Word count marathon, day 5

Starting word count: 241,861

Ending word count after revising Chapters 35 through 39: 238,428

# words cut: 3,433

A long, hard slog through chapters where I knew I could do some significant trimming, but that required a lot of attention to detail and thus, were slow going. Only 5 chapters revised today, after working literally all day (9 AM to 12:30 AM, minus approximately 3 hours total for eating, stretching, etc.), which leaves me with 29 more to get through by Wednesday. Not going to happen. Especially since I still need to do more work on my pitch. All I can do is all I can do.

I know I’m repeating myself when I say that every day, but only because I’m trying to get my brain to listen. It still thinks it’s somehow going to accomplish cutting 50,000 words by Wednesday AND write the most pitchiest pitch that ever pitched AND work a full-time (and a half!) job. See, now aren’t you glad you don’t have my brain?

Still, I did do the Snoopy Happy Dance when I finally dropped below 240,000. Victories where you can get them and alla that.

Word count marathon, day 4

Starting word count: 243,576

Ending word count after revising the remainder of Chapters 30, and 31 through 34: 241,861

# words cut: 1,715

Because I am a moron, I did the math today, and it sucks: 50,000 words is 169 pages, or 15 of my chapters. Great googily moogily.

So I decided that I’m just going to keep plugging away and trim however much I possibly can, and whatever the word count is by Wednesday, that’s what it’s going to be. And it’s probably going to be over 200,000, and that’s just going to be the way it is.

Because here’s the thing: the reason I leaped at this opportunity, even more than the workshop and the pitch critique opportunity, is that this is my chance to be seen by an agent (dream agent!) and it doesn’t count. Meaning, this is like a practice run at querying without having it count against me in the process, like taking the PSAT (yeah, that was the first analogy my nerd brain came up with).

When you query, and an agent rejects you, they don’t like resubmissions of the same project. In fact, they really, really, really hate it. It’s a big no-no. And they remember. Unless a signficant amount of time has passed and an even more significant amount of changes have been made to what you pitched previously (not to mention to the pitch itself), agents don’t take resubmissions.

For that reason, I’d planned to wait before I queried Agent Kristen to see what my first few rejections looked like, what kind of feedback (if any) I was getting, whether I got any requests for the first 30/synopsis/full*. I do still plan to wait until I’ve been through the query process a bit before I officially query Agent Kristen and my other top tier agents, but this is my chance to get a leg up.

So I’ll take whatever feedback she gives on the pitch and use it to make improvements, both to my query and my ms, and stop fretting that if I don’t have my number down to my 200,000 by goal, that I’ve somehow blown my big break. I haven’t.

*Depending on the agent, if they like your query, they’ll request your first 30 pages (or alternately, first 5 chapters), a synopsis, or the full manuscript. If an agent who’s known to request a full from queries s/he’s excited about instead requests the first 30 or a synopsis, it’s generally “your query intrigued me and I’d like to know more about your novel, but I’m not sure if it’s for me and I don’t want to waste your time or mine by requesting a full if I don’t like it”. A request for a full will still result in a rejection just as often as not, but it’s definitely a good sign.

Word count marathon, update

I switched to working on my pitch Monday instead of whittling down my word count, since the deadline for the pitch was this Friday. And thanks to a very productive editing/revision session with Cat via Google video chat and a shared document in Google Docs — AND ONCE AGAIN LET ME SAY I LOVE LIVING IN THE FUTURE OMG* — I felt much better about it by the end of the evening than I did before we started. So thanks yet again to Cat for preventing me from gnawing off my fingers in desperation. (Ew.)

Then last night, I had website work to do for clients, after getting home late and stopping at CSA on the way home for this week’s share, which meant I dropped into bed late, exhausted, and without so much as having opened a Word file. Is it any mystery why there’s been such a delay getting this done?

