May 23, 2016
This is the fun part. I pulled out pencils to match the colors of the post-it notes I designated for each character at the beginning of the manuscript. Now I’m reading through the last chapter(s) (it became two chapters in the first stage of this month’s rewrite) and marking changes as they relate to each character. Red remains the color of choice for grammar, spelling, and sentence structure changes.
In my first walk through of this I realize how foggy some of my timeline is for when things are going on. Something I will watch for when I do the read aloud and correct the entire work.
I’m excited about the end. It feels both solid and progressive. I can work back through the entire manuscript from it. I plan to use tonight and tomorrow to ground the world building more. I am at a low word count for a science fiction work. I wrote the original with little more than shimmers of the world building with the bulk of the basis in a notebook for reference.
I want the work to read easy and comfortable for people not in to science fiction, but still have the weight of reality in the world building evident to people who are familiar with the science. Therefore, I plan to lay some of the world building over top of the original work as I go back through in the read aloud. I’m hoping the timeline will clear up a lot with this overlay because the world will be more clearly defined.
So, what did I do?
I lured my characters into a review of this final chapter with thoughts of happy ever after . . .
I discovered new flavors,
overcame Cosmic tragedy,
celebrated character achievement and,
made it to my last paperclip.
Now I’m back, frazzled, but ready for this week. I pinched minutes, and squeezed hours to get the work done. I still have nine more days to finish my planned review of the final chapter(s). Much of what is left to do involves the entire manuscript. So, today I reorganize to determine what else needs to be complete in the next nine days to rewrite/improve the final chapter(s) and what needs to wait for focus on the entire script. I know this isn’t the final polish for the manuscript, but I want to start the aloud read through with a solid end in mind.
These next few days are tough because a lot of the world rules that I left with a measure of uncertainty have to be decided; the hard business for a flexible person like myself is to draw the line. . .