Goal: Finish Editing Novel WIP by March 2nd

Hi everyone,


I just finished writing my final version of my Fantasy novel, Wurvia. I've been working on the book for three years, so I'm glad to finally have it finished.

Well, almost finished. I'm in the process right now of doing the final edit. I want to get this done by Sunday, March 2nd, so that I can start submitting it to some small presses on the 3rd. So far, I'm 36 pages into it on a 239-page manuscript. So I should be done before long. After I'm finished with the pen and manuscript, it's off to the computer to complete the changes. I don't know how long that'll take, but I know it will get discouraging for me (it always does) right about the first hour of that part of the project.

So my goal is to finish my Final Edit by March 2nd. I'll be working on this piece pretty much exclusively until this is finished. Then, I'll be glad to get this three year project out of my hair.


--Sean

underthecity said:

That's a good goal to make, Sean, and I hope you do it. I haven't put a date on my own goal, myself. I just want to finish the second draft by Spring.

239 pages. How many words is that? My own ms is pushing toward 500 pages, groan.

Why small presses? With all due respect, why not aim high?

Also, what kinds of challenges are you working through as you further revise?

I admire your conviction, and wish you all the best with it.

allen

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The reason I was going with a small press, is that I've heard so much about big houses not taking so short a manuscript. 239 pages is roughly 57,360 words, at 24 lines per page.

So I thought that I should try small presses, which might be more willing to accept it.

But you're the second person in the last five minutes to tell me I should re-consider on that. I don't know if what I've heard about big houses and short manuscripts was right or wrong, but I will re-consider, in any case. The work is good; I just wasn't sure if a big press would handle it because of its length.


Thanks for your reply.


--Sean

K1P1 said:

Good luck Sean - stick you it and you can get it done this week.

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Thanks!

It looks like I might be done before the day is out ... at least with the hard copy stuff. I just passed Page 141, and that means I'm more than halfway through. I have less than a hundred pages to go, and I feel good about the work.

So I could feasibly submit a copy as early as Friday, if I find a legitimate company that allows email submissions.

This is great. I'm loving every minute of it.


--Sean

Sean D. Schaffer said:

Snipped...

It looks like I might be done before the day is out ... at least with the hard copy stuff. I just passed Page 141, and that means I'm more than halfway through. I have less than a hundred pages to go, and I feel good about the work.

So I could feasibly submit a copy as early as Friday, if I find a legitimate company that allows email submissions.

...Snipped...

--Sean

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Hi again,

I just finished the hard-copy editing portion of my project. All I have left to do is the tedious part: entering the changes into the word processor.

So what was a possibility in my previous post, looks more like a probability now. I thought you'd all like to know.

Anyway, I'll be around the boards a little while longer, and then it's nose to the grindstone again.

But honestly, I cannot wait to finish this book and move on to a new project. This thing has sapped my energy for three years, and I want to be excited about a new piece.

I'll talk to you all later.


--Sean

kimmi said:

Sending good luck and good wishes, Sean and yeah what underthecity said, try for the big presses too!!!

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Now that I've had three people suggest that, I'm going to go ahead and do it. Thank you all so much for the advice.


--Sean

Hi everyone,


I've hit a bit of a snag with the novel.

It is, in a couple words, too short. The majority of houses I've seen won't even look at one so short (I did DAW's word counting method, and it came to less than 50,000), and the majority of those that would, do not offer an advance or very good royalties.

So what I'm going to do is cut it down substantially, and put the novel idea on the back burner. Then, I'm planning on turning the main premise into a short story to try to sell to a magazine. I really do think that it can be more successful in the short story venue, than it can be in the novel world ... at least for the moment. As I have no publishing credits, I do not believe I will be able to sell a novel this short to a good house.

That's where I stand at the moment with this project.

But as I prepare to re-write this story into a short version, I want to set a new goal. I want to finish the entire project by the end of next week. Saturday, March 8th, is my absolute deadline for the shortened version, including finding a good title to give this piece.

So though I'm officially finished with the project I started this thread with, the project has evolved into a different format. I will see about getting the work sold to a magazine, and I'm setting a word count goal of between 10,000 and 15,000 words.


--Sean

Thank you all very kindly for your encouragement. I'm likely going to start work on the short version of my story tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the challenge!


--Sean