the joys of a second draft

so i’m at a stage of my second draft.  my second stage if want.  my first involved going through my scenes and re-arranging them, then deleting a bunch and then writing more scenes to fill some of the gaps.

now i’ve printed it and am halfway through making notes.  i’m finding so many little errors that its difficult to not go onto my document and change them right that second.  but i also know that on some level i’m quite confused as to what is happening when as i’ve changed my order from the first draft to what it is now.  however, i am finding it incredibly helpful that i printed it out.  so much easier to make notes and i’m finding myself seeing errors i would have missed on my computer.

the other difficult prospect is the fact that i want to start the next stage of my second draft which will be taking my notes (and believe me there is so much blue ink on my pages!) and my document and merging the two together and applying all of my notes.  as i read i’m marking where chapters might work

so its going along well, but, its so sloooow.  to help me work along i’ve set myself some deadlines.  i’ve found 3 contests i want to enter.  one mid july where they are looking for novels to be made into a movie or tv series (aiming for the movie!) and two at the end of july for novels that win a publishing contract.  plus an old friend of mine has offered me her services as she was an editor in her younger years so i need to get my second draft to her by end of june! so write, write write!

i think for me right now the hardest part, as odd as this may sound, is trying to write when i’m not at work.  now that i have a printed copy of my manuscript and am doing notes on it, it is much easier to do this at work and some show tracks i run i am quite productive!  the other perk is my best friend who is helping me with my novel whined a lot until i figured out how to use schrivner to make an ebook so now he’s reading it and its so cool to wander around work and see him on his ipad reading it!  absolutely crazy awesome!

first disappointment

so i entered my novel (first draft done only) into a novel writing competition.

it was foolish to think that i could actually get the manuscript done in time.  but i enjoyed the challenge.

however, sadly for me, i didn’t make the first round of cuts.  806 people submitted into the contest and only 23 were selected to make the long list.  however, after a day of being sad i’ve come to realize that they only read our first 5000 words and our synopsis.  doesn’t mean that what i wrote wasn’t good.  doesn’t mean its not great.  it just means that in that panel of judges it wasn’t desirable.

so now i’m back at my second draft full force but taking a step back.  i’ve ordered everything in the order i want the novel, deleted over 10,000 words and added new scenes.  now i’m doing the notes i added while re-ordering and then i’m going old school and printing the baby up.  i much prefer to sit and read with paper in hand and making notes like that.  but since i don’t want to stop my daily writing i’m going to scale back to 15 minutes a day working on a second novel and then 30 minutes a day working on my second draft.  i’m hoping to get it to a good enough stage to submit it in another contest that is looking for ideas, novels and screenplays to become feature films and that hopefully by summers end it’ll be ‘finished’ enough so i can start looking for an agent.

i know that there is more disappointment ahead, but i won’t let it discourage me.  this book is meant to be seen by many and somehow, i will find a way.

Need to get back to it

I haven’t written in a couple of weeks because my kids were on spring break and we were traveling.  Also, I just finished a class toward renewing my teaching license.  My homework was all consuming.  I can now get back to writing and wanted to post something to this group so that I have some accountability.  While I’ve been busy, I have missed my daily writing time.  I can’t wait to get back to my writing life.

my second draft

so i’ve finished my first draft and began the process of the second draft.

it helps so much to have someone (my best friend) sit there and tell you “no, that scene doesn’t contribute at all” when i look at it and go, but i wrote over 2000 words and its a good scene…. but then realize that he’s right and bye bye scene.

after a couple of hours i have finished putting my scenes in order for the novel as opposed to chronological order.  i’ve also made several notes (thank you scrivens for your easy to add notes) on scenes that i knew right away needed alterting, re-writing or just big ass tweaks and added empty forms for scenes that i need to write.  its late now so i will rest my weary brain and tomorrow i will begin looking the whole novel over.  while i know that there are several empty holes that need filling i know i need to wait as my brain is in overdrive.

i do feel a bit guilty as technically i’ve not ‘written’ today as i’ve been doing successfully since the class started (only missed 2 days so far) i know that re-ordering my novel, deleting and creating new ideas for scenes does kinda count.

my biggest push right now is i sorta entered a contest, who’s deadline is in a couple of days.  they required my first 5000 words and a synopsis. which i coudl easily do.  they recommended that you be close to finish sooooo, a finished first draft is close to finished right?  i’m terrified that i won’t make the long list cut and therefore not need to submit my full manuscript in potentially the next couple of weeks and am equally terrified that i will.  plus, on top of all of that we’re about to do a transfer. so 12+ hour long work days!

wish me luck!

Hi

I have just finished a writing class and am hoping to finish my first draft in the next few months.  Being in class with other writers has been helpful as I have struggled through the process of committing myself to writing.  Life seems to get in the way.  Having other writers share their struggles to sift through the craziness and write anyway has been motivating and inspiring.  I am grateful for this avenue to continue conversing and helping fellow writers in our journeys.  Let’s write!!

lets support each other~

so i’ve started this blog because i’ve just finished my writing class.  sadly that means i won’t be able to write posts about where i am, what problems i have or help others with my crazy antedotes.

but i’m hoping that other writers, both from my class and friends and friends of friends will join this blog and write.  its an open forum.  if you want a blog topic opened just write a comment here and i’ll start a new blog with that.  if you’re a friend email me so i can add you as an editor so you can start blogs of new topics.

no holds bar!

as of right this second i’ve just finished my first draft.  i’ve been instructed to take a week breather before i attempt my second draft.  its going to be hard to do so i’m going to start a second novel.  i’ve written an idea down somewhere i hope.

i’ve also entered this novel into a novel writing contest.  fingers crossed i make the long list, although it would mean having a finished manuscript by april!

testing

if this is done correctly i should be able to post this as an editor.