Reading & Revising

<--- See this pile of books? This is the pile of Hachette books that I have on my to-be-reviewed pile. Of course, I've already read (and loved!) THE DIGITAL PLAGUE and THE RUNAWAY. And at the moment I'm reading WAKE. Really enjoying it so far.

There are some awesome books there. I can't wait to get my hands on them.

Must. Read. Faster. lol. :D

Well, it's Monday and this week I've got myself a real writing goal. There's actually a small to-do list but my main goal is to get the second draft of my NaNoWriMo novel revised by Friday. Can I do it? I've calculated that if I do 46 pages/day until Friday, I can. I started on Saturday, managed to squeeze in 10 pages while hubby and daughter went swimming. So, I had a bit of a headstart and just reached 49/232 pages. :)

That means that I've met my daily goal, but I'd love to squeeze in another chapter later tonight. If I can get ahead, that always helps out later on. At the moment I'm not finding too many probs, but there are a few things coming up that I want to fix, so that might slow me down and I want to be ready for it.

In case you're wondering, I do three drafts. First draft is when I write like a crazy person and get the story outta my head. I usually write it pretty fast. Anywhere between 4-6 weeks for novels. Then I put it away for a few months (sometimes more) before tackling the second draft. Here I read the story and fix up sentences, dialogue, make sure things make sense, add stuff--it's pretty much a cleanup. I put it away again and do the third/final draft (otherwise I could revise forever) which is when I start to like the story again. The last draft is usually not as detailed as the second one, but you'd be surprised how many things I do find.

And of course, if I get a contract for it, a bunch of edits follow. But that's cool with me. I love to fix up my stories and make them the best they can be.

Anyway, it feels good to get back into the swing of things. See ya!