revisions | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

The Shape of a Story

Posted in writing, tagged conflict, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, revisions, sequels, series, writing on March 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’m a discovery writer. I know, I said that before.

One of the things that means is that I don’t always see the shape of a story when I start. In the case of BEYOND THE PROPHECY, which is the third book in a four-book series, I knew most of the events that would take place. I knew the theme. I knew the main conflicts. But I didn’t have a real feel for the shape of the story–the way those conflicts would fit together to bring the story from its starting point, through the climax, and on to some form of resolution.

I’m kind of a stickler for some kind of resolution to each book. That’s partly because as a reader I hate to be left hanging in the middle of a long story for months or a year for the next part–which often still doesn’t resolve anything. So I always try to structure my stories to reach some intermediate resolution in each book. I want each book to feel like a complete story in itself, as well as part of the larger story of the series.

Now, as I’m writing the beginning of that climax, I have a really good feel for that shape.

The downside of being a discovery writer is, as always, that the story needs more revision than a plotter’s might. All those things I figured out along the way are going to need to be set up in the earlier parts of the book. And they’re not set up in the first draft because I didn’t know about them when I wrote the first chapters.

That’s okay, because I actually don’t mind revising. Good thing. Even if I’d been keeping count (which I don’t), I’d be embarrassed to say how many revisions THE VOICE OF PROPHECY had to go through.

Certainly a record, even for me.

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Building Toward the Climax

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing on February 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Now that I can see the remainder of BEYOND THE PROPHECY so clearly, I’m getting impatient to write the climax. I think it’s going to be good. And take a couple of (hopefully) unexpected twists. And, of course, take the main character’s inner journey further, too. His character arc may sometimes be subtle, but he has a long way to go to complete it in the fourth book and last book of the Dual Magics series.

However, as a discovery writer, I find I really need to write (mostly) in order. I can’t skip around the way some writers do. Oh, I’ll sketch out a future scene if I, say, wake up with it in my head. But even then, I usually find that it changes significantly–or maybe doesn’t happen at all–by the time I get to it.

So, now what I have to do is channel that excitement about the climax into these next few chapters that will get me there.

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2015 Writing Goals

Posted in writing, tagged critiques, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, short stories, writing, Young Adult on December 31, 2014| 2 Comments »

For 2015 my writing goals are:

BEYOND THE PROPHECY (Book 3 of the Dual Magics series): Finish the first draft. Revise. Get critiques. Revise again. Polish. Format. And Publish.
Tie-in Dual Magics short stories: “Modgud Gold”, “Hunter and Huntress”, possibly “The Seeker”. These stories expand on the events of the novels. Some things that there just wasn’t room for in the novels. Often from the point of view of side characters.
MAGE STORM: my middle grade adventure fantasy. There’ll be at least two periods when I need to let BEYOND THE PROPHECY rest so I can come back to it with fresh eyes. During one of those, I want to go back over this story. Possibly change the age of the main character. Then give it a try with a small press.
DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING: This one is complete and ready to go. I’ll query it for a little longer, but there’s also a good chance I’ll just decide to go ahead and publish it myself.
BOOK 4 of the Dual Magics series (No title yet): Start the first draft for publication likely in 2016.
At some point, I’m likely going to need to go play in a different sandbox for a while to keep things fresh. That will likely mean work on either DREAMER’S ROSE or that weird Oz story that’s been tickling around in the back of my brain for a while now.

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2014 Writing Goals–How I Did

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, Learning, Multiple Projects, revisions, writing, Young Adult on December 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Well, it’s that time of year. Time to look back and see how well–or poorly–I did in meeting my goals this year and look ahead to what I want to accomplish next year.

My 2014 goals were:

Publish THE BARD’S GIFT.Done.
Query my middle grade novel, MAGE STORM. Well, I did. This one will turn up again on my 2015 goals.
Complete and publish THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY (since retitled THE VOICE OF PROPHECY). Oh, yes.
Complete what was then called MAGIC AND POWER–now DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING and query that. Yes. This one will also turn up again on my 2015 goals.
Write something new. Well, I’ve started BEYOND THE PROPHECY. I really think I meant something in an entirely different world, though. Maybe next year.
Continue to learn and improve. Always.

