Raven's View

It seems ironic to take time out from editing to write about no editing, but here we are. I'd hoped to have my editing of Novel #2 done by month end, so that I could send it to Beta readers. Not finished with February yet, but definitely not finished with editing. It also took me ages to do the first book, and now it seems I have even more things I want to check, and even higher expectations of myself. Lots of reasons it seems to check email and Facebook, read other books, watch the Olympics (OK, that was pretty awesome, Canada did great), watch re-runs of old TV shows, listen to drunks rambling on in bars. Not all a loss, as I did finish another pass through it this week, looking mainly at plot lines, and did feel I had accomplished something. But - several more passes needed, and progress is much too slow.

For now I've decided to take a break and review the first novel, to ensure I am consistent. I had outlines for characters and setting and plot when I started writing it, now I'll go through and see how much of that actually got into the book.  I'll try that off-line too, with a paperback copy, pen, and notebook. Maybe that will minimize the distractions. After that, I'll see how I can build on those things in the second one. Time to set up kitchen table editing spot again - a different spot may help.

Haven't signed in for a couple of week, mainly because I seem to have been doing much less editing and much more stuff.

Here's my status:

• Publishing

• Editing second novel, KL-2, still. Looking at plot lines and character arcs and seeing how each scene contributes. If it doesn't - change or die!  Researching some details of police procedure too. 

• Marketing of first book, KL-1. Played around with a couple of Facebook Post Promotions on my book's page. Got the posts to a lot of eyes fairly cheaply but not sure how to leverage that into actual book sales. To date - about 100 paperbacks sold, ones and twos face to face, as well as four to library. Ebooks via Kindle, Smashwords, and XinXii - 5. 

• Other DVP stuff - did a Beta read for one of our authors. 

Now that the worry of finding an agent is gone, I've been getting more into the editing of novel #2, the sequel to Kirk's Landing.  I've been using the Story Chart method I mentioned in a previous post, figuring out what the main plot lines are. I also looked at the various POV's I used, to see who's perspective I needed. Apparently pretty well everybody's. In novel #1 I had 5 POV's, mostly the protagonist and his girlfriend. This time I managed to include 10, starting with the protagonist, then the antagonist, then another 8 = some with only one brief scene. I did manage the transitions well, but will need to re-examine the main plots and decide what POV's are needed to develop each one. 

And - see photo - that's me checking out,from the local library, a copy of a book I wrote! Such a nice feeling.