Category: How To Revise Your Novel
-
And… YEP… Still outlining on Ohio Four
And there’s really not a lot you can say about that. It’s one 30-word sentence per scene that has to encompass the essence of the chapter while moving the whole story forward, and it is a pretty fast, efficient way to give yourself a migraine. It works. It’s essential to my process of getting books…
-
Ohio 3 is now done in first draft!
57,841 words total. I like the story. I love the ending. And now the novel gets to sit quietly for a while as I plot the replacement Ohio 4. In revision, it will probably get a bit longer. Most of my stuff does. Based on some very good advice, I am, however, now considering doing…
-
Technically, I finished Ohio 3 this morning…
I’ll start my read-through, Monday. And I am considering the possibility of a final very short chapter to point the book toward Book 4. I have the empty file sitting in my template. But I’m not sure the “summation” chapter is needed, and I won’t know until I’ve finished the read-through. The book is currently…
-
Evil Afoot — 2077 words, and I got a nice bit of a cliffhanger at the end
Very pleased with the nasty situation in which I’ve dumped my MC — she’s going to have a rough rest of the week, too. Evil is a foot (it left its footprint all over everydamnthing, in fact…) and my MC is in the process of using what she discovered to lead the bad guys into…
-
Ohio 3, and the Shoe-Drop Moment
There’s the “make yourself cry” moment, and there was some of that today. I did, indeed, make myself cry. Again. There was a bit of making myself laugh. There was giving my character one moment I would take in a heartbeat if someone could just stop the world and roll back time. And there was…
-
Ohio 3: A thing about family – the VERY good writing day
Today was a tough writing day — not because of getting the words, but because the words are about things that hit me hard. Family, and what that world could mean, and should mean, and also what it sometimes doesn’t. This chapter is deep inside the magic of the world… and the conflict there comes…
-
Second take on Ohio 2 done in first draft
So… I didn’t use a word of the first version of Ohio 2. Even my “and’s” and “the’s” are brand new, and fresh and sparkling. NOW, HOWEVER… the novel sits for a week or two or maybe three while I outline Ohio Three. Ohio Three will also be brand-new. I won’t even be reading the…
-
Last day of the year… and about ready to get back to work
It hasn’t been the best year in my life. It hasn’t been the worst, either. I wrecked four first drafts of my Ohio Series (books two through five) by exuberatant pantsing. After a longish Think Week and some time spent away from fiction writing and away from deadlines, I’m rested and ready to go through…
-
Today went better. I love a LOT of Ohio 3.
I made it a nice chunk of the way through Book 3, and there is, in fact, a whole lot of story that’s worth saving — that’s funny, and in places moving, and overall very strange — but which fits the world I’ve built and the characters I’ve put into it. So after a few…
-
Replotting Ohio 2… The Experiment that Went BOOM!
Book 2 has a lot of salvageable material. A lot of awesome world stuff, some wonderfully funny scenes, some pretty scary scenes. It was fun for me to read, and I made myself laugh a bunch of times, got a little teary-eyed, did a light revision and passed it off to my Editor. Matt, however,…