All in all, I think I did quite well on last year’s goals. Wednesday, I’ll lay out my goals for next year.

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Yay!

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, edits, events, fantasy, pre-orders, Real Life, revisions, sequels, series, writing on December 3, 2014| 2 Comments »

This is a good morning, despite the rain and the fact that I’m going to have to go out and stand in it in about an hour.

The pre-order for THE VOICE OF PROPHECY is working!

As of this morning, TVoP is #18 in Sword and Sorcery Hot New Releases, #23 in Epic Fantasy Hot New Releases, and #78 on the Amazon Best Sellers list for Sword and Sorcery.

This makes me very happy.

Also, I’ve finished the polishing edit. I just want to revisit a couple of chapters that required a little more than average revision and then I can upload the final file. So everything will be done well before Amazon’s deadline.

Then I can get back to work on the first draft of Book 3, BEYOND THE PROPHECY.

Also, the Clean Indie Reads Holiday Sale is still going on. THE SHAMAN’S CURSE is only $0.99 thru December 7th.

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It’s Here!

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, edits, fantasy, marketing, pre-order, revisions, sequels, series, writing on November 26, 2014| 3 Comments »

THE VOICE OF PROPHECY is now available for pre-order here.

The pre-order price is just $0.99. That’ll go up when the book goes live on December 15th.

Now the stress begins for me, because I only have until next Friday, the 5th, to get the final version up. That means I’ve got to start the polishing edit now, even though I’d rather let it cool a little longer. And, if I’m going to include a map, I’ve got to get on that, too. This one just isn’t quite good enough:

Oh, and find some time to try to get the word out so people even know it’s available.

And Thanksgiving is at my house tomorrow.

So, yeah, no stress. I think I need to learn one of Vatar’s calming and focusing exercises.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Almost There

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, editing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, writing on November 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’ve finished the revisions on THE VOICE OF PROPHECY and done the formatting for Kindle and Print. I’ve even uploaded and ordered the proof of the print version. (That’ll take a couple of weeks to come.)

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s finished. It’s not. There are several things still to do. It just means that I think it’s close enough that what I do from here on won’t disturb the formatting too much. Also, this will allow me to get the Kindle version up for pre-order in the next couple of days and still make those final changes before it’s actually available.

The major revisions are done, but I still need to do the polishing edit. This is where I go through and try to catch any last minute typos. I may–in fact I plan to–alter some of the dialog beats (little actions that accompany dialog to let the reader know who’s talking). Less facial expressions and more interaction with their environment to ground the dialog will be the goal there. But that’s just changing two or three words for maybe three or four other words. Not something that should alter the formatting. And I’ll be looking for places where I’ve said the same thing twice or said things in too-similar ways. These things can creep in during revisions and need to be killed.

Unfortunately, I need to leave a little time, a week or so, before I start that. Otherwise, I won’t really see the things I need to because I’ll still be too close to it.

Meanwhile, there are a few changes I need to make to the first chapters of BEYOND THE PROPHECY, which will be included at the end as an excerpt. I may spend some time trying to create a professional-looking map to include, too. That’s a potential problem, though. The map wouldn’t affect the formatting of the kindle version, but it could mess up the formatting of the print version. Unless I do something non-standard and put the map at the back. Hmm. Well, we’ll see.

Either way–with or without a map–THE VOICE OF PROPHECY will go live on December 15th.

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I Broke It

Posted in writing, tagged blurbs, e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, writing on November 19, 2014| 3 Comments »

Don’t worry. I’ve fixed it again.

What I broke was the end of THE VOICE OF PROPHECY. You see, one of my critique partners had what sounded like a really good idea. I tried it. It didn’t work.

If you’ve seen the blurb:

When the two kinds of magic combine in one person, unexpected things happen.
Sensing the presence of lions is one thing. Any member of the Lion Clan could do that. When Vatar sees the hunt through the eyes of one of the big cats—well, that’s something else altogether. And that’s only the beginning of the unusual manifestations of his magic.

