Last month, I posted about how I had finished my longest draft ever, ending up at 90,983 words. Quite honestly, I had no idea how I had written that much. Even before I started reading through the manuscript, I was sure it was too long. So I went into my initial editing round with the…
Revising
After the Book Deal: All the Doubts!
Hey, friends, I promised I would give an update once I had gone through another round of edits, and I just finished on Friday. Boy, was I glad to send those edits in! But, first, let me just share that I got to do something very exciting earlier this month, which was to meet my…
After the Book Deal: Next Steps
So, it’s been a couple of months since my book deal was announced, and invariably I get the same question from friends and family when I tell them my book will be coming out in winter 2021: Why is it so far away??? Um, do you know how much goes into publishing a book? If…
What I’ve Learned in Seven Years of Querying
A few weeks ago one of my writing friends posted a wonderfully inspiring tweet: And I replied: Technically, this statement isn’t true. If you’ve seen my posts on tracking my queries, you’ll know that I do keep track of my rejections. However, I’ve never totaled them up for all the manuscripts, and as I thought…
A Love Letter to My Work-In-Progress
As I sent my latest manuscript off to first-round readers today, it occurred to me it’s a lot like how you feel when you start dating someone and you’re so anxious for all of your friends to like that person as much as you do. You want their opinions, even though you secretly want them…
A Revision Plan of Attack Using Collections in Scrivener
I intended to write a celebratory post when I finished drafting this latest work-in-progress, but I never got around to it. I’m now nearly through my self-imposed month of letting the manuscript sit, but I certainly haven’t been idle. Even without reading through the manuscript again, I already have a ton of notes jotted in…
Tracking Agent Responses & Knowing When to Revise
If you read my posts on Creating a Detailed Spreadsheet and Querying Strategy and Hitting Send, then you know I’m a bit of a statistics freak. Well, I actually take my statistics even a bit farther once I’m querying. I track how agents are responding to my query and pages so I know whether they’re working…
Tackling a Major Revision, or How I’m Revising for Pitch Wars
In addition to promising to talk about my Pitch Wars mentors’ books (I’ll feature Kristin Smith’s books next week!), I said I’d share my revision process, so here goes. A week after the Pitch Wars announcement, I received a thirteen-page edit letter from my mentors, as well as an invitation to view a Google Doc…
I’m a 2017 Pitch Wars Mentee!!
Based on this title, some of you are probably wondering whether I’ve been drafted into an a cappella group (I was tempted to break into song) or some sort of strange cult. Don’t worry–well, the a cappella group wouldn’t be cause for concern–it’s an amazing, wonderful, exciting opportunity! (I could continue adding on adjectives, but…
Why You Might Want to Change That Repeated Word
I just finished a chapter-by-chapter repeated word search of my manuscript, and it was brutal. I started at the end of March and have been working on it diligently since then. That’s right–for six weeks! You may think that’s dedication, but I would never have had the patience for it if I hadn’t been participating…
The Benefits of Weekly Chapter Swaps
First of all, there’s still time to enter my fifth blogiversary giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card, so if you haven’t done so yet, check out my post here (ends at midnight 5/11)! While I’ve been blogging for five years, I’ve been writing for many more years. The beauty of this journey is that…
Quick Tip: Check Frequently Used Words by Chapter
I’ve posted before about checking my manuscript for frequently used words (How I Tackle Revisions: Crutch Words; How Repeated Words Affect Your Voice). Some of these are crutch words–thought, just, really, very, etc.–and others are words that crop up in the course of an individual manuscript because of its focus. I usually do this after…
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