Two Years - Five Drafts

Two years ago this month (January 10th to be exact), I started writing, and writing, and writing, and haven't stopped. With no experience whatsoever, I finished a novel in 5 months. I didn't know what else to do at that point but send it out. Yes, I was clueless. It stunk of course, but one agent was nice enough to include some direction in her rejection letter. I researched every piece of advice she'd given me then dug back in. This time I knew the task of writing a good novel was more than I could handle on my own. So, I signed up for a class through Word's Worth Writing Center (www.wordsworthdayton.com). I highly recommend this place! The class was taught by uber talented author Katrina Kittle (www.katrinakittle.com). Draft #2 showed improvement over draft #1. Then more classes and workshops through Word's Worth and Antioch Writer's Workshop (www.antiochwritersworkshop.com) helped drafts #3 and #4 get better still.

A full manuscript read through from some awesome trusted writer friends in November has kept me pecking away at the keyboard for the last couple months working on the biggest revisions yet. Last night, one day ahead of my plan, I finished draft #5. WooHooo! It is still a draft that needs to be smoothed and polished, and it could have more revisions in its future, but I'm one step closer. Yay!

Happy New Year!

I'm so excited to see how far I can take my manuscript in 2013! I received such useful feedback from my beta readers in November and have jumped back in revising, revising, revising. I've decided to go from one POV (Point of View) to at least three, bring in new scenes and include others that were just hinted at before, do some pace corrections and modify the overall tone of the main character. So far, I like it much better but have a lot of work left to do to complete these changes. Thanks Ruthann, Jen, Christina, Cindy, Al, Den and Destany for the wonderful feedback! You've put my story on a better path.

My goal for 2013: Finish all my revisions and polishing, run my manuscript through an editor, flood agents with good, solid query letters, get an agent, GET A BOOK DEAL and bring these characters to life for all to meet!