novels – Page 23 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

“That’s how you get ants!”

Goal 1) Revise TAP 2

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 10, 30+ LFS done
Where I am: Lesson 10, 69 LFS done, Focus Outline complete, 40/69 RLFS cards done
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:

Out of the monastery! That actually went pretty well. I didn’t even forget any scenes (which wouldn’t have been terrible, but definitely an indication of importance), but I did intentionally leave at least one out, and added a few to fill in some holes.

The hard part here is sorting out the order of scenes in the middle. I did a decent job when I did the Focus Outline, but there were a couple of places I decided to move things around.

So, now is the part where I put the revision lines for scene (RLFS) on color coded index cards. The neon eye-searing kind. Hot pink is only for completely new scenes, something I decided to change up from last time where it was also for scenes that needed heavy rewriting. Orange will be for heavy rewriting, where I can still use bits and pieces of what I’ve already written. Yellow is for moderate rewriting, and green is for little to no rewriting.

What’s interesting to me is how many are green. Like, I’m not trying to create less work for myself or ignore how much work is needed, but I honestly feel confident that I won’t need to change much within those scenes themselves. Most of the work will be in the little details, reordering scenes, and the addition of missing scenes. The meat of the story I’ve written is pretty solid, all things considered.

What’s left to carry me?

Goal 1) Revise TAP 2

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 9 complete
Where I am: Lesson 9 complete, Lesson 10, 40 LFS done
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:

Lesson 9 is always pretty quick, just nailing down the most important parts of the book.

Lesson 10 is the dreaded monastery, where I write the scene by scene outline of the book I want, completely from memory, knowing what I know now about what’s wrong with the book I wrote. I’m trying to do about 15-20 lines for scene (LFS) a day, but this takes as long as it has to, and my comments on it will be short until it’s done.

So far, 40 LFS done.

Onward.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries

Goal 1) Revise TAP 2

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 8 complete
Where I am: Lesson 8 complete
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:

I will never get over how fun it is to absolutely trash my own novel in an honest negative review. Keeps me humble.

I didn’t need it, it needed me

Goal 1) Revise TAP 2

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 8, 2 of 5 parts complete
Where I am: Lesson 8, 1 part complete, halfway through part 2
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:

The final lesson of triage is finally here. The first part is nailing my theme. The second is a synopsis of where my book currently stands. The synopsis is really the longest part, because I go through each scene and pick out one thing that happens that I want to keep, and one to toss. Not that either is set in stone, but for some scenes it’s hard to pick out one or the other. It kind of forces me to decide what the best and worst parts of each scene are. I know in my head that I don’t actually have to keep or toss anything in any scene, but thinking that way does bring up some interesting points.

Like, some of the things I’ve picked out so far haven’t been sticking points until now when I finally try to pinpoint something that could be improved about each scene. It’s actually super informative.

Somniferous almond eyes

Goal 1) Revise TAP 2

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 7, 63 scenes in, lesson complete
Where I am: Lesson 7, 54 scenes in
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:

I’m really over this lesson, ngl. I’m gonna keep working on it, but I’m also gonna prioritize moving on to the next lesson. I think I’m also gonna work on this more during the week after I come home from work. I’ve got so much going on during the weekends now that they’re my only days off, I can’t dedicate as much time to working on writing as I’d like.

I mean, hell, I’ve got another idea for a book I’ve been throwing around for a couple of years now and I really would like to start writing it. I’ve piddled around with it here and there, but I have neither the time or the spoons to work on it consistently. Not to mention the next book that needs to happen after this revision is done is the final part of the trilogy. I have enough people wanting this one as it is.