Finally Revision, and Good Times

Update #3 15-21 March 2021

We did it… we managed to get school work and revision to happen in the same week.

I will admit, that while I’m winding down in my classes, 6 weeks left till I’m done with school, I’m burnt out. The worse part is that my three terms of Thesis classes had me pretty much writing every day. I didn’t have to devote time to discussions, essays, or reading tons of material (some of which I haven’t been interested in).

These last two classes are testing me, though it is really nice to have interactions with people again. The Discussion posts are GREAT… but also time consuming. I will be happier when I am done with everything and I can spend my time working on revision, outlining the next novel, writing the next novel, and blogs… plus my queries.

Deadlines

To that end… the End in which I finally make some more goals and get back on track. I have written out a complete blogging schedule all the way out to July (and I have plans past July but I prefer to see how things go and then make my plans).

Stuff does tend to change after all.

The big change is instead of 4 thesis diary posts every month I am adding in 2 more posts on alternate Thursdays. These might be a little tough to work into the schedule right now (again because of school) but they will be manageable in the long haul.

I have also given myself a deadline to write the first five query letters I’ll be sending out in batch one. I have been delaying sending out my letters because I have waited for one agent to open up. I can’t allow myself to wait, so she’ll be moved to batch two.

The first Thursday post already went live last week.

New Thursday Posts:

So, we will have a one post that is an in-character journal for my character in a game of Curse of Strahd. Follow that Thursday link above and you’ll get the full skinny on that.

I wanted to start talking about things other than my Diary, my struggle with school and procrastination is only so entertaining. I have other loves as well… mostly Horror and RPGs. Curse of Strahd is both.

My other post is going to be about the Call of Cthulhu RPG.

The first two posts will be about the game itself, the rules, and the set up. I will talk about the 7^th edition of the rules (which, spoiler, I believe are the best edition of the rules I have ever seen, and I look forward to someday running them).

Besides the new rules, I want to talk about Cthulhu PULP and what it’s like to change a survival/investigation-based game and twist up with some two-fisted pulp action. This is really a sweet spot for me.

Finally Revision:

Probably should have started with this… but you know.

I finally got the revision started again. There is a slight problem. I really feel that I need to cut words and get this book slimmer. BUT… a bunch of my feedback notes have me putting in more information.

Last week I managed to get the prologue completely rewritten, so now we have version 1.5 I also gave the first 6 chapters a gentle scrub. Chap 1 only needed a few nips and tucks, which was good since my prologue picked up nearly 3 pages of text… yes about 1000 new words.

Chap 2 then picked up another couple hundred words. This was not going in the right direction.

Chap 3 is where I cut a TON of shitty exposition dialogue. I’m embarrassed that made it through my first 2 rounds of revision. I managed to cut at least 700 words from that chapter.

Chap 4 and 5 both got a handful of words and a handful of cuts so they wash.

Chap six is… well one of my favorite chapters in the book. In previous revision it got a COMPLETE rewrite, and in feedback my prof fell in love with it. But still wanted a little more. I managed to cut a stupid mistake, and had to reedit a bunch of things to fix said mistake. But in the end the chapter comes out about 40 words heavier.

This Week

I have a TON of writing to do this week for my classes. So, I might not get any chapters revised next week. Unless I change my whole schedule. We’ll see what happens. I have too much vying for my attention.

Future thoughts and goals

We have 5 Query letters to do.

Literary Article I need to do a final draft on and submit.

46 chapters to revise.

3 papers this week and more beyond.

At least 3-5 Call of Cthulhu Posts in the Plan.

Curse of Strahd Journal post.

Textbook to read, 600 novels in the pile, 40 non-fiction books in the pile, 120 comics/GNs to read.

Paid painting work to do, unpaid fun painting to do.

Novel outline to complete, CoC Campaign to Outline/Overview.

3 Maps to draw. And a bunch of world building articles to do in snippets for the website.

Rewrite my Bio and change my landing page on the website.

Also, I have decided to delay starting the new novel until the end of April, right after I finish classes, I’m going back to full-time writing. (Originally, I wanted to start the next novel on April 1^st, but I’m falling behind).

And Finally, I want to find people to talk Tokusatsu with… seriously I have watched a ton of it and I want to talk about it. Anyone love Kamen Rider, Ultraman, or Sentai? Leave me a comment and I will get back to you.