I’d hoped to make some time tonight, but it didn’t work out that way. I would be in full out panic mode if it weren’t for the exceedingly good news that came Monday night that they had extended the deadline for the pitch submission to next Wednesday. Woot! I still need to work my ass off on revisions and spend some more time on my pitch, but I sure felt like the kid who was facing a test the next morning that they hadn’t studied for, and wake up to a blizzard and the news that school’s been canceled.

I may not be in full out panic mode, but I’m still panicking. Two days lost? Ugh, it’s eating at me! Which means I plan to spend my weekend working hard on both. It unfortunately also means I won’t get to go to Wordstock this year. Pretty bummed about that actually. But such is the way of things.

*actual conversation that took place via video chat:

Me: Hello, we live on Star Trek! I LOVE LIVING IN THE FUTURE.

Cat: Omg, I know, right?

Me: When we got our Droids, I told Sal we’re now living in a time when we have actual honest-to-god tri-corders.

Cat: So awesome! Except I want my holodeck, dammit!

Me: Yes, dammit! You know what I want more than a holodeck? A replicator. If I could come home and just have it automatically have turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy ready and waiting for me? My life would be complete.

Cat: I don’t know…the chance to program my very own Karl Urban experience in the holodeck? I’d never leave.

Me: Good point.

Word count marathon, day 3

Starting word count: 244,962

Ending word count after revising Chapters 24 through 26, 29, part of 30: 243,576

# words cut: 1,386

Now that I’m into the pages past where Cat and I have done editing already, there are bigger trims I can make. I still don’t know where the big, big cutting is going to happen. I jumped ahead from chapter 8 yesterday into the section starting around Chapter 24 because that section (that goes through Chapter 32) is where I’ve always thought the story could be tightened. It’s an intentional lull, but it lulls too much there. So.

Nonetheless, I know I’m not going to magically get my 150 pages out of those chapters; we’ll see what the rest of 30, 31, and 32 yield, then I have some more ideas where I can make some inroads. And then depending on the outcome of that, I’m going to have to consider removing plotlines and/or characters. I’m not against it, but it’s far more complicated and time-consuming in this particular story than a less intricately-plotted one.

As for my pitch paragraph…well. All I can say is thank the Universe, Eru, and The Great Pumpkin for wickedly awesome and talented Cat, because she is the reason I did not have a breakdown about my pitch this evening. In response to my email of OMG I AM FUNCTIONALLY ILLITERATE THIS IS NOT WORKING WHAT ARE WORDS AND WHY DO I HAVE RED INK RUNNING OUT MY EARS, she replied calmly and reasonably with an offer of help and sanity. So she wins all the prizes, as far as I’m concerned. And Karl Urban in a bow, obviously. (No seriously, that was our deal.)

Word count marathon, day 2

Starting word count: 248,678

Ending word count after revising Chapters 5 through 8, 27 through 29: 244,962

# words cut: 3,716

More progress, though not anywhere close to where I need to be by now. And I realized today that the there wll be a law of diminishing returns, in that my calculations assumed yesterday that I could sustain deleting an average of 625 words per chapter. The reality is that isn’t sustainable, something I realized when two of my chapters had hardly anything I could cut.

Then again, Chapters 1 through 28 had been pretty well picked over before I started this mad dash of revision; Cat has assiduously applied her editing expertise and kung-fu to all of those chapters, and then I’ve made additional edits to them as I incorporated her changes into the finished draft. Which means there actually is quite a bit that can be cut from the chapters that haven’t yet received that attention, just from that process. The problem, of course, is that it won’t be possible to perform that kind of editorial review before Friday.

Which…it’s my pitch paragraph that needs to be turned in by Friday, not my entire ms. BUT! I’ll need to include my word count with my submission, and even if it’s finalized, I’d really like to have that number much closer to 200,000 than it is right now. On the other hand, I don’t want to get too frenzied or I’m liable to either A) cut injudiciously, or B) add errors instead of removing them. Because the fact remains that I’m merely submitting my pitch for critique and it won’t elicit anything more than that feedback. I’m essentially trying to get ready for a wedding when the guy (or in this case, girl) hasn’t even proposed!

