Howdy,
Super exciting news! I just finished the rough draft of book two in The Allison Lee Chronicles this past weekend––October 9, 2021, to be exact. I originally planned/hoped to have the rough draft buttoned up before the end of September. Honestly, I feel pretty good about where I'm at right now. I think finishing up within a fortnight or so of the deadline is within the margin of error. What kept me from hitting my self-imposed deadline? I suppose life in general and the story taking several more scenes to complete than I expected. For months I forecasted the novel would be 50 chapters; I ended up with 55. When the editing is all done, I suspect I'll be around 47 chapters. Read on to find out how I arrived at that number of chapters.
Here are the vital statistics:
· Rough draft approximate length: 107,000 words
· Average scene length: 1,945 words
· Goal Length of the finished manuscript: 90,000 words
· Words to cut: approximately 17,000
17,000 words equate to roughly 8.7 chapters. That's not too bad, really. Dragons Walk Among Us is a hair under 90,000 words, which seems like a desirable word count for a young adult novel. I'd like book two to be about the same length, give or take a few thousand words.
So what's my plan for editing the rough draft for submission to my publisher? Well, I learned quite a bit polishing up Allison Lee's first adventure. Applying lessons learned, here's the plan, however imperfect, to take book two from zirconia to diamond.
1. Complete read through, noting scenes to combine, cut, or add.
2. Add scenes where identified.
3. Weave themes into the scenes.
4. Fine edit
a. Read through
b. Listen through (as in listening computer read it to me)
c. Read through
5. Edit specific aspects of writing
a. Dialogue
b. Description
c. Interior monologue
6. Final read
Hopefully, by the time I finish step six, I'll have a sparkling manuscript ready for submission. But who the hell knows, am I right? This leaves one last question. How long will it take to edit Miss Lee's new adventure? The short answer is probably longer than I expect. An even shorter answer: March 2022. Without further ado, let the real work begin!
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