I DID IT!
I finished my first redline pass through Writ In Blood.
I don't know if I modified my official goal of having draft 3.0 in the computer and ready for printing by Monday, but I did. I realized that the inputting of the book into the computer is going to take forever. Like, a major, major undertaking. So I shifted my goal to be done by Labor Day with the hardcopy edits. And I did it...a whole two days early.
Anyway, the reason that I changed the goal is that there's a lot of work to do; this isn't just fixing the occasional typo or mistaken homophone. There are entire chapters that need to be shifted, deleted, or expanded. I have to rewrite a major portion of the final 50 pages, tweaking it severely and losing entire swaths of text in the process. While there is one exception of a page without red on it (and that page contained a 7 word sentence, so...), I basically have to revise all 609 pages in some way or another. A lot of it is deletion of superfluous phrases. Some of it is adding a detail or emotional response. But the big thing is that I threw in on the page a triangular bracketed word or two about what I needed to change. So I'll have a phrase that I've cut, and in replacing it I merely write or something equally vague. As I input version 2.0 into the computer, I will have to stare blankly at my shibboleth and try to decipher what I meant.
Fun times.
As a result of this changed goal, I still have major work to do. I don't know how I'm going to be able to fit editing/inputting of the new version into my schedule, since I'm still really enjoying Quidditch every Saturday. There's a bit of a deadline; a coworker told me about a conference held in May up in Salt Lake that brings New York agents and publishers here to shop around for new talent. If nothing else, it's the perfect opportunity to get the nerves out as I begin planning my writing career. At worst, it'll give me an insight into a convention of writers that's with some out-of-state talent (as opposed to the LTUE experience, which is too passive for me to really cut my teeth as a convention goer); at best, I'll get a nibble or some feedback. Well, I guess at absolute best, I get an agent/publisher.
So I have some serious juggling. With new church duties, trying to pull my weight at school, and now Quidditch, I don't know how I'll get the editing done that I need to. Add to this mix the tug to start my Master's and you can see that I have much on my plate. Perhaps too much.
But that isn't what's important right now. What is important is that I finished the first round of edits.
I think I'll take a week off. Maybe read a book.
I finished my first redline pass through Writ In Blood.
I don't know if I modified my official goal of having draft 3.0 in the computer and ready for printing by Monday, but I did. I realized that the inputting of the book into the computer is going to take forever. Like, a major, major undertaking. So I shifted my goal to be done by Labor Day with the hardcopy edits. And I did it...a whole two days early.
Anyway, the reason that I changed the goal is that there's a lot of work to do; this isn't just fixing the occasional typo or mistaken homophone. There are entire chapters that need to be shifted, deleted, or expanded. I have to rewrite a major portion of the final 50 pages, tweaking it severely and losing entire swaths of text in the process. While there is one exception of a page without red on it (and that page contained a 7 word sentence, so...), I basically have to revise all 609 pages in some way or another. A lot of it is deletion of superfluous phrases. Some of it is adding a detail or emotional response. But the big thing is that I threw in on the page a triangular bracketed word or two about what I needed to change. So I'll have a phrase that I've cut, and in replacing it I merely write
Fun times.
As a result of this changed goal, I still have major work to do. I don't know how I'm going to be able to fit editing/inputting of the new version into my schedule, since I'm still really enjoying Quidditch every Saturday. There's a bit of a deadline; a coworker told me about a conference held in May up in Salt Lake that brings New York agents and publishers here to shop around for new talent. If nothing else, it's the perfect opportunity to get the nerves out as I begin planning my writing career. At worst, it'll give me an insight into a convention of writers that's with some out-of-state talent (as opposed to the LTUE experience, which is too passive for me to really cut my teeth as a convention goer); at best, I'll get a nibble or some feedback. Well, I guess at absolute best, I get an agent/publisher.
So I have some serious juggling. With new church duties, trying to pull my weight at school, and now Quidditch, I don't know how I'll get the editing done that I need to. Add to this mix the tug to start my Master's and you can see that I have much on my plate. Perhaps too much.
But that isn't what's important right now. What is important is that I finished the first round of edits.
I think I'll take a week off. Maybe read a book.
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