I can’t help but be reminded of the J. Walter Weatherman “lessons” George Bluth taught his kids on Arrested Development. Instead of “And THAT’S why you always leave a note!”, it would be “And THAT’S why you always have your manuscript ready for submission!”

Word count marathon, day 1

From earlier this evening (Friday…I realize that it’s now actually Saturday morning):

Starting word count: 251,218

Ending word count after revising Chapters 1 through 4: 248,678

# words cut: 2,540

There are 68 chapters in the book. If I can keep the same pace of cutting rougjly 2,500 words per 4 chapters (or 625 words per chapter, for the math challenged in the audience), I’ll be able to trim 42,500 words from my manuscript. I’d still need to trim another 10,000 words (roughly) to reach my goal, but this suddenly doesn’t seem as Sisyphean as it did. I’m still going to have to cut out a sizeable piece of the narrative somewhere to get that 10,000 word chunk, but that’s looking a lot more attractive than the 4 or 5 chunks I though I was going to have to get rid of before today. Or yesterday. Whatever.

I’m going to have to pick up the pace this weekend, though, if I’m going to get through this. And I’m still working on my pitch paragraph, so I have some a big task ahead of me.

a little lesson on being prepared

I am on a Surprise!Writer’s Retreat. Well, technically it’s not a retreat since I’m at home, but I’ve taken today and tomorrow off work, and my home is pretty fabulous so it could be considered a retreat. The Surprise! part is because I wasn’t actually planning to do it until Monday.

The catalyst was an announcement by agent Kristen Nelson last week that she would be hosting a webinar titled “How to Write and Sell Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels”, a 90 minute pitch and query workshop through Writers’ Digest geared specifically toward science fiction and fantasy novels. Not only is the topic exactly what I need, Agent Kristen is my dream agent. I’ve been following her blog for years and if I were so lucky to get representation by her or her colleague, Sara Megibow, it would seriously be almost as good as getting published. (They focus on women authors! And in more than just the usual “women’s fiction” genres! And they love sf&f! And they’re specifically seeking more sf&f to represent! I mean really.) The kicker of the whole thing? The webinar package includes the opportunity to send my pitch paragraph to Kristen/Sara for critique! (And maybe resulting in a request for sample pages…but I dare not hope….)

The webinar was scheduled for the middle of the morning today, which would require taking some time off work; a no-brainer, but I was thinking maybe I should take the whole day off. And then I started thinking maybe I should take tomorrow off, too, and give myself the kind of time to write I haven’t had in awhile. But there’s a lot on my plate at work and being gone for two days on such short notice isn’t something I could take lightly.

Monday, however, I decided to go ahead. It would mean scrambling to get some things done that I absolutely needed to for work, but I could do it. And so I did.

So I’ve just finished the webinar a little bit ago, and it was so, so worth it. Some of the information was what I’d already learned about how to write a pitch paragraph and the dos and don’ts of queries. Even so, having it presented by an agent in a discussion format helped clarify the ins and outs considerably. And I did learn several new things.

The biggest: that the plot catalyst I’d identified, which is what you use to build your pitch around, wasn’t quite the right plot point. That I had the right sequence identified, but the real catalyst is just a bit later in that sequence than I initially identified. That revelation alone was worth the price of admission.

In other, not so great news: I got confirmation that my worries about the word count are well-founded. I have to really trim to get my foot in the door. I’m at a loss there, but it simply has to be done so I’ll have to figure it out.

Which brings me to my lesson for today: be prepared. I have until the end of the day next Friday to submit my pitch paragraph. My favorite literary agency has just offered their advice on how to nail a query, and I have the opportunity to get their critique. I get to, in essence, pitch my book to them. If it’s good enough, it may prompt them to request further submission of my first 30 pages. This agency has a reputation for representing female authors across many genres. Very successfully. They have specifically said they are looking to expand their sf&f portfolio, an announcement agencies don’t make very often, and certainly not for those genres. I have a finished manuscript for an epic fantasy with a strong female protagonist.

