apparently one critique is not enough!