I was smitten with the following photo that pranced around Facebook yesterday courtesy of Melissa Foster. It makes the writing of a novel seem so simple and the deterrents to writing a novel so easy to solve. I've been working on my novel for about four years off and on. I revised and got my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, published in the meantime, and I spend a lot of time every day marketing it. However, I don't let any of that take away from my writing time and my commitment to my novel. What I want to do is to briefly comment on the photo I've shared here and let you know where I am in my novel's process. Think up a story I was fortunate to have a story fall into my lap from my aunt's lifestory writing, and when I presented the idea at my first novel-writing workshop, it was very readily accepted. I've, of course, fictionalized her true story, making up characters, dialogue, events, and locales. However, I've tried very hard to be historically accurate about … [Read more...]
Getting into revision
I took a workshop in novel revision last February and began my revision work in full force in March. My first job was to make sure every chapter was complete. In many cases I found I needed to add descriptions, research details, and dialogue, Once I did that, I could finally say I had a complete novel draft ready to be revised. That became revision 1 which I collected in a computer folder called 02. Novel Chapters.Then, as advised in the workshop, I printed out a hard copy of the entire draft and read it through, taking notes in a notebook not on the draft material itself to indicate what fixes I thought I needed to make. I also took a couple of detours. I inserted the Prologue into Chapter One and changed the tense in that chapter from present to past. However, I still haven't yet decided to keep or integrate the Prologue into the main text and/or to change the entire novel into past tense. Hopefully my beta readers will advise me on that. At this point I'm working through my … [Read more...]
My memoir revision process
Since I've been on the topic of revision, I thought I'd share the revision process I followed while getting my memoir ready for publication. I eagerly took on the task of editing and revising my memoir manuscript. I had spent many years editing and rewriting proposals to the U.S. Government, and I used much of this experience to revise my book. One of the first lessons I learned on that job was to plan before doing, and that was the first thing I did before embarking on my rounds of revisions. Here's my process. 1. Create a revision plan. I created a revision plan based on my publisher's and first reader's notes. Once I buy-in from my publisher to this plan, I was ready to get to work. 2. Don't edit as you write. Write, wait a while, then edit: Leave your work alone for as long a time as you can before sitting down to edit it. While I spent over two years querying agents and small presses, my manuscript laid dormant. So when I finally got my book contract, I read it front to … [Read more...]
My novel is now with beta readers
As of this afternoon I took the leap. I sent off copies of my novel in progress - actually Revision Three - to five beta readers. It is both an exciting and scary step. Now I plan to wait. I won't make any changes to the book until I've heard back from everyone - hopefully around July 15. In the meantime, I'll catch up on my blogging, write a few poems, maybe put together a poetry chapbook, and perhaps enter a poetry contest or two. I can also spend more time at my hometown beach. Really, the options for a writer are endless. After all beta reader feedback is in: I'll review the comments and criticisms I'll make changes as appropriate and turn them into Revision Four I'll seek out another group of beta readers to critique that revision I'll again review the comments and criticisms once I get their feedback I'll again make changes as appropriate and turn them Revision five And the last step before I make any decisions about publishing: Hire a professional editor … [Read more...]