Sprint Journal and Vacation

You've heard me mention that I now use a sprint journal. Some of you have asked questions about what exactly a sprint journal is and how it helps raise your word count. Today over at the IWSG blog, Ramona DeFelice Long, an author, editor and writing instructor who introduced me to the sprint journal at a workshop during the conference I attended in May. She graciously agreed to do a guest post for us. You can also learn about her upcoming class on her blog.

I finished my edits on Sunday. I was surprised how many little things I found to change on a manuscript that has undergone so many rounds of editing. The first publisher who contracted Keepers of Sulbreth took it through five rounds of edits as did Musa Publishing before they closed. Now it is in the hands of my current publisher for a final read through before it's reissued next month. As I finished up yesterday, I tried to put a number on the drafts this book has seen or how many times I've read and made corrections. It has to be well above twenty from that first rough draft five years ago. At the aforementioned conference, the keynote speaker, Ridley Pearson, mentioned that he sometimes does more than fifteen drafts of a book. I begin to understand how that happens. But it's done now. Yippee.

A few fun facts as July winds down from The Old Farmer's Almanac.
July's birthstone, the ruby, was once thought to bring health to the wearer. 
Friday, July 31st, is the Full Thunder Moon and is also a Blue Moon. If you recall, the last full moon was July 1st so we have the rare second full moon in the same month.

On Wednesday I'm leaving for Myrtle Beach where all my children will gather for Friday. On Friday, my oldest natural son will marry his lovely fiance on the beach as they both have dreamed of doing. Hopefully, we'll have some good weather. So this will be my only post for this week but I'll be back a week from now for the first Monday in August. There will be pictures.

Are you ready to learn about sprint journals? After how many drafts and edits do you get tired of reading your own work? Own any rubies? I don't. Maybe that's why my knees hurt. Did you know July was a once in a blue moon kind of month?

Two Minute Break

I finished edits on Tiger's Mate today on my lunch break at work and sent it out.  Tomorrow I'm getting right back into A Tiger's Courage, the next book in this fantasy romance series.  I working on the 2nd draft of that book and hope to complete it before the end of April.

Finishing the book at work today is something I didn't used to be able to do.  In the early years of my writing career if I didn't get a stretch of time of a couple of hours I wouldn't even attempt to delve into my current project.  When my first book was accepted for publication I was already four books down the road from when I had completed that one.

Suddenly I needed to do promotion.  I had to start a website, begin blogging, join Facebook, and all sorts of other things.  After a book is contracted there are still many things to be done in the months between signing the contract and the book being released.  But I still wanted to work on the book I'd interrupted to begin promotion.

Besides learning to juggle different projects, I also learned to use those little slots of time. on my lunch break, while dinner is cooking, between loads of laundry and make the most of them.  I can visit a number of blogs while fixing dinner.  I can write a blog while waiting for a load of laundry to dry.  And today I finished edits on a book at lunch. 

I think most writers laboring at day jobs have learned to use every little bit of time or else we'd never get anything done.

How long a period of time do you need to get into your writer persona?  Do you fit writing work into your breaks on your day job?

My Favorite Things

Did you think I was going to break into song?  I'm not Julie Andrews.  I have a book due to come out at the beginning of the summer and my publisher sent Tiger's Mate to me for the final read through.  I love this part of the process.  It's one of my favorite parts of the writing process. 

Why? I think it's because I know it's too late to make any big changes. All the major problems have been fixed and I'm mostly looking for spelling and grammatical mistakes.  The plot holes have been filled, loose ends tied up and character missteps ironed out.

I'll probably work on this every free moment for the next seven days and send it back over the weekend.  Then I'll get back to my current WIP which happens to be the next book in this fantasy romance series.  I love creating a new book.  It's one of my favorite things in the writing process.

I also enjoy the second draft when I search out all those passive verbs, repetitive phrases and pet words which for me is usually, 'just.'  I usually have a list of things I need to fix in the plot I refer to when I work on the second draft.  It takes me about a third of the time to do a second draft compared to the first draft.  Maybe that's why it's one of my favorite parts of my writing process.

You probably figured out where this is going.  With the exception of writing a synopsis, I enjoy every part of writing a novel.  Each draft, first, second, final and even the polishing in between, have attractions.  I didn't used to like editing.  I just wanted to write new stuff all the time.  But since I published my first book, I enjoy fine-tuning a manuscript into a novel someone might want to buy and read. 

So what is your favorite part of the writing process?  Which part do you find the most challenging?  Name a few of your favorite things.