What an adventure! This month has been packed. In terms of word count it’s been on the lighter side but in everything else, it’s been a lot. I went on a trip to Boston for Boskone 61 and my beta reads ran pretty much the whole month. So I’ve been getting a near constant stream of feedback on my manuscript. I started my revision today and my goodness is it a lot of feedback. Nine readers is the absolute peak that I think I can handle. All in all it’s been a productive month and I’m ready to finish up this revision and get this manuscript out to agents.
Progress
I’ll start with the writing accomplishment for the month: I wrote a short story. What is more impressive is that the first draft fits within the short story word count, which is a rarity for my overwriting self. It clocks in at exactly 7k words and I’m close to 11k for the month between various projects. However, the story may be a pile of hot garbage; only time and my writing group will tell.
Most of the progress this month has been writing adjacent. I went to Boskone (more on that later) and my beta readers gave me feedback. Some of it I agreed with, other bits I did not, but all of it has been useful. That is the way of these things. It is interesting to see commentary on this manuscript that I am way too close to. However, I have noticed that they are very opinion-heavy, meaning some people like one POV over another and their comments are in complete contrast to others in this batch of beta readers. This signals to me that the manuscript is ready and that people are forming opinions as readers will. So, with that in mind, I feel this revision will be rather fast. I am so ready to get this manuscript out there and move on to the next one.
What I’m Learning
Critique is a constant learning process. I have grown a rather thick skin when it comes to critiques but every now and then something will get me. It doesn’t happen often, but I think that means that when it does get me, it gets me harder. I am already pretty good at separating people’s opinions of my work from myself and their opinions from what might actually be the underlying problem, but I’m not perfect in this regard. You learn by doing and by dealing.
I also learned that I can communicate pretty well with people at science fiction and fantasy conventions. Sure, will I feel sick to my stomach the whole time? Of course. Will it be worth it? Most definitely.
Boskone
This was my first in-person convention and my was it a good one. I didn’t know what to expect, but I went in with a plan of sorts. I’d gone through the panel schedule and picked the ones I was most interested in. I followed it for the first half day and then after that, it went out the window. I used it at a touch-point when I didn’t have anything else to do. What I learned is that conventions are more about the people.
Spending time at the bar or Barkone, as it is referred to, is much more important. I met many lovely people, authors, agents, and editors and they were all lovely and nice. Everyone included me. It was surprisingly easy to network and get to know new people. I think it helps tremendously to all have shared interests (and perhaps a larger percentage of neurodivergent folks too!). All the networking events I’ve gone to in the past have been pretty horrible. They were more targeted at entrepreneurship and that is just too broad of a category to be very useful. Plus, they expect small talk. At Boskone we dove right into the deep-end as I prefer. Questions such as: is math discovered or created, were bandied about.
I made one friend who was also new to the convention and we went to a couple of panels and events together. It was so nice to have someone else to hang out with and it doubled the chances of talking to new people. All in all, it was a lovely weekend and though my anxiety was sky-high, I got a lot out of it.
Leisure
This trip was also a bit of leisure. Exhausting leisure but still leisure. I got to see my great aunt and uncle and tour Boston a bit with them and it was nice to travel since it’s been a while. It was great practice before a longer trip in April.
As for other leisure, I read a whole book this month. It was for my job but I’ll still count it here since I so seldom finish a book. This month’s book was The Book Thief which tore out my heart and tread upon it. It was a good book but I wouldn’t have gotten through the whole thing if I hadn’t been for book club but I will say I’m glad I did. I’ve also been working on some special music and art projects that I’m not going to talk about just yet.
Looking Forward
Ah the future, my favorite time. There is so much to do. So much I want to do and I can’t do it all so in the future it must remain.
The beginning of this month will be dedicated to my last revision. Then I will do my final read through where I read aloud to make sure I didn’t make any silly mistakes that my eyes are grazing over. Once that is complete then my manuscript will start its journey and fly from my hands into agent’s inboxes. I’m hoping to start this at the end of the first week of March. We’ll see if I accomplish that but I already have my query letter, synopsis, and agent list ready to go.
After I am done with Mushroom Dragon I will move on, most likely to Cut Throat. This manuscript has been begging to be written. I have about 3k words of brainstorming and outlining that I’ve just tossed in whenever I’ve thought of it, but I have yet to let myself turn my focus to it completely. Once I do, I will be a runaway train until it is completed. I hope to draft it in three months or less which should be doable since it should be around two-thirds the length of my current manuscript. This will allow me to go back to project A in the fall and do a reread, re-outline, and revise/redraft. Who knows, if everything goes to plan I could have two new completed manuscripts by the end of the year, three if I don’t jump right into a revision of Cut Throat. It is planned as a duology so it just depends if I want to revise the first one or start the second one. Many different factors go into these decisions but I’ll figure those out when they come into play. Also at some point, I will need to revise the short story I just finished so I can submit it to literary magazines. So that might come before Cut Throat to keep me from having to pivot back once I’m in it.
Lots to do. Lots to revise. TTFN
