First Revision Pass Complete & Other Thoughts
By: Sara ClevelandI have finally finished going through my printed out rough draft with all my horrible purple marks. All the changes — plus a whole lot more that occurred to me as I read it through again — have made it into the digital copy. Lots of new material ended up getting added in to flesh out a few points more fully. A little magical theory here, better explanation for the scissors there, you know, that sort of thing. The important point is that its finally ready for someone else to take a look at. Being able to click “share” on the Google Doc before the end of December was my goal and I met it (barely). Woot!
It’s a pretty cool feeling, actually, being done with a pass of revision. This is especially true given the way I usually work (write five chapters, then revise the hell out of the first two pages and never get anything else done). Now, this doesn’t mean I’m done with the revision process. I still have to get feedback from the person I trust enough to be my content editor (yup, that’s what sharing the Google Doc was all about), and don’t even get me started on copy! My grammar isn’t particularly bad, I don’t think, but one should never attempt to judge one’s own comma splices. So, that fun still lies ahead.
While the second draft is getting another purple ink bleed-out (actually, I have no idea what color ink will be used) I shall have some time to get the main website up and running (ha, you thought I forgot!) and start thinking about what the heck I’m going to do for a cover. What really stinks is that I know exactly what I want but don’t really have the artistic skill to pull it off. I can swing a pretty good landscape with oil paints, but dragons and princesses are a little outside my skill level. Finding an artist I can afford to bring my vision for the cover to life is probably going to be outside my self-publishing price range. If anyone has any suggestions to share on that front I’m all ears.