Battling the Blank Page

I have piles of editing to do, but I also need to keep up with my writing group.  So this week's push was to write two chapters.  Yes, just two.  And I just couldn't figure out what to write next that didn't repeat all that had gone on before.  So I'd write two or three lines to nudge the action forward then stop and stare at the screen.  I'm just not an outliner.  It works best for me to brainstorm a bit before I sit to write just so I know what's about to happen, then I sit and write.  But I haven't brainstormed recently.  So that blank page loomed large all week.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place, which was go to my brain trust.  It's a middle-grade fiction book, so I took my questions to my middle-grade kids.  What happens next?  They came up with a forward pathway right away.  Duh.  When all else fails, do the obvious: brainstorm.  Talk it through.  And that, my friends, is the path through the cold, white desolation of the blank page.

Seeking Motivation

                                                          (Time slipping by)

Every day, I mean to write in a meaningful way, or at least to use the feedback the editor sent.  Every day, it gets late by the time I finish everything else, and I only end up writing a bit on my middle-grade fiction novel or editing the sequel because it's less stressful and easier to take in small chunks.  And by the time I got to the end of the week and had a bit more time to myself, I was having vision problems...I was having a hard time seeing myself staring at a computer a moment longer than I had to.  When I was done with obligations, I was burned out from grading papers for teaching, answering emails, and doing all the other necessary functions as an online instructor.  I think I'll need to print the thing out, just to move forward with it.

This is the last big step before I can try to publish again.  I can do this.  Maybe I need to offer myself ice cream or a movie when I get it done because the ticking clock sure isn't helping.   Man, I'm so tired of editing.  I just want to write again.

The Editor's Review

So as I expected, the editor's review of my manuscript is a mixed bag.  I haven't had the chance to go over more than just the overview.  Much of it is very, very positive.  But there's still a long list of stuff I need to work on.  She didn't immediately discount my characters as unlikeable as at least one of my readers did, but she did give me pointers about how to make them more likeable, which is helpful.  I will have to go through the line by line suggestions.  I'm sure there is much from which I can learn.  And much work to do.

Sigh.  There is no such thing as a manuscript that is perfect.  I just have to achieve publishability.  That's still going to be a long haul.  But at least I know how I can do it.

Burned out

So much for my habit of writing every day.  I've started teaching 2 sections of an online course with a total of 80 students, 3 rounds of grading per.  It's eaten me alive.  Plus, I've been participating in my writers' group, giving feedback, plus having guests and a million other things.  So I've been writing one paragraph on my middle-grade fiction here and there and doing minimal revising of my sequel to the novel I submitted to the editor for review.  I think part of the issue was I was working so hard for so long on that project that I'm a little burned out.

But in the next few days, I'm supposed to get the editor's review back on my manuscript.  That was fast.  Within short order, I will have those comments plus some I already had to look over and employ on my book.  In the very near future, I will be up to my eyeballs in editing again.  But for now, I've been having vision problem: I've been having a hard time seeing how I could fit writing in and having a worse time finding the ambition to do so.  But that's all going to change momentarily.

Editor!

So the publisher who refused my manuscript suggested I send it to a local paid editor to make sure it's ready to be published.  I did that.  I'm just not giving that same publisher another shot at it.  I will move onto another publisher when it's all polished up and pretty.  If they pass, there's a plan C.  If they pass, I guess it's indie publishing for me until I get picked up somewhere.

This week, I finished polishing it enough to send it to an editor at Eschler Editing.  We chatted for a while, and it's remarkable how human and genuine she sounded.  It made me feel at ease right away. I'll I asked for is to make sure the plot/characters work.  Those seemed to be the greatest issues the publisher had with my work [big ones, it's true].  That kind of edit is really not unreasonably priced.

I'll meanwhile send the new draft to friends and family who already went over it, so they can see the changes and tell me if the newest draft works for them.  So far, I've heard back from my nephew [not the target audience--not LDS, not female, but so far enjoying the book] and his girlfriend, who gratified me by saying I made her cry with it, like the healing kind of cry.  I know I feel better about it already, and I'm thinking after I use the editor's suggestions plus a few of my readers' suggestions, I'll be ready to submit it again.

In the meantime, I'm walking away from that manuscript entirely for a while, so when I see it again, it's once again with fresher eyes, eyes that can see it for what it is rather than for what I imagine it to be.

Again

                                                                                                                                                               

My first novel and second are tied, so whatever I do to one, I have to do to the other.  I have spent the last 2-3 months revising my first novel to be third-person instead of first based on feedback.  I knew this was coming, but I'm still stuck with it.  The second book, Pigs Fly, is only in first-draft but is already close to 80,000 words.  I'm back to the tedious [and long] process of revising the next book to be third-person.  Man, this is going to make me think twice about doing a huge chunk of books one and two before I finalize book one.  Because if editing one such book this way makes me want to pull my hair out until I'm bald, doing the same again makes me want to run screaming for the hills.

But the one thing I don't want to do right now is to even look at book one until I hear back from the editor.  I need a serious break.  And I haven't edited book 2 to death.  It's been really rough drafted, assembled and reorganized, and not much else.  I haven't even read it aloud to my husband, who's one of my best critics.  And it's not so bad to change things up in the tedious way if I'm still editing everything else.  So I guess minutia editing, here I come.

I did it!

Last week, I said I was going to get my major rewrite of my manuscript done.  I worked hard over this last week and one day late, I got it to the editor for recommendations.  I've rarely felt that satisfied as when I finished that.  Few things are quite as tedious as that kind of revision, switching from first to third person.  I know it still needs work.  I got further suggestions from another writer, some of which may match what I hear from an editor.  But I won't mess with any of it until I have it all sitting in front of me.  Then I'll use what works and get it submitted [again] for possible publication.  If this next publisher passes, I'm back and forth between independent publishing and a small publisher.  I don't mind the idea of going indie, though it would be nice to have the name recognition of a publisher for at least my first one.  

Meanwhile, I'm kind of at a loss as to what I should work on next when it comes to writing.  I'd love to just write, but I know that manuscript's sequel/spin-off needs work, too.  I've just been so single-minded for around two months that I haven't been into anything else for a while.  It does feel nice to know I have choices.  It's a good place to be.