I wish that when I finished a draft or accomplished something with my writing I would feel some positive emotions about it. When I finished my massive revision this month, I actually felt more anxious than before I’d finished it. I know I set my expectations rather high and this causes successes to feel like inevitabilities and failures like the depths of Hades, but I wish somehow I could still be as driven as I am and feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish something.
Progress
Even with substantial breaks this month I was able to finish the first revision of Project A and three-quarters of the next revision. My Alpha readers just finished the last sixty pages so I will finish that as soon as possible.
I ended up rewriting about 50%-60% of Project A in this revision, but the first revision is always the hardest. I’ve drafted about 13.6k words this month but that doesn’t account for all of the deleting and rewriting.I anticipate getting this project to Beta readers early next week.
I am also working on a new short story that I just started yesterday and I am quite excited about it, but it will be tricky bringing everything I want into such a short piece. However, I like challenging myself to write shorter pieces since that is not my strong suit.
WTPitch Event
I am participating in this event as we speak and though it is technically September, I’m rolling this event into August. I got picked for this mentorship program and have already had two mentors interested in my manuscript, Mushroom Dragon, which means I am going to be able to send them my materials later this evening. I couldn’t be more excited at this opportunity to level up my skills as both a storyteller and for my queries. Wish me luck as the mentors make their choices in the coming days.
What I’m Learning
Sometimes you have to rewrite half your manuscript to make it what it should be. The first round of revisions is always the absolute worst. I complained through this whole round of revision but I’ve gotten really positive feedback on the new version. In reality, I did the whole horrible revision and rewrote half of it including the 16k words, that I added throughout the revision, and then I went through three-quarters of it again with the feedback I’d already gotten. I have about 60 pages left to do which I should be able to knock out pretty quickly tomorrow morning.
Leisure
August was full of leisure. I took a bit of time off to go to camp and spend time with my family. This was time well spent, but it was also time I wasn’t working on revisions. I had a decent enough gap in my revisions that I had to do a lot of rereading to get back into things for the last revision of the final 60 pages, but in the end, I got there and I got to spend some quality time with my parents and the rest of my immediate and some extended family.
I also read the Prison Healer as part of our Teen Book Club for my job and I have mixed feelings about it. I loved the characters and if you asked me halfway through I would have said I was likely to give it five stars, the problem is I am a very plot-centric writer and reader (that’s why I gravitate to more adult works) and though the characters were interesting, the plot was lacking for me. Still a fun read but I probably won’t read the second and I don’t think I’m the target audience for it.
I’ve also started reading the second book of the Rhyria Chronicles by Micheal J. Sullivan and I’m very much enjoying it. Hadrian and Royce are a brilliant duo. A burly man with three swords and a sunshine demeanor and a grumpy assassin are a perfect duo in my estimation.
Looking Forward
I am at a bit of a pivot point right now. However, I can’t quite make the full turn yet as Project A isn’t quite ready for me to fully step back. I still have to finish revisions on the last 60 pages, then it’s off to beta readers who will have it for two weeks. During that time I will work on a short story and start diving into my brainstorming doc for my next project, Cut Throat. I already have 10k words worth of notes for this project as I thought I would write it before Project A, so I should be able to jump into drafting Cut Throat after I do my final edit of Project A. I hope to have a finished first draft of Cut Throat by the end of this year, and with NaNoWriMo coming up soon, I may have it done even quicker, or who knows maybe I’ll finish it before NaNo and write something else in November. Though perhaps that would be a little overkill. Only time will tell.
