Today I made some progress with Souls Unknowing.
I managed to type up a couple more of the old chapters. I also
re-organized the chapters for the entire story. I discovered that
instead of having a prologue, 46 chapters, and an epilogue, I can reduce
it to the prologue, 23 chapters, and an epilogue. So, I have 16 of the
old chapters typed up, which is more like 8 chapters in the new format. I
think it will make things a lot nicer.
What I found really nice about this change to the structure is that most of the big "cliffhangers" in the story are still at the ends of chapters, which makes it quite nice for me.
But I can totally see that this process is going to take a lot longer than I thought. Before I started I thought it would only take a couple days to re-type up everything and then I could move on to editing, but that really isn't the case. Because as I re-type, I am also doing a little revision at the same time. It isn't anything major like adding in more details and expanding scenes, but it is just as important.
When I originally wrote Souls Unknowing and the first 10 chapters of Souls Abandoned, I thought it would be really cool to write them in 3rd person present tense. As I look back on all of this 8 years later I realize exactly how horrible that idea was. So, my revision involves making it all 3rd person past tense, which flows a lot better, but also makes the typing a LOT slower.
And, I did a little calculating on the word count based on what I have typed up already. It is possible that my earlier estimate of 54,000 is wrong. Based on the average word count for the chapters I've typed so far multiplied by the chapters I have remaining, the word count should be more like 57,000. I'm also thinking that in the process of editing, I'll probably end up adding something like 15,000--20,000 words. So Souls Unknowing may end up being more like 72,000-80,000.
But, I guess the good thing is that I am making progress. I should also comment that I have made progress on my DVR as well. I left my TV off all weekend long through yesterday, so I was 5 days behind on my TV shows. Now, I'm almost caught up. I still have one more of my Monday shows to watch and then I have my Tuesday shows. Wednesday is a slow day so I only have one episode of Criminal Minds to watch.
All in all it has been a productive day.
Days 9 & 10
What I found really nice about this change to the structure is that most of the big "cliffhangers" in the story are still at the ends of chapters, which makes it quite nice for me.
But I can totally see that this process is going to take a lot longer than I thought. Before I started I thought it would only take a couple days to re-type up everything and then I could move on to editing, but that really isn't the case. Because as I re-type, I am also doing a little revision at the same time. It isn't anything major like adding in more details and expanding scenes, but it is just as important.
When I originally wrote Souls Unknowing and the first 10 chapters of Souls Abandoned, I thought it would be really cool to write them in 3rd person present tense. As I look back on all of this 8 years later I realize exactly how horrible that idea was. So, my revision involves making it all 3rd person past tense, which flows a lot better, but also makes the typing a LOT slower.
And, I did a little calculating on the word count based on what I have typed up already. It is possible that my earlier estimate of 54,000 is wrong. Based on the average word count for the chapters I've typed so far multiplied by the chapters I have remaining, the word count should be more like 57,000. I'm also thinking that in the process of editing, I'll probably end up adding something like 15,000--20,000 words. So Souls Unknowing may end up being more like 72,000-80,000.
But, I guess the good thing is that I am making progress. I should also comment that I have made progress on my DVR as well. I left my TV off all weekend long through yesterday, so I was 5 days behind on my TV shows. Now, I'm almost caught up. I still have one more of my Monday shows to watch and then I have my Tuesday shows. Wednesday is a slow day so I only have one episode of Criminal Minds to watch.
All in all it has been a productive day.
Days 9 & 10
Okay, so sadly I only
re-typed a couple hundred words on day 9. I kept getting pulled away
from my computer by my family, and then I had to go into work early.
When I got home I was surprisingly tired and ended up watching TV for a
couple hours.
Day 10 I was able to re-type some more but I also spent a great deal of time thinking about this whole process and it made me realize that trying to rush myself through Souls Unknowing to use the CreateSpace coupon on time is not being fair to the story. It would have been a different matter entirely if I had a digital copy of SU somewhere, but I don't. And the re-typing alone is taking a lot longer than I originally anticipated.
So, after discussing the matter with one of my biggest supporters, I am not using the coupon for Souls Unknowing. Instead I will be using a novel that is almost completely ready to go.
Project Death: Resurrection is the first in a four book series and I have already edited it once, so now it is just a matter of going through it one more time and tidying up a few things.
This is the cover for Project Death: Resurrection, the first book in my Project Death quartet.
Of course, I assured my good friend that I would still continue to work on Souls Unknowing. It will still see the light of day, just not in summer 2012 as originally planned. Instead, I'm aiming for more like Dec 2012, which would probably be better for my friend anyway (more of a birthday/Christmas present then). I wouldn't want the cover I created to go to waste.
This is the cover for Souls Unknowing, the first in my Souls trilogy.
Days 11 & 12
Day 10 I was able to re-type some more but I also spent a great deal of time thinking about this whole process and it made me realize that trying to rush myself through Souls Unknowing to use the CreateSpace coupon on time is not being fair to the story. It would have been a different matter entirely if I had a digital copy of SU somewhere, but I don't. And the re-typing alone is taking a lot longer than I originally anticipated.
