Huh?

I'm sorry to anybody who came to my blog looking for heath bar brownies. Which appantly has happened thanks to Google. There are no brownies here. But plenty of other fun treats.

Now that it's in my blog I'm going to get a million hits for brownie recipes. Uh oh.

I love The Rejectionist

Case in point: read this awesome goodness, you will laugh, a lot.

Checklist for Editing a First Draft Manuscript

It seems time got away from me for a day mainly because I worked over fourteen hours yesterday on my first chapter using my new editing list. Not only did the steps push me to view plot, ideas, and critiques in a new light, it also forced me deeper into my word choice, character motivation and why things were happening. It has made my manuscript tighter in terms of construction, realism, readability, and overall awesomeness. So, without further ado, here is my plan that I've been following and the plans for once chapter by chapter edits are done. (As a side note, this is all supposed to be done after a full manuscript read without touching it at all--no edits, period.)

Chapter by Chapter

1. Basic read through fixing word choice, grammar mistakes, word choice, POV shifts, and fixing placeholders for research where writing was more important than researching exactly what was right.
2. Marking sentences that stand out for bad reasons whether because it is awkward, doesn't seem to fit the character, etc. Even if you just don't like the sentence, mark it.
3. Read the chapter out loud disregarding the notes made, concentrate on what sounds right and what doesn't and make notes.
4. I keep an ADD-IN file on my computer for things I knew I wanted to include but didn't know if they would work with the plot I was developing, or if my characters gave me new insight into their pasts, or whatever I just couldn't put into the manuscript because the muse was hitting me so hard I couldn't think straight. This is my ADD-IN file. If you have one go through it now and see if you can tweak or fit any of these things into the first chapter, second chapter, etc. If you don't have one then ignore this step.
5. I previously printed out every chapter a week after I wrote it. Then I looked at it objectively because I was already on another chapter and just marked general notes and small edits to tighten and make everything more clear to the reader. I incorporate these changes in the manuscript now.
6. I have a critique partner (she's really awesome and helps so much!) that helps me with my chapters. So, the last thing I do is take everything she says and incorporate/stew over it where I think it will work.
7. Then I'm ready to move on to the next chapter.

Here is my checklist for the overall manuscript once the individual chapters are doctored:

Overall Manuscript

1. Tie up loose ends/incorporate new chapters where needed to expand or better explain the story line/plot arc.
2. Highlight dialogue, narrative, attribution, description and introspection with different colored highlighters. This forces me to see where I'm lacking in these as well as where one trait is just taking over my manuscript. From there I try adjusting and restructuring
3. Make character charts to see their progress throughout the manuscript. It will make sure they aren't stagnant, which will kill a story, and show you where the plot lags.
4. Double check ending to make sure it doesn't go to fast. I tend to speed through my endings the first time around writing them.
5. Final  read through of the manuscript without making marks
6. Pass it off to someone who will read it with an objective eye for critique and tell you if it's crap.
7. I'm done with the first draft.

I'm aware this is a lot of work for most people, but it works for me because I'm super organized. It's also a method that promises my second draft will be a complete piece of cake which is always nice. Feel free to just take bits and pieces to try adapting my method to your own. Writing is a process which is individual to everyone so doing exactly this method might not work for person A but works great for person B. I just hope you got something out of my process.

Plan of Attack

I've written a lengthy sixteen step process for my first draft revisions. The first half is chapter by chapter check list so my head doesn't explode. The second half is once my chapter by chapter are worked out. Then I can start re-reading the full manuscript, highlighting various parts in different colors such as narrative, dialogue, exposition, etc. This can help me get a big picture about what I'm missing in the story and where I need to continue to par down certain unnecessary aspects. I think it's a pretty good plan taken from multiple reliable sources. I'll type it all up on Monday when I officially start using it.

Words

One of the most fun things about my writing, as well as most frustrating, is that I no longer self edit when I first draft anything. Which means words just go spewing on a page and I don't re-read them until I need a refresher for the next chapter. Even then I don't touch them. This is awesome for my inner editing demon that wants everything perfect, but bad for delusional perfectionist that thinks everything I write is automatically brilliant and that I should never change or part with a single word. Thank god I have people help me with critiques, otherwise nothing would ever get done except a slew of unsellable novels.

Right now I'm grappling with this decision after putting my first big book to rest. I can't touch it for at least two weeks before I start hacking away edits. But I feel like it's not my best work, I know it's not, and I have a hopeless feeling of doom that no matter how many times I hack at it I'll never be happy with the end result. So, going on to this second book which is moving along at lightening speed for Nano means I have to hold on tight with my outline and keep writing until my fingers fall off. More of my first book method. But I don't know if that's right anymore. But if it isn't, what is? I've done a balance of re-write and edit then get fresh pages but that never works. I wind up re-working so much I procrastinate on page count, but I can still lie to myself that I got a lot of work done for the day. Hmm....what should I do?

Nano count: 2,345 words

Halloween

Surprisingly, there weren't that many scary movies on last night. Husband and I wound up watching Hannibal while we made beef fondue, except what husband didn't read was that the fondue would take three hours to simmer and turn to broth. I was not pleased because by then I was already starving and it had taken us an hour to make the broth. So we ordered Dracula Dead and Loving It, one of my favorite movies ever, and watched that while each of us got stirring duty for the broth. Then it was on to Food Network Challenge Scary Cakes. By then, thank god, the food was ready to consume and we had lovely fondue with cream cheese poppy seed sauce and mustard sauce. We still have left overs we'll be using for tonight.

My Halloween may sound boring to most, but I had fun. It was on the cheap. Although, I'm going to start complaining to television stations that they need to play better movies, not everyone is out on Halloween night.

Kitten Screams

I spent the whole night from 9pm until now awake. My cat was screaming and I didn't want to wake up my husband. Instead, I got an outline going for my second book and five pages. So now I have sure footing to go off of on Monday.

And he's up...

Happy Halloween!