I apologize for not posting anything last month. April was very busy for me in my dayjob as a PhD student: I attended the HPLA/DE Conference in New Mexico and I'd to take a couple final exams.
I managed to find enough time to finish my 2nd Draft of Star City. I achieved my goal of turning my very rough 1st Draft into a readable manuscript.
What I found this month is that rewriting is so f!@king hard! I thought it was painful to write 100K words for my 1st draft. But, simply making sure all those 100K words were spelled correctly and grammatically correct was a huge task as well! Of course, I'd to work on the other crap as well: make my characters appealing, fill in plot holes, increase the dramatic tension, etc.
Making my 2nd Draft also made me appreciate current computer technology. It's not only the spelling and grammar checker that saves a modern writer a lot of time. For instance, using Scrivener, I can compile my manuscript into Word or Kindle file, email it to my sister, and she could email me back with her feedback. What I just described was not available a mere 20 or even 15 years ago for most writers in this country.
Now, I'm working on my 3rd Draft. My goal is to take the edits that I got from my sister and other Beta Readers, and turn my manuscript into something that I can actually submit to publishers and editors.
To keep everyone updated (and to do shameless promotions of Star City!), I'll be posting a lot more frequently this month. So, please stay tuned!
