I am a person who tends to make things harder than they should be. I am rather easy going but hard on myself, I guess. Not hard enough in some areas. I am still not back to my Body for Life program, which I know works for me, and yet my weights sit there staring at me and making me feel guilty. But, what I am talking about today is my book and the ways I deal with things I need to do.
A while ago, I posted about a method I was using to keep track of facts. Since I am envisioning this novel as a five part series, I need to make sure I have laid a foundation in book one for things that happen in other books. That is in addition, to the plot and subplot of book one and wrapping those items up in that book.
It was not working as it was just too complicated. So, I started over and am working with three files open in Word. First, is my book. I have it all formatted now to send, as a Word document, to my Master’s daughter for her edit. She is in charge of catching those things you can read over and over, and since you know what it is supposed to say, you don’t catch the mistake it happens to have in it. That is in addition to: punctuation, tense, and just anything wrong. A big job, I’m sure, for someone who has a full time teaching job. And, she’s not even getting paid for editing either.
Second, I have a document open called outline. In this I place just one liners of the chapter I am editing/reviewing. I will need this when I send in Query letters and am asked for an outline. When Master’s daughter is doing her edit, I will be polishing this outline so it is ready to go out to agent/editor.
The third and final document I have open is titled “Follow up and List-Magic words.” In this I have items I need to remember to reuse/wrap up/etc. This is for this book and the whole series. It includes a list of Magic words used, which are very nominal actually for a fantasy. The reason for that is probably because I am not a “word” person. I do not delight in words for words sake. I love them only when they are put together and form a great story.
A while ago, I posted about a method I was using to keep track of facts. Since I am envisioning this novel as a five part series, I need to make sure I have laid a foundation in book one for things that happen in other books. That is in addition, to the plot and subplot of book one and wrapping those items up in that book.
It was not working as it was just too complicated. So, I started over and am working with three files open in Word. First, is my book. I have it all formatted now to send, as a Word document, to my Master’s daughter for her edit. She is in charge of catching those things you can read over and over, and since you know what it is supposed to say, you don’t catch the mistake it happens to have in it. That is in addition to: punctuation, tense, and just anything wrong. A big job, I’m sure, for someone who has a full time teaching job. And, she’s not even getting paid for editing either.
Second, I have a document open called outline. In this I place just one liners of the chapter I am editing/reviewing. I will need this when I send in Query letters and am asked for an outline. When Master’s daughter is doing her edit, I will be polishing this outline so it is ready to go out to agent/editor.
The third and final document I have open is titled “Follow up and List-Magic words.” In this I have items I need to remember to reuse/wrap up/etc. This is for this book and the whole series. It includes a list of Magic words used, which are very nominal actually for a fantasy. The reason for that is probably because I am not a “word” person. I do not delight in words for words sake. I love them only when they are put together and form a great story.
Knowing my propensity for charts, I will most likely go back and chart this file also so that I know what I need to put into book two, three, four and five from this book. It's all rather in my head but I really do not trust my memory.
So, while you need to do what works for you. You also need to find out what isn’t working for you and let go of it. Happy Labor Day!
So, while you need to do what works for you. You also need to find out what isn’t working for you and let go of it. Happy Labor Day!
2 comments:
Wise advice you've given: "You also need to find out what isn’t working for you and let go of it."
This applies to a lot of life when you think about it!
Yes, it does apply to life. My mother should have had it tatooed backwards on my forehead when I was a kid.
Could have saved me a lot of agony.
As long as I looked in a mirror every few hours.
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