Edits, Revisions, and the Dancing Queen Conundrum

So, last month, one of my big goals was to complete the two manuscript read-throughs (side note: I really hate that there’s a hyphen in ‘read-throughs’. I keep wanting to spell it as one word sans hyphen—and have actually done so on a couple of occasions when I was irrationally irritated by the presence of the hyphen—because I just really hate how it looks. It doesn’t seem like it really needs to be there. So I hate it. But that’s it. That’s all I’m going to say about it. But I guess I just thought you should know.)

What was I talking about before the hyphen side note?

Oh right. Last month, I wanted to finish the manuscript read-throughs I had started for Full Circle (the third book in my fantasy series) and Terrible Romance Sequel (the second book in my contemporary romance series). Which meant I was reading both manuscripts out loud while compiling a list of notes, corrections, and changes to be dealt with after the fact.

And I actually did it. Finished the read-throughs, I mean. So I started in on applying the changes and corrections and whatever else I decided needed to be addressed.

This is how it started/how it’s going:

Terrible Romance Sequel

So, I made a chart to help me track my progress. (And yes, if you follow me on social media, you may have seen these pics/read this part before.) Each number represents a page of the manuscript. A colored-in square represents a completed page—meaning, I finished making any and all changes I wanted to make on that specific page. Each color used represents a different day.

I started with the easiest stuff—missing words, commas, typos, etc. Stuff that didn’t require any thought to fix it, hence the gigantic block of teal you see in this first pic, taken at the end of my first day of work:

This is the chart headed into the second week. It really looks so much more impressive than it actually is because, again, I was still working on the easy stuff for most of the week. You can tell, though, that things were getting harder/more time consuming toward the end because those two shades of blue are not well represented.

Here’s the chart coming into the current week. Again, some progress was made, but not a lot, as life derailed things mid-week the way it sometimes does. Also, now I’m completely out of easy stuff to fix and all that remains are the major changes. I’m down here in Rewrite City, and it’s lovely here this time of year. (I mean, it isn’t really. It’s a real slog, but the end product will, I hope, make all the effort worthwhile.)

I’m attempting to finish up these remaining revisions on this project this week. I don’t think that’s particularly likely because, again, everything that’s left is so much more time consuming and requires a lot more brain power and creativity, and I honestly think my creativity has gone on hiatus or something, but I’m still going to try.

We’ll see how it goes.

Full Circle

I’ve been working on these revisions as well, and I even made a handy chart for this project, too. Because this manuscript is sooooooo much longer than Terrible Romance Sequel, I went with chapters rather than individual pages.

I also haven’t worked on this project as much as the other, so this chart represents five days of actual attention, versus nine days on Terrible Romance Sequel.

I’m working through some time-consuming things here. And some really weird, tedious stuff, too. Like, one character had some daggers at the beginning of the book that kept magically disappearing and reappearing and changing in number, and I hadn’t caught that before, so I had to go through the manuscript to create a weapons tracker, which I think is a first for me.

I also have a subplot that still feels very flat to me, so I’m trying to brainstorm some possible fixes there.

The villain arc, at least, feels like it’s now going in the right direction. There may be some more adjustments to come, but I’m happier with it now than before.

And then there’s the Dancing Queen conundrum.

So, if you have read my books (and thank you, if you have—the effort is much appreciated!), you may have noticed my tendency to write a reference to ABBA’s song Dancing Queen into each and every one of them. (Well, the novels, anyway. I somehow did not manage to write a single haiku about Dancing Queen, which is so strange, given than any time I was in charge of the music at the store, this song was most certainly in the rotation—a fact that, I’m sure, my co-workers not only enjoyed but delighted in. I can only assume I was too busy dancing to said song to write a haiku.)

But so far there is no Dancing Queen reference in Full Circle. (I mean, technically there is because there is a scene where the queen dances, but I did that already in Effigy because none of the characters were cultured enough to know what ABBA is, and I don’t want to repeat myself.)

It has been proposed by a writing bestie that the reason why I remain unhappy with this manuscript is the fact that I do not have a satisfactory (to me) reference within its pages. I have considered this possibility, and I cannot dismiss it. Obviously, I’m not going to force a reference in somewhere. If one doesn’t fit, then Full Circle will break the reference streak. But maybe while I’m tracking weapons and inflating flat subplots, I just may find the perfect place for the perfect reference.

So that’s what’s going on in my neck of the woods. What are you working on these days? (Note: ‘Just getting through the damn day’ is most definitely an acceptable answer. I have plenty of those days myself.)

Thanks for stopping by today. It’s much appreciated.

Be safe, well, and kind, all.