But.

Although my manuscript is finished, the final pass isn’t. (Not for lack of desire, but because life has happened in the 4 months since I was last able to work on it.) It’s been revised many, many times, but this final pass has been incredibly helpful in tightening it up further. And I’ve been aware of the word count issue but stalled on where I can realistically make the big trims that need to happen.

So even though neither of these things will prevent me from submitting my pitch paragraph for critique, I’d be in an even better position than I already am if I had those two things done.

I will be spending the next eight days on my pitch, as well as taking a close, hard look at what I could trim to get the story down by at least 20%. (As I’ve said before, not just for the sake of cutting things out, but to make the story tighter.) I’m excited and determined. Wish me luck.

On women's fashions in an imaginary world, and AU crossover fic possibilities

Oh my, how has it been more than a month since I last posted? Well, it’s summer, and of course busy. I’m behind on everything, including writing, unfortunately. It goes like that sometimes. Sigh.

I have a long post percolating about e-books and another about self-publishing, but haven’t even started writing them yet, so who knows if I’ll get to them or not. In the meantime, here’s a little something to put a smile in your day.

The setup: Cat was giving me feedback on Chapter 16, which included the scene where Grant, Lucius, and Tatiana go undercover, so to speak. As tends to be the case in our online exchanges, hilarity ensued.

Cat: I find it oddly endearing and hilarious that both Grant and Lucius have a sense of nice women’s wear.

Me: Inorite? Can you see them at the seamstress, picking out fabrics for her? Grant would be all, “You’re a winter, orange is not flattering on you. No, that pink is hideous and satin is for prostitutes. Put it back.” And Lucius would be, “Now, Grant…if she likes the pink, let her try it on. It might look better off the hanger. Oh Tatiana, dear, you need better undergarments if you’re to pull that one off. Foundations, dear, foundations.”

Cat: OMG *dies* Grant and Lucius host a very special edition of What Not to Wear…in HELL.

Me: YES THIS! Tatiana would like some dress not realizing it has a low cut bodice, and Grant’s all, “Sorry, but no. You don’t have the bosom for that.” And she’d be all embarrassed but rather than admit that, she’d get mad at him and tell him to go suck a goat, and he’d be like, “For someone who doesn’t want to dress like a whore, you sure talk like one.” Lucius would have to break it up by distracting her with pretty lace gloves, and then a dress with lots of lacy ruffles would catch her eye and she’d be, “OOOH PRETTY” and then “SHUT UP GRANT IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE YOUR GRANDMOTHER’S DOILIES VOMITED ALL OVER IT!” Oh man. Now I have a whole new series to write.

Cat: Let the fanfiction begin….!!!!

Sidetracked

The story of my life these days. Work, life, and a different (almost finished) project have taken my time since I finished the synopsis, and I’m both okay and not okay with that. What can I say, I’m a complicated creature.

The other, almost finished project, will feel like a weight off my shoulders when it’s done, so in that sense, I’m glad to be focusing on that at the moment. But my preference is always to be writing, and the fact that I haven’t done any work on either Book 1 revisions or Book 2 writing is stressful to me.

And then there’s work, of course. Ever present work. Thankfultohaveajob, thankfultohaveajob, thankfultohaveajob. My mantra these days, like anyone else who’s employed. My job may not be my preferred way to spend my time, but it does make other things possible that I rather like — food, shelter, the occassional trip to the coast.

Sigh. It’s a juggling act, like anything else.

Late night update

Synopsis is done, bitchez!!

Well, the first draft, anyway. Numbering 20 pages and over 7,500 words — because I am apparently genetically incapable of brevity — it will need to be trimmed down by at least a third, if possible. But not tonight. Tonight, I celebrate.

(And apparently, taking time out earlier today to post my random thoughts really did allow my poor little brain hamsters to concentrate. So…yay?)