It’s March and I’m declaring WAR…on my Manuscript!
Did you know that March was named after Mars, the Roman god of war? Well, this month I’m declaring war…on my manuscript! After going through a few drafts, there are a couple of things I need to revise:
1) The overall story needs to be consistent and a lot more simplified so that it can stand [...]
Revisions Update and a Look at 2010
Hi folks,
In December, I focused on the revisions for ARGENTUM through a December Writing Marathon that I had come up with. December was an extraordinarily busy month for several reasons, including a few additional projects that I did not expect to come up. Even though I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to, [...]
New Outline and December Writing Marathon
Hi Folks,
The first three chapters are typically part of the query letter package for an agent. Concerned that I was getting off-target with the revisions, I threw together the revisions and got some feedback. When I did, I discovered two things:
1) I have created a big. damn. world.
2) My story lost its focus.
I spent some [...]
The Inspiration Behind Huginn
Dear Readers,
I thought you might get a kick out of this particular webcomic, since it’s about Huginn. If you remember, Huginn is Serafina’s escort back to the Realm so she can have a “chat” with Mitra. As a shape-shifting raven, Huginn can travel freely between the worlds without fear of a mortal noticing him. [...]
The Mechanics of Revising: Font, Copy and Paste
After I got all excited about my spectacular “Chapter One,” I ended up revising a short story that needed some work and stumbled across different submission guidelines for various markets. I took one look at the formatting guidelines and went… “Uh-oh…ARGENTUM does not look like that…”
So, I went ahead and formatted it differently using a [...]
Dear Monica: Why Are The Revisions Taking So Long?
When I started working on revisions for the novel back in the Spring, I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments in my schedule.
Before I started ARGENTUM, I often worked on a contract basis, which meant that someone handed me a contract and I said, “Okay, I’ll write for you.” Then, [...]
Chapter One (Otherwise Known As the Zombie Chapter)
If you’ve been following along as I wade through revisions, you might have heard me talking about how I keep going back to Chapter One.
Well, I went back to it again. And again. And again.
Why?
When I re-read the chapter, I felt like I was puking information on the page instead of telling you [...]
What’s in a Memory?
If you’ve read part of the first draft for ARGENTUM, you know that the book is structured in a chapter and chapter break format. In between the main storyline, you’ll read one of Serafina’s memories.
As part of my revisions, I’m incorporating the memories a little bit more into the story when it’s appropriate. Not every [...]
Goodbye Chapter One, I’ll Miss You
I feel like I turned a corner this past weekend, because the last two weeks have been…painful. I knew I needed to change the verb tense of my exposition from present to past, but I wasn’t sure how that was going to work for the beginning of the story.
Instead of opening the novel with [...]
Knee-Deep in the Second Draft
So part of what I talked about before, when I mentioned a little bit about the revision process for Argentum, was the idea that I should change the story’s verb tense. Writing in first person with a present tense is somewhat challenging because the main character can have that “deer in headlights” perspective. At some [...]
