Summer Camp
Posted 04 Jul 2017
science fiction
Last Tuesday, I finished the revised manuscript of Flotsam and sent it off to Parvus. That gave me the right sort of mental break to get pumped up for Camp NaNoWriMo and another revision pass of Salvage.
Salvage is due to Parvus in November, but my personal goal is to get it to them sooner so I can prep for Book Three and draft that during November's NaNoWriMo.
So Saturday morning, I woke aboard a sailboat, made coffee in a percolator and sat on deck with my laptop to begin Camp NaNoWriMo's July Session.
On my last read-through, I still felt the story was solid, but I wasn't able to really pinpoint what it was about the story that was bothering me. So I let my mother talk me into sending it to her to allow me to gather her notes.
Armed with those (she's not done yet, because of how many notes she's been making), and a fresh review of Flotsam, plus some ideas that occurred to me to go forward, I began Salvaging Salvage.
The points I knew I needed to work on:
- All dat backstory. Even though I cut out a ton on my last revision pass, the read-through made me face-palm at how many times I restated well-established information.
- Tension. Sometimes things just go too smoothly for my characters. They might appreciate that, but readers won't.
- Technology & Magic. Boosted this in Flotsam revs so there's room to boost it in Salvage and keep it going.
- A little front-loading. I've been churning up more solid ideas for book 3 so I can look for opportunities to open problems and questions that will lead the reader into the third book of the trilogy.
At 4:38 a.m. on Saturday morning, I woke up on a sailboat and got to work. As the day turned hazy and rain threatened, we didn't sail anywhere and I spent the entire day revising (save for a quick trip to the grocery store). It was a great start to the Camp session.
My progress report so far:
Saturday, 7/1: ended @ 6827 words revised
Sunday, 7/2: ended @ 10767 words revised
Monday, 7/3: ended @ 15638 words revised
Tuesday, 7/4: ended @ 16627 words revised (this was a tough scene, and I have party prep to do!)
