WABWM: The WARPAINT Revision Schedule

By Holly Lisle

7:40 AM

Have just finished printing of the WARPAINT manuscript. Am getting ready to print off my HTRYN worksheets. Have SFR index cards in the requisite four colors, have my little notebook, have a couple good pens, have space at the kitchen table.

Today I start the revision.
(Boing!_,.-~*^*~-.,_Boing!_,.-~*^*~-.,_Boing!_,.-~*^*~-.,_)

Hit all of last week’s deadlines, HTCB is ready to go for its official Tuesday Launch.

But…

WARPAINT! REVISION! TODAY!

God, I love my job.

I won’t have stats or goals until I do the math. So, math is first. Will post that later.

Write well, kick ass, have FUN.


3:40 PM

Back. Got the manuscript printed and set up, got my notebook set up, have my stickes, have my blank index cards in four colors, and have my calendar.

It was when I got to the calendar that the hollow place opened up in my gut.

MY TERMS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS:

Readthrough is finding plot holes, broken story, thin characters, and other crap. It is NOT marking up the manuscript. It is writing in the notebook, figuring out how to tie the book together, noting problems and possible fixes based on the Sentence, the Theme, and the two Subthemes. It is intensive, it is difficult, and it is essential to get right.

Write-in is actual writing on the manuscript. It is ripping out the bad parts, creating new good parts, and not screwing up what was already okay. It is also finding typos, spellos, and punctuation and typographic errors (in other words, the parts I really suck at.)

Type-in is working from the hand-written sheets and putting the changes into the computer copy of the manuscript. Some on-the-fly changes happen here; those that do tend to be great for the story and terrible for the typography, because I always end up introducing new errors.

Corrections is making (sometimes significant) changes based on my editor’s input. It’s also fixing errors found by my ARC readers. If I were really good, my ARC readers would have nothing to find. Unfortunately…

Formatting is putting the book into all epub formats plus print format. If life is kind, this will be the LAST book I format. Ever. I HATE formatting. I’m doing it this time because I cannot ask anyone for a one-day turn-around on formatting the manuscript. (Except me.)

Publication is uploading the book to the print site, the ebook sites, and MY shop, and then letting folks know it’s there.

The schedule below will make HTRYN students weep. It makes me weep.

OCTOBER:
23: Readthrough, Chaps 1-10.
24: Readthrough, Chaps 11-20
25: Readthrough, Chaps 21-30
26: Write all 30 Scene-For-Revision plot cards.
27-28 (weekend): Records WARPAINT song.

29: Write-in
30: Write-in
31: Write-in

NOVEMBER
1: Write-in
2: Write-in
3-4 (weekend): Create WARPAINT music video

5: Write-in
6: Write-in
7: Type-in
8: OFF, family thing
9: Type-in
10-11 (weekend): Type-in, copy to editor

12: Corrections
13: Corrections
14: ARCs to readers
15: Corrections
16: Corrections
17-18 (Weekend): Format all versions of book, upload to sites

19: Early bird reader promo
20: Official pub day.

If I fall behind at any point here, the pub date jumps to Nov. 27.

My objective is to NOT fall behind.

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