When a mysterious voice only he can hear volunteers ancient wisdom, Vatar knows he’s in trouble. After enduring an Ordeal to prove he isn’t haunted by an Evil Spirit, Vatar thinks he may be possessed after all. Or losing his mind. Or cursed.

He must hide his Talent from his magic-fearing people or face consequences that don’t bear thinking about. But he has to control it in order to keep it secret. And now he’s not sure he can. It’s enough to make him want to give up on magic altogether.

But he’s going to need all his wits—and all the magic he can muster—to defeat those who want to use him and his unique abilities for their own ends.

You know that the main conflict of this story is The Voice. What is it? What can it actually do? And what does it want? Those questions aren’t answered until the very end of the book, though hopefully there’ve been enough clues sprinkled in that the reader knows the answer before my characters overcome their blind spots and preconceptions to figure it out.

The change sounded like a great idea, mostly because it was what the source of The Voice would actually do. But I read through it again yesterday. In the execution it just falls flat. It’s not supposed to be the climax, but I don’t want it to be completely anti-climactic either.

This is where having those online backups helps. I can get back what I had before that change. I won’t be going back completely to the original version. I like some of the things that I added. And I intend to cut some of what was there in the original version. It’ll end up better.

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Deadlines

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, marketing, revisions, sequels, series, writing on November 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

This week I was reminded of a quote I heard a long time ago.

A worried investor once asked J. P. Morgan for investment advice, saying that his portfolio was keeping him up at night. Morgan’s response was “Sell down to the sleeping point.”

Well, that’s what I’m doing with my purely internal deadlines for THE VOICE OF PROPHECY.

I have every confidence that I’ll have it ready by December 15. That’s the important date and it hasn’t changed. But if I was still trying to put this up for pre-order tomorrw, I wouldn’t be sleeping. (And that just might impact my ability to finish it to my satisfaction. I don’t write as fast or as well when I’m tired.)

Partly, this is due to the rules surrounding pre-orders on Amazon. Specifically, you can’t upload new versions within ten days of the release date. That makes the deadline for having everything as perfect as I can make it December 4th, not just to finish revising and polishing the story, but to get all the formatting done, and to have a polished excerpt from Book 3 to include. (Without pre-order, I’d normally be uploading my final version on the 13th or 14th.)

A lot of it is to do with my own tendency to get a little compulsive about deadlines.

Now, I’m still planning to use pre-order and I very likely will have everything done well before the 4th. But, I’ll have a lot better chance of doing that if I’m not making myself crazy with a pre-order deadline. And as soon as I have it ready, I’ll put it up for pre-order.

Lesson: Next time, I need to plan much farther ahead for a pre-order. Amazon only made pre-orders available for self-publishers after I’d already set the release date for THE IGNORED PROPHECY. I just didn’t really have the time to set myself up for it. I’ll be better able to take it into account with the next one.

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How Many Times Have I Revised This?

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, writing on November 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It’s not that I’m tired of revisions. Well, I am beginning to be just slightly tired of this story, but that’s normal at this phase.

No. It’s because I got to a chapter yesterday and just had to sit back in awe. It was a complete hot mess. And how many times have I been through this story?

Well, to be fair, at least part of the reason it was such a mess was those earlier revisions. I’d cut a lot of stuff surrounding these scenes. But that left me with about five mostly unrelated scenes in a single chapter. They weren’t bad scenes on their own. But they didn’t really fit together very well, either. In fact, they felt a bit like being the ball in a pinball game, bouncing off the bumpers.

So, a couple of those scenes are no more. (Don’t worry. THE VOICE OF PROPHECY is still going to be longer than THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.)

What information I need from those scenes will be worked in elsewhere. It’s a bit smoother now, but I’ll want to revisit that chapter before I call the revisions done.

That, and the first five or so chapters. I want to do some judicious pruning there to get to the really good parts sooner.

It’s coming along.

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