Progress

Finally, my partial and synopsis are ready to send off!

I had two hard and fast deadlines this week both January 15th, yesterday. One was a contest where I entered the revised partial and synopsis, the other my proposal for a workshop on writing software for M&M in October. I hit the send button on one Friday night and the other last night at 8:30pm after spending the day 90 miles away with a writing buddy brainstorming career choices and publishing options.

It feels good to have accomplished that goal two weeks early but now comes the query writing, ugh!

With my background in sales I ought to be able to write a helluva query but it's different somehow. Maybe I'm making it too difficult. I'll let you know how it goes in two weeks or less.

Another one bites the dust

Another goal, that is. I mailed my partial manuscript of OTHR yesterday and what a chore that was! It was much much easier and quicker to email my submission the day before to the agent.

My goal was to submit OTHR, formerly MOL, by June 17th to beat the RWA rush into the agents and publishers in August. I should have considered that mailing it to Canada was going to be a bit different than mailing within the US. I had read the guidelines on HQ's website but once I started thinking about the details I had all sorts of questions:

1. They don't use the same stamps do they, so how am I going to send a SASE?
2. It's going to be more expensive to mail internationally - MUCH!
3. Tracking wasn't going to be easy since the postal clerks were telling me that I couldn't track it past the border of the US unless I sent it Global International Guaranteed 1-3 days for get this - $43.75.
4. What were my options on getting the manuscript or a response returned?

My CP, Leah, found something in the FAQ on HQ's site which said you could simply mail a check for the return postage. Thank God for Leah. She's so patient when I'm obsessing over the details (but it was my first child to leave the nest). Thanks, Leah, for not sending the Canuck Incredible Hulk after me.

Well, I thought that was the simple solution, I had the return postage taken care of. But once I decided to spring for the $43.75 to get it there in three days or less, i.e., by the end of the week, they couldn't find any Global Express envelopes! Our clerk at the PO couldn't remember ever sending anything that way. (Remember we're not in the BIG CITY.)

Finally, I settled on Express Mail International which ended up costing $23.75 and 'should' get there in five days which would put it at HQ in Ontario by Tuesday! That was acceptable.

But next time I set goals depending on the destination, I'll allow for more transit time. Though I'd still probably send it via some tracking enabled method.

A Novel's Journey

I'm starting a new tradition. When I read Write Away by Elizabeth George I was so encouraged that she included her 'journal of a novel' describing the feelings that plague all authors at each step of the process. I meant to begin this in October when Leah and I were taking the Deep Edits class but we were too busy with all the work. lol.

So once a week I plan to update my progress, my successes, and probably some insecurities which will show up with solutions later.

I've listed the steps to this point in my goals on my website but here's the jist of it for 2008.

January - Began FIMB novella, wrote 14k. Continued writing another 40k on MOL in preparation for Nola Stars Conference March 1.
February - Got to 80K on MOL before conference and spent the rest of the most preparing pitch, synopsis, business cards for it.
March 1 - Met with agent and editor and received requests for partials on MOL and FIMB.
CURRENTLY: In revisions on both, critiquing with CP, getting ready to do RODIWRIMO, Angela Knight's workshop, and start something new. Have been nearly stalled by my internal critic. She's very influential, thinks she knows more than she does.

If I can get through crawfish season, hopefully I can get the revisions done on both partials and get them sent off by June 25th.

Partial revisions

My goal for submission of my partial manuscript of MOL is no later than June 30. Crawfish season will be over. Work should be a little slower and I should have my revisions complete for a final look by early May.

My meter for the 50 pages of the partial.

Manuscript reduction

This week I began the revision process to see how much I could trim from my 90K novel. Was there that much dross that I could eliminate? Were there relationships with secondary characters that weren't necessary to a different sub genre?

It was a real high level, major scene slashing and I managed to trim 16k from it on the first pass. I'm sure more will come in the thorough revision process. The problem is that going with the shorter version will bring fewer opportunities to expand the descriptive passages, make use of rhetorical devices and thoroughly explore the characters' emotions.

So this week I'll fine tune the ending and take a look at both versions to see which is stronger. It's bad news when my husband who knows nothing about writing says, "that sounds like too much to cut. Doesn't that mess with the ...flow?" And grand son who is a new author of a fishing manual said, "Nothing like throwing out a little content."

We'll see. Luckily, I have a great critique partner who can help me decide before submitting my first three chapters. I feel the pressure to take advantage of the contacts I made in Shreveport.

Two partials to submit as soon as I can and more post office work looming to work around. This year will be a study in setting boundaries, learning to write around my work schedule to achieve my goal of getting published.