revision – Page 37 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

Goal Update 3/28

Well, I got laid off Wednesday due to COVID-19 causing loss of business. Bossman said he’d appreciate my return when he reopens the branch, so it’s only temporary, but. For how long, we don’t know. I’ve applied for unemployment in the meantime, hoping for some kind of income, even if it’s… meager. Gotta pay my phone and insurance bills and feed the cats, yanno.

School is restarting face-to-face classes next week via Google Meet. So we’ll see how that goes.

GOAL 1) PUBLISH SKOS

My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
Where I am: Contemplating
On Target or Behind: On Target?

How’s It Going:
I got some really great feedback this week on the forums. Not that the covers I posted were all that great, but some of the advice. I’m still not hitting the mark for genre, and it probably has something to do with the photos I’m using/my criteria for photos I’m using. Someone had the brilliant suggestion to just make random covers that have nothing to do with my novel for practice, to take my writer hat off, so to speak.

In other news, I finally got the okay to email my manuscript to Matt! He said he’d get back to me no later than next Friday. I can’t wait!

GOAL 2) REVISE SYCU

My Goal: 2 Lessons per month/ 1 Lesson every 2 weeks; 13 scenes per day
Where I planned to be: Lesson 5, through scene 38
Where I am: Lesson 5, through scene 40
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Slogging through. Nothing amazing. Lots to fix.

More free time, new work?

So I have this story idea that started off about 10 years ago as an alternate universe fanfiction. I got the opportunity to talk about it with Holly at the beginning of 2018 and she pointed out that if I wanted to use the idea for a novel, I had to fix my world, because it was tragically broken. Which it was, absolutely.

Literally the night before I got laid off, I couldn’t get this old idea out of my head as I tried to go to sleep, and how I could rework it to fix the world. I tried to ignore it – I’ve got enough going on right now, right? And Holly always says the best ideas will come back to you when you need them – but a little after I got the phone call, it all came rushing back.

I’ve run the idea through the beginning stages of How to Write a Novel to develop the concept a bit more. I won’t be setting any goals just yet, other than I’ll probably start in on the writing by the end of next week.

And, of course, any goals I do make for this will need to be modified as the situation changes.

Goal Update 3/21

GOAL 1) PUBLISH SKOS

My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
Where I am: Screaming
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Listen, I’m still screaming about being next in line for my content edit. Holly said she’d get back to me in at least a week, depending on how well Matt’s current edit is going. So hopefully sometime next week? I’m excited and nervous all at once but I just… idk. I know parts of it probably still suck, but I hope there’s also parts that are really good. And that the latter outweigh the former.

Man, I’ve worked on this thing for so long, and now it’s come down to this. It’s a weird rush.

In cover news, I made another four and posted them on the forums for critiques. Covers are hard. We’ll leave it at that.

GOAL 2) REVISE SYCU

My Goal: 2 Lessons per month/ 1 Lesson every 2 weeks
Where I planned to be: Lesson 4, roughly halfway, can’t really do this one by chapters
Where I am: Finished Lesson 4; Lesson 5, 12 scenes in
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Lesson 4 was rough, but not as bad as SKoS. It was a little easier to separate everything out because I wrote… incredibly lean, somehow, even though out of the three novels I have now, this one has the highest word count. Most of my scenes are plot-centric. So that’s a thing. And I’m ahead of schedule now, yay!

So I didn’t mention it, but I came up with 75 scenes in this, so that will be how I measure progress for Lesson 5. This is the lesson I get to go through my conflict scene by scene.

And, uh. It’s not pretty. But that’s okay. It can be fixed.

Goal Update 9/14

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 29290 total words
Where I am: 29367 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
AMAZING. I had a long discussion over the weekend with a good friend of mine who works for our county sheriff’s department, which gave me some great ideas for this scene (that I discovered was more than one scene) I’ve been working on. Still not quite done with this section, but I know the direction I’m going, and it’s gonna be fun getting my MC out of trouble. Finally.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences; Step 3: Cut scenes as needed
Where I planned to be: Finished with Step 2 and Step 3
Where I am: Still working on Step 2
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
So-so. With the pile of homework I’ve been doing, rewriting my sentences is taking me a lot longer than I anticipated (don’t judge; this is actually the hard part). So long, in fact, that I’m actually going to wiggle my goal around here.

Step 2: Rewrite scene sentences by 9/21.
Step 3: Cut scenes as needed by 9/28.
Rework story limitations by 10/5.

Where does this leave me with my lessons? The first two I need to do are quick and easy. I’m hoping by giving myself until 10/19 to do the first and 11/2 to do the second, I can get them done and still be on target to finish the last two on time. (In fact, I’m hoping I can get the first three done as quickly as possible, which will give me more time to do the last lesson, which is the final type-in.)

