The first week of my new work ethic got off to a shaky start. Getting ready for revision took a fair bit of fiddling. I cleaned my desks. I’m fortunate to have two wonderful desks – bargains from eBay. Both times, I picked up a cheap mint condition desk because I was the only bidder. I got the second desk when I needed more room to spread out revision papers, index cards, and piles of manuscript pages.

My old How To Revise Your Novel lesson notes were in a folder, with each lesson in its own plastic sleeve. I took them out and comb-bound them, turning them into two hefty books. I’d only printed out the first 17 of the 22 lessons, because I didn’t actually complete all stages of the class at the time. Reading beyond lesson 17, I skipped ahead to the type-in. Then, hoping I wasn’t missing a vital step, I put the manuscript through Word, through AutoCrit, and had the PC read it to me countless times. In April 2017, I finally published Taniel: A Corrangorachian Fantasy with KDP at Amazon. It’s still only an eBook, but I’ve given away over 2000 copies to build my email newsletter list. Taniel has seven 5-star reviews and a 4-star that I know about on the Amazon sites. Has a few stars at GoodReads, including a 1-star. Surprisingly, that didn’t hurt.

So, back to getting ready. Knowing the amount of hard work ahead of me, I fiddled with my lighting so I’d have a better lit work space. I located my ‘what matters about my story’ notes, along with the theme, story plot and sub-plot notes from Taniel. I bound the Dragon Sworn manuscript – a dumb idea – for there is a physical cut-and-paste later.

I didn’t begin working, not really, until the 8th June.

Somehow, I thought I could skip reading  Taniel. After all, I’ve read it a million times already. (Yeah, I know. I keep saying I’m going to read it, but somehow I never get far.)  I thought reading the synopsis would be enough to jog my memory. While it did do that, in a broad sense, it didn’t give me enough. I can’t recall all characters’ words and actions – the things that make them who they are. I need that to carry over into Dragon Sworn.

My 2nd Summer of Fiction Writing goal was to write a novella  as an ethical bribe for my newsletter list. Yesterday, I couldn’t believe my luck when I stumbled across an outline, already done, in yWriter5 for Cissie & the Dragon Stone.

Not only outlined, but I’d already written the first and last scenes, along with scene sentences in-between. Gosh, I’m getting old. I’d forgotten all about it! This novella tells the story of how Hanrey and Taniel’s mother met and how they ended up at the tavern in Skerby, Corrangorach.

So, without further ado, I shall get stuck into reading Taniel and Dragon Sworn. I have an hour free, now, before dinner and Netflix. I’ll pick it up again tomorrow.

I’m a Summer of Fiction Writing participant.

I decided to become an affiliate with Holly’s Writing Classes to help save up for the one big course that I don’t own – How To Think Sideways. Holly’s sometimes quirky methods seem to resonate with how my mind works. If you go through the affiliate link, I believe a little cookie shows Holly’s people that you came from me and I get a nice little surprise if you buy anything in her shop – even if it’s just a little class under $10. It makes no difference to the price you pay. But if you have a thing against affiliate links, and would like to check out the free stuff she has on offer over her summer holidays, use this one: Holly’s Writing Classes.
(Affiliate Link: How To Revise Your Novel)