It’s ‘The End’ Again

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I didn’t intend to be productive yesterday, but I managed to write an entire chapter in my WIP and rewrite the ending of SAW IT COMING.

The good news: It’s better. The bad news: It’s finished (again), but not perfect.

For those of you who have queried or submitted, when did you know you were actually ready? How do you overcome the self-consciousness and actually click the ‘send’ button? What steps did you take to get there?

I’m going to try three things:
  • Search for the words I use too often (i.e. just, like, grinned, shrugged, etc.)
  • Search for passive sentences
  • Read the whole thing aloud

When I’m done, I’ll let you know how it goes and how much the ms improved.

See ya’ll tomorrow!

11 Comments

  • Demitria

    February 17, 2011 at 8:51 pm Reply

    You need to get it somewhere you’re happy with, because, to be honest, you’ll still have a lot of editing depending on the agent. It’s hard to decide when to start querying. Agents usually say to finish, put it away for two months, then give it a final read and edit before you send off a query, but honestly, who has the willpower? 🙂

    demitrialunetta.blogspot.com

  • Susanna Leonard Hill

    February 17, 2011 at 9:21 pm Reply

    If you have a critique group, or even a trusted reader, that can be very helpful, but Demitria is right – you’ve got to get it where you’re happy with it and then see how it goes because you probably will have to edit depending on the agent, and definitely the editor when it gets picked up 🙂

  • Kittie Howard

    February 17, 2011 at 9:23 pm Reply

    I have an editor for a self-publish story that had to be expanded to 7000 words. This worked for a story: expanded, edited, let sit for a couple of days, returned, saw the mistakes and repeated. What really brought out the mistakes was reading it aloud. When I got to the point were I debated between, for example, little and small, I knew it was time to send it off. It’s something you know in your gut, is the best I can say from my limited experience. I was a big ‘just’ user until, one day, I decided to omit the word from my spoken and written vocab. This made a huge difference. And ‘ly’ adverbs turn me off when I’m reading so I work to omit them when I write. The action verb should be enough…the dude shuffled his feet…and so on. This is what works for me (with a smaller number of words to deal with.) Anyway, good luck! You’ll know when the time is right.

  • Susan Fields

    February 18, 2011 at 11:24 am Reply

    Hi fellow crusader!

    When I think I have my wip as good as I can make it, I sent it out to critique partners. Then if, after reading their suggestions, I make enough changes that it radically changes the book, I send it out for another round when I finish the changes. The process repeats until they (hopefully) don’t have too much to say (at least not big stuff that causes lots of rewriting). I hope I’m at that point right now – I’ve got it out to two crit partners at the moment (the third round of critiques) and am anxiously awaiting their responses.

    Good luck with yours!

  • Shari

    February 18, 2011 at 4:34 pm Reply

    I’m still figuring all of that out. I think CP’s and beta readers are great. Also, going through the ms a hundred times (okay maybe not a hundred, but you know what I mean). Giving it a rest and then going through it again. Then, when you honestly can’t find anything else to make it stronger and neither can anyone else, then submit. Just some thoughts.

    Have a productive day!

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