A wall, but not that wall

Way back in school–and I’m talking elementary school, mostly, so it was a long time ago–our teachers tried to impose a certain degree of structure on how we wrote. Whether it was an essay or a short story, we were introduced to the concept of writing and revision. We would write up a ‘rough draft’, […]

Finally

It finally happened. On Saturday morning, after inserting and feathering in an 810-word sequence, I sent off my manuscript to that “one more reader.” I kind of wanted to feel like Rocky running up the steps while training; I felt more like these two guys: I’m not sure which one’s the manuscript and which one’s […]

Almost there

I’ll admit it, I’m a little disappointed in myself. I was hoping to be done by now, but when I finished working on The Weighty Tome yesterday, I was on page 376 of what is now just 400 manuscript pages. So close! But I had put probably close to four hours in over the course […]

More Revising

Hoorah, hoorah! Two weeks ago, I finally reached the last page of my WiP! When I pushed back from my desk two Mondays ago, I had cut some 14,000 words from my bloated epic. Perhaps more important than pure word and page count, I was also able, I think, to shorten the ‘ramp up’ time […]

The end draws ever closer

When I left off my manuscript yesterday evening, I was on page 365, just shy of 110,000 words. On the pages I printed out to help me with my revision, I’m on page 386, exactly 40 pages from THE END. There are two pages or so out of those last forty that have already been […]

What a mess I’ve made

Shortly after Agent Carrie and I parted ways earlier this year, I completed a draft (a sort of second draft, maybe something like a 1-1/2 draft) of a new manuscript I was quite excited about. The problem? It was big. 426 pages big. 138,000 words big. The biggest project I’d ever done.Now, it turns out […]

Off the map

I did something yesterday I hadn’t done in two weeks. I wrote. And it felt good. I’ve been working on revisions to my latest Mighty Tome, trying in particular to shorten and tighten the narrative, especially in the front end, and it was going pretty well. On July 12, I hit the hundred page mark–and […]

Thoughts on ‘Summit Fever’

Last week over at Writer Unboxed, Annie Neugebauer wrote about the perils of ‘Summit Fever,’ a condition in which mountaineers allow the desire to reach their goal–the top of the mountain–to supercede good judgement in getting there (and back down again) safely. If the mountaineers are lucky, they make it safe and sound and maybe […]

The Inner Crowd

Oh my, it’s getting crowded in here. Last week, I had a conversation with Agent Carrie about my last project. As you may (or may not; I can’t recall if I shared this or not) know, at the beginning of summer, said last project went out on submission. Generally speaking, I adhere to the policy […]

Weekend Update

Good Monday morning to you, I hope you’re all well. I did not pre-prepare a post for today–this may be me slipping back into my scrambling habits of “Oh, crud, it’s blog day! What do I post?”, or it just may be an aberration. Time will tell. I was going to say, not a lot […]