So, after discussing the matter with one of my biggest supporters, I am not using the coupon for Souls Unknowing. Instead I will be using a novel that is almost completely ready to go.
Project Death: Resurrection is the first in a four book series and I have already edited it once, so now it is just a matter of going through it one more time and tidying up a few things.
This is the cover for Project Death: Resurrection, the first book in my Project Death quartet.Of course, I assured my good friend that I would still continue to work on Souls Unknowing. It will still see the light of day, just not in summer 2012 as originally planned. Instead, I'm aiming for more like Dec 2012, which would probably be better for my friend anyway (more of a birthday/Christmas present then). I wouldn't want the cover I created to go to waste.
This is the cover for Souls Unknowing, the first in my Souls trilogy.Days 11 & 12
Okay, so with the
blessing of my friend, who told me that I know what my story needs and
that it's okay as long as she gets a copy of Project Death: Resurrection,
I have pushed SU to the side, just a little bit. I'm still going to be
re-typing it but I will take my time with the editing so I can give the
story the best facelift possible.
Of course, that meant that I had to pull out Resurrection again. Now, I have written the book and about a year ago I went through and edited it all. Now I am going through one more time to add in some things that I think are necessary and to clear up some parts. The great news with this story is that I do have it in a digital format. That makes things considerably easier. Also, when I finished editing it last, I printed out a copy (double-spaced and everything), so that makes editing and adding in stuff go a whole lot smoother.
I already know that I'm going to be doing some major expanding on the prologue. And naturally, since I am doing this on my hard copy first I have no exact way of knowing how many words I've added, but so far I would say that it is about 300 words, and I would guess that I have another 1,000 or so to add to the prologue.
In my first draft of Resurrection I ended up with 44,698 words (which in my mind felt just a little short). My big edit added 17,639 words so the second draft ended up with 62,337 words (better but I still feel like it needs some more). I am guessing that by the end of this third draft I will have somewhere around 80,000 words, which I think is about where it should be anyway.
I am looking forward to this project and if I'm lucky then I will be able to edit at least a chapter a day. If that is the case then I should finish editing on the hard copy by about March 19th. That works out almost perfectly since I am going on vacation March 25-29th to look at apartments in Florida. The vacation will give me a bit of a break from the story and then when I return home I can look through everything a final time before formatting it all to the standards of CreateSpace.
Day 13
I continued with my final edits of Project Death: Resurrection. It is not going as quickly as I would like it to, mostly because I always seem to be interrupted by my parents. They need me to do the laundry, or sweep and mop the house, or some other house chore. Then of course I had to go to work again. It would be so wonderful to hit the jackpot on the lottery so I can take some time off to do nothing but focus on my writing, but that's not going to happen so I just need to find myself some time to work where I won't be interrupted.
Day 14
Okay, Valentine's Day...Another year has come and gone and I am once again celebrating SAD (Singles Awareness Day). I will freely admit that I did not work on any of my writing. I curled in my bed with a stuffed animal watching movies and such until I went to work. Then after work I repeated the exact same thing, though after work I watched The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (one of my all-time favorite movies).
Of course, that meant that I had to pull out Resurrection again. Now, I have written the book and about a year ago I went through and edited it all. Now I am going through one more time to add in some things that I think are necessary and to clear up some parts. The great news with this story is that I do have it in a digital format. That makes things considerably easier. Also, when I finished editing it last, I printed out a copy (double-spaced and everything), so that makes editing and adding in stuff go a whole lot smoother.
I already know that I'm going to be doing some major expanding on the prologue. And naturally, since I am doing this on my hard copy first I have no exact way of knowing how many words I've added, but so far I would say that it is about 300 words, and I would guess that I have another 1,000 or so to add to the prologue.
In my first draft of Resurrection I ended up with 44,698 words (which in my mind felt just a little short). My big edit added 17,639 words so the second draft ended up with 62,337 words (better but I still feel like it needs some more). I am guessing that by the end of this third draft I will have somewhere around 80,000 words, which I think is about where it should be anyway.
I am looking forward to this project and if I'm lucky then I will be able to edit at least a chapter a day. If that is the case then I should finish editing on the hard copy by about March 19th. That works out almost perfectly since I am going on vacation March 25-29th to look at apartments in Florida. The vacation will give me a bit of a break from the story and then when I return home I can look through everything a final time before formatting it all to the standards of CreateSpace.
Day 13
I continued with my final edits of Project Death: Resurrection. It is not going as quickly as I would like it to, mostly because I always seem to be interrupted by my parents. They need me to do the laundry, or sweep and mop the house, or some other house chore. Then of course I had to go to work again. It would be so wonderful to hit the jackpot on the lottery so I can take some time off to do nothing but focus on my writing, but that's not going to happen so I just need to find myself some time to work where I won't be interrupted.
Day 14
Okay, Valentine's Day...Another year has come and gone and I am once again celebrating SAD (Singles Awareness Day). I will freely admit that I did not work on any of my writing. I curled in my bed with a stuffed animal watching movies and such until I went to work. Then after work I repeated the exact same thing, though after work I watched The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (one of my all-time favorite movies).
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