It’s February. A month ago I posted about an ice storm that had me homebound for five days. Today the sun plays peek-a-book with a bank of steely, rain-laden clouds. I witnessed a magnificent rainbow just outside my window mere minutes ago. It’s gorgeous, blustery, green and gray day. In February.
It also happens to be the Super Bowl, which I care little about. I’m staying home instead of attending the traditional family gathering, so the house is mine today. As of this writing, I’ve already revised fifty-one pages today and plan to do an additional 45 pages before I call it a day. I’ve spent time with my writing friends, co-working via a Discord video call, and I’m hoping I can FaceTime my mom before the afternoon wears on much further. And of course, I’ll read a bit and maybe do a chore or two before my evening work session.
What I’m saying is, it’s an unseasonably nice day, both inside and out.
As for writing-related things, there isn’t much to report. I’m still waiting on a contract for that story I sold back in December, so I won’t be making an official announcement just yet. I received an absolutely lovely personal rejection on my Frankenstein retelling novella, which was a bummer, but also VERY encouraging. I’ll be sending it out again very soon, so keep your fingers crossed for me. I’ve also got a new flash fiction piece that I’m very close to finishing. Hopefully it can go out in the next week or two.
And, of course, there’s the novel revisions. I finished the first round of revisions late last year and took the last few weeks of 2023 away from the project. I sent it to a few trusted beta readers and have since received their feedback and re-read the book for myself. I’ve got a printed manuscript riddled with red ink and a notebook with chapter-by-chapter notes. Today, during my morning writing session, I crossed the halfway point in the manuscript, so things are moving nicely.
The plan is continue at a very brisk clip this evening and for a big chunk of tomorrow morning. I want to get as much done as I can this weekend, and then the goal is to revise 20 pages each day until this pass is done. At this rate, I could be done as soon as Saturday.
After that, I’m going to use my computer’s text to speech function to listen to the book. This is one of my favorite steps of the process, mostly because it helps me imagine what an audio version of my book might be like. But, it’s also the best way to catch sentence level nonsense that the eye just doesn’t notice after staring at pages for months. Little misspellings, word repetition, funky grammar will all become clear upon listening. I usually bring the laptop out into the kitchen, put on my ginormous over the ear headphones and doot around the house doing chores while I listen.
I’m productive on two fronts in this stage and that makes me VERY happy.
It also makes me happy because, barring something egregious, this is the last stage of the revision process. The last pass before I’m willing to let strangers look at my pages. This is the final polish. If all goes to plan, this book will be ready to query by March 1st.
There. I said it. So it is written, so it shall be done or whatever.
Anyway, that’s the state of things at this very moment. Should anything change, I’ll be sure to share the news here. Until then, Bloggarts!
BZ
