Follow the Black Script Road
Hey everyone! Exactly a week ago today, I finished my fourth draft of my novel ‘The Secret of Moonflower Valley’. Just three days later, I realized I couldn’t sit still and started reading through and commenting on my manuscript, channeling my inner critic.
I thought it would take me a while in order to look so objectively at my novel, but… I’m better at this than I thought! I can pick the good from the bad, the polished from the ‘needs some editing’, and the cute character development moments from the weird as heck conversations. I’m about 25 thousand words and fifty comments in to reading my draft, and my fingers are just itching to begin editing for real. Itching. I haven’t gotten that massage just yet, but it’ll happen soon, rest assured.
My new writing timeline is going to look like this:
Word Goal (for reading): 2-3 chapters a day, plus commenting and chapter separation (I have quite a few chapters with three thousand or more words which need to be broken down a lot.)
Word Goal (for writing new scenes): 700-1200 words in one sitting (about an hour’s work) because I can slow down and breathe a little now. (I only have around ten or fifteen completely new scenes that I need to add for character development, and the rest will be minor tweaks to the narrative.)
Editing Goal: I don’t have a specific word count goal for editing because, well, each scene is going to be a little different. I’m hoping to knock out at least one scene every time I sit down to edit, and my biggest big goal for this one is that I’m happy with the outcome. I also want to fully edit at least two chapters each week, so we’ll see how that goes.
Motivation Goal: I think I did really well staying motivated this past month, and I really want to carry that ‘oomph’ and energy into the editorial process. I’ve seen people edit on word sprints, so I’ll try that out when I get there. (Hopefully in just a few days, fingers )
My Ultimate Goal: Complete the fifth draft in just under two months. I’m hoping to completely edit my book before my little sister turns eleven, and get my very first beta reader by the first of June. Do you think I can do it?
Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask me questions in the comments, and I’ll see you again next week!
