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So last week, I spent time flying and visiting. Specifically, Utah and Las Vegas.
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Chicago on Plane #1 |
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Nevada/Utah Border on Shuttle #1 |
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The Garden Center in Utah: at least someone's having a spring! |
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Trying on hats while dad looked for bubbler parts |
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Beating Draft 4 into Submission |
Draft 4 is an interesting draft. Why?
1) I interview the story with my six-page, single-spaced list of questions I've compiled from 10-20 writing books, including Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!, Robert McCall's Story, Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel and The Fire Within, James Scott Bell's Writing From the Middle, and Elizabeth George's Write Away.
2) I then insert those answers into the story, but cryptically. For instance, if I need a person to have their "Mirror Moment," discussed by James Scott Bell, I don't try to write that scene. I instead just write "Mirror Moment" where I think it will have the most impact.
3) I take out those pieces of dialogue and exposition that stand out like sore, horrible troll thumbs. No mercy!
4) I write my revisions in highlighter. It limits how much you can write, with that thick of a tip!
5) Writing down the revision is only half of it. INPUTTING it is the other half. Maybe the other 65%, since I haven't actually written how I want to revise certain things. Instead, I have notes like "Insert Mirror Moment" and "Transition Needed" and "Make Her Nice Here."
6) This process takes the longest but it is the most fantastically helpful to my story.
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After Draft 4, I rewarded myself. |
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And I rewarded myself again (mine is the banana one--Mom had the other one). |
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And again--the frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3 in Vegas. |
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Hello. I'll just look at you and call it good. |
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The causeway between The Flamingo and The Linq |
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Back home to my office and The Office |
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Back in the saddle |
But soon enough, I got back into the swing of things. I sent my story to my editor and started working on The Next Story. I got two days with it before the 12,000-word Short Story That Turned into a Novella came back for the next few rounds of revisions (Draft 6 and Draft 7 and then a proofread that makes it Draft 8).
Today, I'm in the middle of Draft 7; the changes have been noted in my Kindle app, and now I have 152 changes to make onto my Word Doc.
Yes, 152. Just because it's Draft 7 doesn't mean you let up on yourself. A marathon runner, after all, doesn't walk across the finish line.
At least, not a good one. ;o)

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-Sydney