Raven's View

I'm not doing many other writerly things, but I am still editing. Yay! Doing my 4/25 minute sessions every day, and slowly whittling away at this. The high level looks pretty good now, so I've started going through scene by scene. I've only done about 10,000 of 85,000 words, but it's progress.

In other news:

• I did my book club reviews for No Great Mischief and Winter Garden. We enjoyed them both. Our next book is This Changes Everything. I've started a couple of times, but need to try earlier in the day I think, when I can focus better.  
• I had some grandchild visits.
• Tenants upstairs are leaving, so I'm considering moving up. Better place, but more expensive. 
• I've built a new deck for Wargame and am slowly learning more about the game. I'm slow at the hand-eye thing though.
• It's warmer now. We hardly ever get frost at night. 

This is yesterday's post, as I got distracted last night playing Wargame. But - I did get my editing done first!!

I'm still hitting my 4 x 25 min goal each day, eventually. I have a list of Beta reader suggestions I'm using to adjust things, and eventually will do a scene/sequel scan for fine tuning. I actually feel this time that I'm making some progress.

Sunday was our first nice patio day, 17C, so I finished at 3, slapped on some sunscreen, and headed over to my local. So nice to chat and joke with friends. Around supper time the sun 'sets' behind a nearby condo, so that's it for the patio this time of year. Today is to be 21C, so will be  heading out again - maybe for the coffee shop this time. I have a SciFi/Fantasy critique group meeting tonight, and need to review some pieces for other members. It will be nice to sit in the sun with some print-outs and a red pen and enjoy my 'hood. 

My new modest plan seems to be working. My goal is for a minimum of four 25 minute editing sessions a day. I've done that for three days so far, which is a good thing. Sometimes it's by 2 pm, sometimes by 5. I'll work on timing after. Even with this very modest start/restart, I can see some changes. I'm working my way through, scene by scene, deciding which is a 'scene' and which is a 'sequel'. 'Scenes' get goal-conflict-resolution looked at, while for 'sequels' it's reaction-dilemma-decision. I'm also looking at dialogue vs exposition, and description. I've a list of suggestions from beta readers too, to remind be to add/delete as I come to the spot. And, finally, I run each scene through a basic editing program, Master Edit.  

Once the above is done, I'll need to decide on chapter breaks and do some fine tuning, but it should be ready to find an editor for a final check. Then it's find-a-publisher time. 

In other news: son and family were over for Easter, spring (and outside patios) is here, as is wandering the 'hood, I continue to be challenged with the game War Games, and catching up on some reading. 

Once more into the breach, dear friends. Yet another ROW80, yet another resolve to get done with my editing of novel #2. I mentioned a while ago that I'd try the elephant eating technique, as in one bite at a time. And I'll use a Pomodoro timer to track my progress. My goal is at least four 25 minute sessions a day - no matter how long it takes me to get them done. Early would be better, but I'll sneak up on that gradually. At this rate I have no idea how long this pass will take, or how many more I will need, but I will at least see progress. 

For technique, I read Hooked and am now half way through Scene and Structure. Both focus especially on opens My openings are usually pretty good, but these are helping me improve this even more, focusing on my protagonist's status quo, what shakes it up, and what his story worthy problem is. In addition, I hope to improve my scenes on with a clearer goal, conflict, and resolution. Plus the in-between's, the sequels, but I haven't got to that part of the book yet.

My distractions will continue to be online TV series, video-gaming with my son, reading, grandkids, friends in cafes and pubs, and a new one - outdoors. Spring is finally here.