Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Polishing Two Novels in One Month (or How the Heck is it November 11th Already?!?)

Tip of the Day: Take Tina's THE ESPRESSOLOGIST out for coffee for the chance to win great prizes!

After writing my post about how to overcome my setting deficiencies, I decided I need to revise my YA novel SURVIVING LAKE NEADE. Not that it needs a huge overhaul, but I know that I want to immediately ground my readers in the setting. That means giving the first page a solid intriguing setting, then adding in the four best friends, followed by a continual sprinkling of more setting. Right now it's mostly characters and dialogue; I need to change that.

BUT! I after having my MG novel BAKE, SET, MATCH go on sub, I decided I need to revise my MG novel 24 HOURS TO POPULARITY to beef up the main character's point of view, motivations, and general character; what makes her tick and why is she doing what she's doing. Again, it doesn't need a huge overhaul, but I know that I want to immediately ground my readers in the MC's life. That means reading through the whole novel, page by page, and adding internal dialog so the reader knows what the MC is thinking despite what she's saying.

Oh man, that's a lot of work. Especially since I'm also a third of the way through a rewrite of my first ever novel.

There's only one way to fix that -- blast through the revisions and polishing of both novels in one month! NaNoREVMo! WOO HOO!

I am also a fan of NaNoWriMo, but this year with all my hot projects just burning a hole in my laptop, it didn't make sense to create another document to dilute my attention from the others. :)

So far I'm on page 108/184 of 24 HOURS and page 0/159. Hmmmm...looks like I've got a ways to go. If others can write a 50k-word novel in a month, I can certainly add some details to two mere manuscripts in the next 19 days!

Anyone else doing alternative NaNo challenges this month?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

3 comments:

Kate Fall said...

You know about my November challenge: Query Blast. 30 queries in 30 days. I love challenges!

I love your ideas for revisions, especially since I've read versions of both those novels and I know why LAKE NEADE would work with evocative settings, and why 24 HOURS would work with angst and snake fear!!

Shannon Messenger said...

Wow, I can barely handle my one, lonely little manuscript--how are you juggling so many? I'm totally impressed/jealous right now. :)

DeenaML said...

Kate -- thanks for the encouragement! And go you with the 30 queries!

Shannon -- I am focusing on one novel at a time and just plowing through -- I could never jump from one to the other throughout the month without getting totally confused.... ;)