Recently in Code Breakers Club Category

Nothing left to do but sit by the computer and cry. I just finished my polish of Code Breakers Club and sent it to my agent. We're going to try pitch to Harper Collins first. I have someone on the inside bending the ear of the children's editor, and hopefully my manuscript will be read sooner rather than later. I have no control over whether the manuscript will be rejected or accepted, but I'd rather put myself out there than sit and wonder if I could have made it. An author has to have the courage to put him/herself out there even if they know they'll receive more slaps in the face than pats on the back.

The best thing to do while waiting for the slap or pat is to get working on the next project, and that's what I intend to do. I'm waiting for notes on the Barnabas Bigfoot Series from my editor, and while I'm waiting for those notes to show up, I'll do some research work for a novel about young Houdini and jot some notes for a y/a novel about dreams. The waiting game begins!

Just sent a note to my agent about the completion of The Code Breakers Club. So now it's a matter of finding an interested publisher. Of course, as soon as I sent the agent the note, I wanted to go over the last ten pages of the novel. I tell students all the time that writing isn't the first draft; writing is in the revisions. This is true with this manuscript. I think the climax is working well, but the denouement (resolution) is too quick. I haven't tied up all the loose ends, and I think a reader might not be totally satisfied with how the novel wraps up.

I'll target the last few pages tonight and then send the file to my agent for feedback. I often wonder if other writers go through this weird panic about when is the manuscript ready to go out the door. I guess the right answer is that it's never ready.

Friday, September 17, 2010, 1:41 pm MST. I have just given birth to my official first draft of The Code Breakers Club novel. Now I can actually show this to someone for feedback. I'll sit on the draft over the weekend and then ask my wife to read it on Monday. I'll make any changes through the week and then get the manuscript ready to shop around. Yay! I'm tired and ready to pass out, but I'm thrilled to have finished.

Yay! I have about 15 pages left to revise on the manuscript. It's the climax to the novel, so I have to be careful not to get too wrapped up with getting to the finish line. I tend to rush myself when I see the end is near. Tomorrow, I'm going to take my time to milk all the action, drama and tension I can out of the climax.

I've been riding my bike through Edmonton's river valley all summer, and I've come to the conclusion that there are similarities between writing/revising a manuscript and riding a bike up and down hills.

When I see the big hill by the Folk Festival site, I'm totally intimidated because I can't even see the top of it, but I'm plucky and willing to give it a go. About a third of the way up, I'm gasping for air and wanting to jump off the bike. Halfway up, the hill levels off for a bit and I feel like I can manage it. Then it's more panting and grunting as I tackle the rest of the hill. Once I'm at the top, I think the hill wasn't so bad, and I continue along the trail until I hit the next major hill and the process begins again.

Right now, I'm about a third of the way up the "manuscript hill." Pant, pant, grunt, grunt...

Two days and I'm still polishing the prologue. It's only three pages long and I'm fussing over it like an overprotective parent coddling his sick kid. Time to let it go and work on other sections of the novel. I can always come back and futz later. Hmm, maybe just one more tweak to the second paragraph...

I'm grinning ear to ear as I reread my revised prologue. It works so much better now. The problem with the previous prologue was that there was no mystery to drive the reader forward. Instead, there was exposition that didn't offer any conflict. All I did was waste a lot of ink describing a doomsday machine that would be important to the story. While I knew the machine was important, the reader wouldn't care about it because I didn't give them a reason to care.

The new prologue starts with a character running away with a part of the doomsday device. There are hints to the destructive power of the machine, but they come out in a confrontation between two adversaries rather than as long-winded exposition. Now there is a reason to care about the machine and, as a reader, I want to know more about it. I think this prologue will hook readers faster.

I have to remind myself that the start of a novel should be like a carnival barker enticing people to go into a house of horrors. Don't show everything that's in the funhouse. Just show enough to make the reader want to go inside.