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,… Continue reading Replotting Ohio 2… The Experiment that Went BOOM!

Still replotting, still restructuring on Ohio 3

There’s damn little I’m going to be able to save. Ohio 3 is lost in the weeds. So at this point, I’m barely even looking for things to save. I’m just looking for the story I wanted to tell but didn’t, and if I can use any of what I already wrote, great. If not…… Continue reading Still replotting, still restructuring on Ohio 3

Here’s that Wrong Left Turn In Albuquerque… and it’s as bad as I dreaded.

The first sixty pages of Ohio 3 held up fine. Starting on manuscript page 61, I went in exactly the wrong direction, dropped the really good local character I had in place for one who broke my otherwise tight worldbuilding through two novels and the start of this one all to shit, threw in a… Continue reading Here’s that Wrong Left Turn In Albuquerque… and it’s as bad as I dreaded.

Catching up on the updates: Starting at page 291 on the Ohio 2 revision

The last couple days have been hectic, and I’ve managed to miss blogging twice. But I’ve gotten my revision pages every day. This morning, I’m starting the write-in revision on page 291. The last page in the novel is 431. I won’t get there today, but I’ll make good headway toward getting there, and might… Continue reading Catching up on the updates: Starting at page 291 on the Ohio 2 revision

OHIO 2 REVISION: Made it to manuscript page 134 of the Ohio 2 type-in.

And in this particular set of chapters, I’ve managed to make myself cry a couple of times. The fixes in this section have been mostly small (typos, spellos, extra spaces), and the couple of bigger changes let me add a bit more emotion to the terrible thing that my main character is discovering. It was… Continue reading OHIO 2 REVISION: Made it to manuscript page 134 of the Ohio 2 type-in.

So today I start the type-in of the Ohio 2 Revision

I was up at six, (when you’re fasting, it’s weirdly easy to roll out of bed at the crack of dawn and be through the shower, done with the first cup of coffee, before seven AM… and at my desk and finished with necessary work emails and the one help desk ticket only I could do… Continue reading So today I start the type-in of the Ohio 2 Revision

Today I hit a messy part of the manuscript…

I had a small fight with myself over whether to keep two short-term characters and the scene that included them, and after some struggle and bouncing my arguments around with myself, I let them stay. They tie into an earlier incident, and my conclusion with them in this book does offer some promise that today’s… Continue reading Today I hit a messy part of the manuscript…

Character Paranoia, and the State of Revision

I’m past the halfway mark on the read-through-note-taking process on Ohio 2. I have a lot of the first draft that I’ll be able to use as is. That’s good. I have written novels where I discovered the first draft was The Story I Don’t Want To Tell (and could still run into that in… Continue reading Character Paranoia, and the State of Revision

Revelation Struck!!!

You grind. You dig. You read with increasing despair through a manuscript that seemed while you were writing it like a thing of wonder. You wonder how you could have gone so far off the mark. And you think, “How did I think this was going to work?” and consider the possibility that you’re going… Continue reading Revelation Struck!!!

Read-through write-in revision of Ohio 2 now done through page 233 of 431

Read-through/write-in notes today flew, with Book 2 being a remarkably clean first draft (not even a lot of typos)… …Right up to the point where it wasn’t.  In the last three novels, I changed some of the worldbuilding that I did in Two to something much better. And when I ran into the spot where… Continue reading Read-through write-in revision of Ohio 2 now done through page 233 of 431