Writing Plan: Week of July 7
I did quite a bit of work this last week on characterization for When Darkness Falls. I’m expanding some of the major secondary characters, and shoring up descriptions and attitudes on the lower echelon vampires in the resident clan at Al Khair. I freely admit I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked, due to several days of chronic pain exacerbation and related sleep issues; however, I’m not beating myself up over that, because this is just part of my life that I sometimes have to work around. I am very pleased about the work I did get done, though! It actually was pretty considerable because I made a keyword for every character in the book, and then went through and flagged every chapter with every character that showed up in it, so I could go back and look at any one character overall as he or she appears through the book (I use Scrivener). This actually took a couple of days working at it full-throttle.
I’m leaving for RWA’s National Conference in Denver on Tues Jul 16th, so this week’s plan is very, very simple: Work on revisions for When Darkness Falls, and prepare for the Conference!
As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a beta reader, I’ve got my process outlined on my Beta Reading Team webpage, along with synopses of the manuscripts currently available for beta reading.
Manuscript Status:
- Finished Manuscripts, professional copy editing done:
- WISHES IN A BOTTLE, 1st book of Wishes & Dreams 3-book series*
- SWANSONG; 1st book of Sons of the Desert 4-book series*
- CASTLES IN THE SAND; 2nd book of Sons of the Desert*
- Finished Manuscripts, waiting on copy editing:
- In Beta Reading:
- A GIFT OF JACINTH, 2nd book of Wishes & Dreams
- A CAT FOR TROY, 3rd book of Wishes & Dreams
- Finished Manuscripts, major revisions in progress prior to 2nd round of beta reading:
- WHEN DARKNESS FALLS*
- In-Progress Manuscripts:
- MICHAEL’S QUEST, 3rd book of Sons of the Desert
Submissions Status:
- Currently outstanding:
- Literary Agent queries for Wishes in a Bottle
- Literary Agent partial for A Gift of Jacinth
Synopsis, Blurb & Pitch: All finished manuscripts have these, except as noted below:
- Blurb/1-paragraph summation for query letter (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
- 2-page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS)
- 5-10 page synopsis (Needed: A CAT FOR TROY)
- 1-sentence pitch for agent submissions who require this
- 280-character pitch for Twitter pitch events
THE WRITING PLAN: (not in any particular order except as indicated)
- WHEN DARKNESS FALLS (current word count: 196,532/240,000) (don’t panic, it’s a trilogy):
- Characterization expansion on some of the major secondary characters, particularly Damien’s Commander, Aleksei (due to the screams of “more!” from my beta readers, and his (Damien’s) demon half-sister Kayja (ditto screams) as well as Maxim, the High Magi. Plus just a little more on some of the Viziers of Sultana’s Court, to kind of punctuate their roles. Also Gabrielle and Antonio.
- Work with Chrissy (Darling Daughter and best brainstormer!) on brainstorming needed revisions
- Go through beta reader feedback for the more extensive issues/fixes
- Go to My RWA and print out the schedule of events for the conference, and put in a binder (Done)
- Speed Pitch Event:
- Go through the list of editors and agents in my assigned room and see what each is looking for (Done)
- Choose a manuscript and back-up to pitch for each
- Choose a backup manuscript to pitch for each
- Figure out what to say to the 3 agents who aren’t looking for any subgenre I write
- Keep working up a list of questions for the Industry Marketplace event
- Watch for any changes to the schedule and incorporate
- Create a quick-look schedule for each day with those events I particularly want highlighted
- Print out workshop schedules, and identify those I want to be sure to attend (Done)
- Speed Pitch Event:
- A GIFT OF JACINTH
- Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
- CAT FOR TROY:
- Do revisions as needed, as feedback comes in from beta readers
- Work on my new FlickR album that I put together just for fun 🙂