So, because I absolutely love these last couple of scenes, here’s a snippet.

NOTE: The following material is a copyrighted excerpt from raw, unedited first draft, which may contain typos and spelling or grammar errors. Please do not point out corrections or make suggestions as I will not see them during revision. Please do not quote this material, as it may not survive to final draft.

Jordan started walking, Lyudomila at his side. He desperately wished there was a way he could discuss plans with her without Vince catching on. “How have you been?” he asked instead.

“Getting on. My blood pressure has been up since they cancelled our exercise time. I glad to get it back.”

Jordan nodded. He wondered if it was purely the lack of exercise or if she had been cheeking more pills, to prepare for another attempt. “Me too. Hopefully it’ll go back to normal now.”

Lyudomila grinned over at him, winking where Vince couldn’t see her. “Oh, I sure it will.”

Jordan had to temper his own grin, since Vince could see his face as they turned a corner on their lap.

“What about you?” Lyudomila asked then.

“My stomach’s been a little messed up, so I hope I’m not getting sick.” Jordan’s stomach gurgled right on cue. “I’m hoping I’ll feel better tomorrow.”

There was a certain shine in Lyudomila’s eyes when she glanced up at Jordan. “Better enough to go for a run?”

“No running,” Vince announced flatly.

“It joke,” she answered with a little laugh, but Jordan had caught on.

“Probably, if I could. But Vince here is gonna be a spoilsport about it.” Jordan grinned at Vince as they passed him.

Achievement Get!

I’m officially over a week early in reaching my SOFW goal of completing Lesson 17 of HTRYN for Some Kind of Savior.

Which is a big accomplishment for me! I started working on this revision in 2014, and this lesson in particular… I don’t remember exactly, but it was definitely a few years ago. So this has been a long time coming.

What did I learn? This thing is very, very broken. And it is still broken, even after this cut. I am aware of this. But I think I know what I need to do to fix it now. And, I’m one step closer to finally finishing this thing. On to Lesson 18!

New Goal

My clear target is: Finish revision on Some Kind of Savior
My reachable deadline is: Dec 31, 2019 *STARTING SEPT 1, 2019*
My working days are: Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun
My method of measuring progress: Lessons completed
My end goal: 4 lessons completed (18-21)
My daily goal, and number of available days: One lesson per month
My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to finally see this book through to completion, and finally have it pay me, however little it may be.

The first objective, however, is to go through and really consider my scenes. I need to make sure they’re on target and concise. Cause right now they’re… ?????

SOFW Progress – Week 11

Goal 1) Write 19,695 words of my HTWAN project.

My Goal: 505 words per day, 1515 words per week
Where I planned to be on Day 77: 16665 new words
Where I am on Day 77: 16666 new words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Okay, I guess. The midpoint lesson had me kinda questioning myself, and not in a good way. But while taking a shower last night, the idea hit me like a brick. Hopefully it’s a good one!

Goal 2) Finish Lesson 17 of HTRYN on Some Kind of Savior.

My Goal: 1 scene per day, 2 scenes per week
Where I planned to be on Day 77: 22 scenes finished
Where I am on Day 77: 20 scenes finished
On Target or Behind: On Target (based on the Aug 31 due date, I still have plenty of time to finish the last 3 scenes)

How’s It Going:
Good, I just have been focusing on the writing, so I didn’t get a lot done here.

Snippet, did someone say snippet?

Okay, okay. Here’s something from this last week.

NOTE: The following material is a copyrighted excerpt from raw, unedited first draft, which may contain typos and spelling or grammar errors. Please do not point out corrections or make suggestions as I will not see them during revision. Please do not quote this material, as it may not survive to final draft.

Magdalene entered John’s cramped office once more, sitting in the shair in front of his desk. “You wanted to see me? I do hope it’s work related.”

“It is, unfortunately for me,” John said, leering at her. “I tthink we’ve come up with an idea for your little project.”

Magdalene made a quiet noise of surprise, crossing her legs. She knew from his angle, he could see quite a ways up her short skirt that way, but not enough to satisfy him. “That was quick. Not usually your style.”

John actually blushed at that, his back straightening a little. “I do my best. Would you like to hear about it?”

“You know I’m not technical at all, John. Explaining it to me would be a waste of both of our time. Does it do what I asked?”

John cleared his throat softly. “That and more. It will work much like the Controdes, only on a much bigger scale.”

“And I’m sure this is where you ask me for the money you’ll be needing to build it?”

John swallowed, looking down at the notes on his desk. “I’ve worked it all out, trying to be as conservative as possible, but it’s a massive undertaking that will take quite a lot of man hours-“

“How much, John?”