If you’ve been following my journey through revisions for my work-in-progress, you may remember that in my last round of revisions I was still getting rid of a number of dangling threads from an early plot thread I’d eliminated. When I received comments back from this round of readers, I was pleased to discover that–finally!–I…
revising
Thoughts on Revising from Public Critiques
Two weeks ago I was privileged to participate in #BLOGPITCH, a blog hop hosted by Authoress for the purpose of gathering critiques for my Twitter pitch and first 250 words. First of all, I want to say how much I appreciate everyone who stopped by to comment on my post. I really appreciated the critiques….
Revision: Snip, Snip, Snipping the Dangling Threads
I’ve finished yet another draft of my work-in-progress, and it has me thinking in embroidery metaphors. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I like to cross-stitch. I once posted about how I wished I had a pattern to follow, and then followed up with an ironic post about having to…
Only You Can Fix Your Manuscript
I’ve touched on this before, but there’s a reason our stories are our own. And there’s a reason they get royally screwed up if we take every single suggestion a critique partner, beta reader, agent or even an editor gives us–because no one else can write our story. Of course I’ve always known this, but…
A Call for a Few Good Readers
Hello, lovely readers! I’ve never done this before on the blog, but I’m at the point in my writing journey where I don’t want to leave any stone unturned before I send out a manuscript. I’ve been through 2 1/2 rounds of critiques (I had one person read the first 90 pages before the first…
How I Tackle Revisions: Synthesizing Feedback
Yesterday I received comments from the last of my second round readers (thanks, ladies!). I’m itching to jump right in and start revising, but I am forcing myself to take a few days to think through it all and figure out a plan of attack before I dig in. I’ve posted on patience before (here,…
My Writing Process Blog Hop
First of all, the winner of a paperback copy of PARTNERS IN CRIME by Kim Harrington is: Susan Congratulations, Susan! Now on to today’s post. Last week my lovely CP Kip Wilson Rechea tagged me in the My Writing Process blog hop to celebrate the release of Sucker Literary Volume 3. Because you don’t already…
How I Tackle Revisions: Reading in a Different Format
There comes a point in the revision process where you can’t look at your document another minute because it all starts to blur together. I’ve found that the best way to pull the words out of the fog is to look at the manuscript a new way. Here are some ideas on how to read…
How I Tackle Revisions: Crutch Words
So I’ve written about crutch words before. On my last manuscript, weeding out crutch words was my final step before querying agents. I decided to address them much earlier in the process this time, while I was waiting for feedback from my first round of readers. I realize that I’ll be making significant changes to…
How I Tackle Revisions: Let It Go
Like many of you, I have “Let It Go” on a constant loop these days, and I can’t always blame my three-year-old :). But as I was getting ready to write this post, I realized how apt the title is for the current step in my revisions. As I shared in my last post, the…
When Is It Time to Finish Querying?
I touched on this topic once before, as part of a post on timing, and I want to emphasize the distinction between stopping and finishing. I think these are two different things. You can just stop because you’re discouraged or you can finish, leaving no stone unturned. Here are some things to consider if you’re…
How I Tackle Revisions: An Evolving Process
It’s been two months since I blogged about the first two steps in my revision process. Usually I would be at step four or five by now, but life has forced me to slooow down with this work-in-progress, and also to take another look at my process. Patience and flexibility are both a struggle for…
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