Friday, July 12, 2013

2 Drafts Down...

A lot has happened in my writing over the past month. I didn't bother counting the hours I spent working out the last five chapters of All for Owen, but let me assure you, it was a lot. And I can say I am officially finished with the second draft.

So what now?

I need to take a break from All for Owen. I need to try to forget the story and work on something else. A couple Beta readers to read this draft and give me feedback. When they are finished, I'm going through it myself. This pass is going to be extreme. I'm using the "One-Pass Manuscript revision" technique. I'm not gullible enough to believe that one more pass is going to get the story to a publishable level, but I'm going to revise like this is the only revision. Character, plot, mood, dialogue, grammar, everything is up for scrutiny. The words "I'll fix that later" are not in my vocabulary.

After I butcher the manuscript, I'll fix it and send it off to as many beta readers as I can find. I guarantee, they will still find things to fix, but at that point, I'm hoping they will be minor changes.

After that pass, it's all proofreading, and more proofreading, and more proofreading...

The huge amount of work that lays ahead is daunting. It seems like writing is never finished. But for now, I need to forget it all and work on something else - maybe writing that murder mystery game I've always wanted to try.

4 comments:

  1. Good luck!! (Can we be invited to the murder mystery dinner in the meantime?)

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  2. Wow, when you put it like that, it DOES sound like a lot of work. Ha! I'm excited to read it! And mom, the murder mystery is going to be our family dinner in October. :) Be excited!

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  3. You know I'm always up to help read through it.

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    1. You are definitely on my list of beta readers.

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