Recently in Barnabas Bigfoot Series Category

Just received notes on the second book in the series. My editor had about 5 notes for me, and it took 20 minutes to make the changes. Phew. Love this part of the process.

The only hiccup right now is trying to write an outline to summarize all three books. The publisher needs this for the marketing team to sell the book. This is a good reminder that a writer's job is never finished, even after the book is published. I have to start thinking about marketing ideas. I'm wondering if I can shoot my own sasquatch video. Anyone have a hairy costume I can borrow? : )

What a relief. I finally finished the edits on all three manuscripts for the Barnabas Bigfoot Series. I spent most of the week and pretty well all my weekend going over each one of the books to clarify the logic, clean up lame descriptions and tie up loose motivations. I'm pretty happy with what I've done and I'm totally drained.

I'm going to attach the three manuscripts and send them to my editor. Hopefully, she'll catch anything that I've missed and we can finally put this project to bed. I'm exhausted, but I'm also thrilled. Part of the reason for my happiness is that I heard from the teacher who tested the first first three chapters on her grade six kids. The feedback that she heard was, "Can we read the rest of the book?" I take that as a great sign.

Okay, now to pack for my trip to Lacombe. Down time? What is that again?

My editor just sent notes on the third book in the Barnabas Bigfoot Series. I can't wait to go through them. I'm on the road right now, which means I have less distractions. I was going to go for a workout tonight, but I think I might go for a mental workout instead and read through my editor's comments. Yay! Some writers dreaded having to edit their manuscript. I actually enjoy the process. I like being able to see my work through another person's eyes. I just have to remind myself that I should also be turning my own critical eye to the writing to make sure nothing gets missed on this pass.

I may not be standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier, but I can proudly say that I've completed the revisions on two of three manuscripts. Not only did I cycle through all my editor's notes, but I took the revisions one step further and raked up all the loose language in both drafts. I cleaned up some repetition and rephrased the awkward sentences. I'm sure I'll have one more change to check the finer points of the manuscript in the line edit, but I'm feeling pretty good about what I've done with these two books.

Now all I have to do is wait for my editor to send notes on the third manuscript. Plus, I have a teacher testing the first book with her grade six students. If I get the thumbs up from the kids, I know I have something. This stage of writing is fun. I like finishing way better than I enjoy starting.

Happily, I'm about to shut my computer down for the day. I spent the entire day working on the revisions to the second novel in the Barnabas Bigfoot series. I think I've addressed all my editor's notes. Of course, once I convinced myself I was done, I realized I had repeated myself in the early part of the novel. I had to cycle back through the manuscript and chop out a section of the setup.

Tomorrow, I'll go through and polish the manuscript. I'm debating whether or not to send the first two books to my editor or wait until I finish the revisions to the third manuscript. I'll make the call at the end of tomorrow. My biggest worry is that if I wait for all three, I'll go cold. If I send her the first two, I can finish the revisions to the third manuscript hopefully by the time she has the next round of notes on the first two books.

Let me see how I feel tomorrow.

Nothing better than a Sunday morning, some smooth jazz and my manuscript. Finally, I have a break from school visits (well, just a day), but I'm going to use the morning to revise my second book in the Barnabas Bigfoot Series. I'm aiming for 20 pages of a 70 page manuscript. If I can do at least 20 today and then 20 on my other two days off this week, I'll almost have the revisions done by the end of the week. Then I can send the two books to my editor while I kick around my third book. Wish me luck.

Someone arrest me. I just killed one of my babies in A Close Shave. My editor had a note that the manuscript could use some slimming. She alluded to some repetitive action, and I had that at the back of my mind as I was cycling through the manuscript. About halfway through, I noticed Barnabas was being chased not once, but twice, and by the same group of people. I loved the two sequences, but I knew that by having two similar chase scenes, I was taking away from the story. So, I killed one of my babies. The second chase scene had to go. I was sad to chop it out, but it's for the best. The space gave me a chance to build up some character interaction between Barnabas and Jaime.

Lesson learned: you can't be too precious about your writing if all you're doing is repeating yourself.