OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

State of the book

A quick update for anyone who actually reads this. Right now the beta draft is with readers, I've already had a pile of spelling and grammar corrections from my mum. I have looked into suitable publishers but I'm holding off until I've had plenty of comments from people. Also in February the university Division for Life-long Learning is running course titled 'how to get published' specifically for people like me. So I'm not going to send anything off until I've been on that.

In other news I am now stepping slowly into the world of job hunting.

Printing tomorrow

The beta draft is very nearly finished. I'm going to spend this evening picking through a few crucial scenes just to allay any remaining niggles. It is just over the 160,000 word mark but editing is likely only to bring that down.

Tomorrow I shall print and bind a couple of copies for people can read. As this is still a beta draft it will be going first to those people I know who are avid readers, particularly of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre(s). How long these copies last before I feel the need to make all the corrections which will be noted, remains to be seen.

Almost like being at work

My goal was always to finish this draft by Christmas. Well at one point it was a month earlier but we'll brush over that. The editing process has really sped up now I'm working through the later stuff. I've got a few parts which still need significant attention but I've scheduled myself with daily goals to get it all done by Thursday. Giving me Friday to get a couple of copies printed and bound on campus. hmm... I should probably check the printing unit is open on the 21st. So that will be a copy to take home with me and one to hand out. Assuming I keep on track that is...

I don't know, daily goals, schedule, it's almost like being at work.

Out with the old...

The editing process is now well underway. I've finished cutting the old material form the beginning. What was chapters 2-7 is now chapters 2-3. So there's now 25 rather than 29. But the fact is since this can all be cut and it ends with a story which makes more sense is I think good enough reason to remove it. I'm not sure how much that will have reduced the total length by, I'll find out when I get there. That was the only significant change from Kirsty's edits, though now I do need to follow the rest through carefully to make sure it fits the new stuff.

Back at the desk

I'm back at my desk. Kirsty finished the alpha draft last weekend but put me under orders not to do any work for the week. So now I'm faced with a thick pile of paper with red pen scattered throughout it. Though the first third of the book needs quite heavy editing, pretty much everything that's left of the previous draft she wants me to restructure.

There are a few other bits to work on too, I think about 3 to 4 weeks work to be done to form it into a beta draft. That is if I can get myself into gear and actually concentrate on the damn thing. I'm not doing very well at that at the moment, it's taken me two days just to get round to this blog post.

Once I get back into a regular schedule the word count will begin updating again.

Team alpha, go

Huzzah, 'tis all done, the alpha draft of Sibling is complete. Weighs in at 185,450 words in 29 chapters with a prologue and an epilogue. That's 400 sides of A4 with 1.6 line spacing. It took a mighty 2 and a half hours just to spell check.

Throughout the spell check though I saw plenty of dodgy text emphasising for me that is is very much still of alpha quality. How long it will take to improve to beta quality will depend on how much Kirsty destroys in her reading. I'm hopeful of just a few weeks but I thinks rather optimistic.