The manuscript for Book #1, Series #1 has been submitted for developmental editing. I'm experiencing excitement and expectation, topped with nervousness and uneasiness.
This will be my first experience with this sort of feedback. From
Cathy Yardley's Rock Your Writing website, this is my limited knowledge of a full manuscript or developmental edit: "I will analyze how your plot is working, and check if your characters are built with believable motivations to match the story you’ve got. I’ll also recommend fixes for any story issues I see cropping up."
The edit is scheduled to be completed in a couple of weeks; therefore, I will be better able to blog about what a full manuscript or developmental edit is or is not in a few weeks.
In the meantime, I will not be sitting with my hands in my lap waiting (although it may feel that way on the inside, big time.)
What I will be doing, since the beginning of Book #2 became a bang-up ending for Book #1, is planning and plotting out Book #2, as well as sketching out the rest of the series in more detail. To help me progress more quickly once I begin the first draft, in addition to filling out index cards with my one-line scene descriptions, I am going to attempt to pre-plan the Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and Disaster (GMCD) for as many scenes as possible. (Look out, MS Word table, here I come).
For me, having a better idea of where I'm going (sort of like creating a map and having that map as a reference later on), will help me produce more solid first draft material in a shorter period of time.
My third month of writing full-time did not go well or as planned due to health issues, etc.; however, I'm looking forward to month four being much more productive and fulfilling, writing-wise and otherwise.
So in the meantime, while waiting on the results of the developmental edit, I write.
So, in the words of Dennis Waitley,
“Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.”
