I find myself with a largely unexpected, mid-week snowday, and even though we just came off a long weekend, it is still greatly appreciated. It was nice to sit at the table and drink a cup of tea while I ate breakfast. Usually the tea has to wait until I’m at work.
The rest of the day has been just as relaxing. My other half is napping (and trying to recover from a cold), so I’ve set up shop with my laptop and another cup of tea at the dining table. Unfortunately, due to a recovering from foot surgery, getting downstairs to the study isn’t overly feasible… and the study isn’t really set up yet (also largely due to recovering from said surgery). That said, yay for dining tables and the proximity they provide to things like hot tea.
On the plan for today is typing up some of my edits for my first book. I’m doing this by actually retyping each page of my draft, inserting the notes and revisions I’ve marked on my printed draft. I wish I could claim credit for the idea, but it was something I had seen on the internet a few times over the years. It is a slow process, but it does seem to be worth doing.
It is easier to change words, sentences, and even paragraphs when you are typing. And even though I’ve made word-for-word notes of dialogue and descriptions to change or add, that doesn’t mean that this typing is simply copying new words off a page. As I mull the ideas around in my mind, I can look at a passage and find things to change each time I see it. I do think I am slowly developing my own process, though.
My process for my series currently seems to be as follows:
- Timeline the next book
- Draft the book NaNo style (using NaNoWriMo’s general guideline of 50,000 words in 30 days)
- Print out 3 copies of that first draft (one each for me and my other half to do initial notes and impressions on the draft, and one draft for my overall revisions based on those notes)
- Retype that now-revised draft
- Do a final re-read of the new draft
- Send the new draft to beta readers.
Currently I’m on step four for book one, and have finished step two for book three. The process may need altered as time goes by, but it seems to be an good place to start. I have discovered that a timeline (complete with story details) is quite beneficial for me. I have also noticed that the NaNo method of having a set goal and a set deadline is useful for first drafts. This is true even outside of November. It is often said that with first drafts, most things are going to change anyway.
So I have decided, why invest more time and words toward the first draft than I need to. For me, 50,000 words in 30 days seems to be a good balance as long as i make sure I fit the full scope of the story (beginning, middle, and end) in. It does mean certain things may not be fleshed out fully, but they do at least provide some discussion points for the next step in the process.
For now, I’m going to get back to my tea and edits.
What are your favorite snow day activities? Do you have a process you follow for your WIPs (works in progress)? I would love to hear from you.
~ Theresa
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