Slowly but Surely, the Process Moves Forward

It's been a little while since I posted, so I think it's time to give an update on my progress, and the process I went through to get here.

2010 and Prior -Wrote the "Shitty First Draft" (SFD)
The SFD took me a long time, about two years.  Of course, I was/am a new writer, still figuring everything out (I'd only seriously been writing for about a year prior to starting 'Pack'.)  About six months (and 35,000 words) into the first version, I decided to rewrite everything.  The premise was the same, but the cast and initial setup was completely different.  The only character I kept was my protagonist, Laila.  Even then, I didn't really know what I was doing, and kept going back and changing things around, so I chalk up most of the two years to newbie mistakes and the learning curve.  The next one won't take nearly so long.  I hope.  :-)

January - SFD Complete
My first draft was not good.  The basic concept was written, the characters were more-or-less developed, and the overall content was laid out, but it wasn't anywhere close to being published.  Which was fine.  It's accepted wisdom that the first draft should be shitty.  The author needs to write the first draft as fast and as creatively as possible, without letting the internal critic slow the process down.  The critic is allowed out to play during the editing process, and that's when you start to have a publishable story.

February/March - Prepared for Beta Readers
This was the first round of edits, and to be fair, I really went through the manuscript two or three times before I sent it out to anyone to read in full.  (I'd asked for some feedback on certain sections, but ultimately I decided it wasn't worthwhile to share the novel in bits and pieces.)  Even after the edits, the manuscript wasn't perfect.  I knew it wasn't ready to go out into the world, but I wasn't able to see what needed to change.  Luckily, that's what beta readers are for.

April - Break month.
I sent the complete manuscript to several people to read and give me feedback (my beta readers).  These were people that I trusted to give honest, constructive criticism, and they did a great job for me.  They all found aspects of the story that they liked, as well as things that needed to be fixed or changed to improve the clarity and cohesiveness of the story.  In particular, I found out I'm not so good at the description.  Which is great (okay, not great that I suck at providing enough setting and description, but great that now I know I suck at it, so I can pay more attention to it in the future, and fix my problems).

Meanwhile I took a break from 'Pack'.  I worked on other things, most time-consuming of which was my day job (it was my busy season). But more importantly, I needed to put some distance between the manuscript and me.  In order to see the flaws, I had to be able to read with fresh eyes, and a new perspective.  I couldn't be so wrapped up in the story that I took all of the criticism personally.  

May - Paper Review
First, I read through an unedited version of the manuscript, making my own edits on paper.  I called this the Master Copy.  Then I read through each beta reader's comments on their version of the paper copy, adding the changes and comments I agreed with to the Master Copy.  Each beta got their own color of pen in the Master as well, so I could keep track of who said what.  Have I mentioned before that I'm a bit of a Type A nerd?  Anyway, I managed to get all of that done for all five copies of the manuscript, despite the fact that I was still swamped at work and busy with personal things on the weekends. 

June (forecasted) - Finish Major Rewrites
My goal this month is to finish incorporating the written edits into the digital file, so that I have a completed work of fiction by July 1.  I think it's doable, but I will have to knuckle down and work hard to get there.  I need to add a couple of scenes, revise the ending, and generally make a lot of changes.  But I really think it's coming along.  Once the major rewrites are done, I'm going to send it to a couple more people to read, to see if it's (finally) ready to go out the door.

In the end, this has been a long and involved process.  Now that I've gone through it (or will have gone through it soon) I'll do better on the next novel.  I now know where I tend to get stuck, and what steps I'll have to go through to get it all finished.  Plus, I'm a much better writer now than I was when I started, so the SFD should go faster next time.  

I want to emphasize, however, that the writing process takes as long as it needs to take.  I'm not going to rush through everything and send a piece of crap out into the world.  If I need to go through another round of edits on 'Pack' to make the story sparkle, I will.  Good things are worth waiting (and working) for.

Favorite lines from 'Pack'

I'm back at it, working on the revisions to Pack based on my beta reader feedback.  So far, I'm really pleased with what everyone has said, and while there's still a ton of work to do (it seems never-ending) I think I'm at least on the right track.

But today, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite lines from the story.  Enjoy!

***

We kept up the pace for a couple hours, finally stopping for a break when my stomach growled so loudly that even Erik heard it.

"Hungry?" he asked.

"No, I think I'll wait to see if my stomach can eat my spine."

***

Teeth the size of paring knives glinted in a vicious snarl.

***

"No," I said firmly, trying to imagine the wolves were just misbehaving Labradors.

***

I watched as the first of the haggard looking buildings passed my window.  Faded and peeling red paint graced its walls, while slightly crooked steps led up to the sagging front porch.  The windows were clean though, and well-dressed mannequins advertised modern clothing inside.  The next building was equally dilapidated, and the sign over the door simply read Bar.

***

"How's the training going?" Sarah asked, as I gracelessly threw myself into a chair.

"I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow, probably sore tonight, and maybe even sore before lunch is over," I replied.

***