I Finished Draft #9

Notice I didn't say the final draft.  It's harder and harder to keep plowing the same field. But every time I go back over The Energy Collector, I find another rock I missed the last time around.  Yet that's what is required.  What a relief to sit back and say, at least for today, it's finished.

Am I Done Yet?

It's not over til it's over.

What I'm beginning to realize is that you're never finished. I would imagine even after a book has been published, an author wants to scream - give me back all 50,000 copies! I have one more change I want to make! Do you ever want to stop tweaking your creations?  I know I still try to tweak the most important of my creations, my children. Stand up straight, honey. Don't frown. He's not right for you. And on and on.

Same with these books. I can't stop and I can't let go. Maybe rewriting your book is a substitute for not being able to rewrite your own life. Are the people in novels our alter egos? Probably. Karen my soul mate and main character in three books is a lot of the things I want to be. For one, she's thin; another, she is fearless, another, she has a lot of hair.

Today I finish the final draft of The Energy Collector, again. Tomorrow is another thing.

Sharon

Eyeballs on Your Manuscript

I don't have any editors in my family, or authors, or publishers or English teachers.  But I do have very bright children and grandchildren who like to read.  You may have some resources like that available to you too.  Ask them to read your manuscript.

Of course you know they will either be too kind, or too critical.  But this is what getting some eyeballs on your manuscript will do for you:  identify typos; point out inconsistencies;  clarify weak story lines, just for starters.  By the questions they ask you may realize where you have more work to do.

My daughters just finished reading the  latest draft of my first novel, working title, The Energy Collector.  They had good suggestions on pacing, inconsistencies and incomplete story threads.  And they caught stupid mistakes too.  For some reason, when I want to type quick, I've been typing quit.  What's that about?  Is there a message there?  Forget about it!  I'm not going to quit.  The trouble with Word is that it will notify you of  misspellings, but not usage errors.  Don't give an agent or publisher the least excuse to throw your beautiful manuscript down in disgust.

Tomorrow is literary agent day.  Oh goody.

Sharon