Tag Archives: Chicago Fire

Chicago: Ripe for a Fire

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Photo Credit Chicago History Museum: The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory

Photo Credit Chicago History Museum: The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory

In October of 1871, Chicago was entering fall riding on a heat wave after a summer’s long drought.  Serious drought.  Less than five inches of rain in more than three months, with less than an inch in the month leading up to the fire.  This certainly effected more than the farmers who surrounded this growing metropolis.

What made this drought so problematic? The city was made, almost entirely, out of wood.    Wooden houses.  Wooden fences.  Wooden barns and outhouses.  Wooden sidewalks.  Wooden streets.  (Yep – mostly in the business district.) The sidewalks and streets were often raised because when it did rain, everything became mud.  The raised sidewalks, some as high as six feet, provided a chimney of air for a wayward spark.  The downtown buildings, some which claimed to be fireproof, were still made of wood.  They may have had a limestone or marble facade, but were wooden underneath.   That’s thirty-six square miles of parched wood.  Do you know that even some of the fire hydrants were wooden?

But there’s more!

It’s 1871 – which means wood burning stoves.  Every house by now would have started to gather its winter supply of wood and kindling, sawdust for tinder.  Kerosene or gas lamps lit the homes and the streets.  Hay, straw, and feed were kept to care for the animals.  Though having a horse was something reserved for the more well -to-do, most houses had some livestock.

Chicago was a bustling city, busy growing.  The business district was budding and there was much money for a serious entrepreneur to make.  Being nicely located at the foot of one of the great lakes, with a river that fed into it, Chicago became a nerve center for commerce in the short thirty-eight years since it became an organized village.  Soon it became a hub for railroad lines too.  What did Chicago have that was being shipped out everywhere?  Grain.  Coal.  LUMBER.  Yep, all flammable.

Robert Cromie, in his book, the Great Chicago Fire, wrote, “It might be said, with considerable justice, that Chicago specialized in the production, handling, and storage of combustible goods.”

So, yes, Chicago was ripe for a fire.  And it had many leading up to the great one.  Next time I’ll tell about Chicago’s biggest fire.  Well, it doesn’t still hold that title.  In fact, it only held that title for a mere six hours or so.

By the way, if you wish to leave a comment, click on the title of this article.  A comment box will appear at the bottom of the page.

Revision Process: scenes and sequels

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First off, where have I been?  I noticed my last post was in October.  My apologies.  I spent October and November in revision and took December off to focus on my primary job: SAHM (stay at home mom.)  But a new year is here with brand new motivations.

Pre-published authors are keenly aware that we are not to submit our work to agents until we get it as good as we can.  To perfectionists, that is a cruel task.  So we have to learn to let go of ascertaining perfection on our own (if ever), establish a plan, and stick to it!

In brief – the steps that got me this far:

  1. Write the rough draft like a crazy person.  Finish the darn thing and celebrate.  Really celebrate.
  2. Take a month away from it and read a craft book.
  3. REVISE: see this blog on what you can do in the first revision.
  4. Rewrite – time to fix all those things you didn’t allow yourself to look back at during the frenzied rough draft.
  5. Get eyes on it.  Yep.  Be brave!  Do you have a critique group?  They are the perfect people to do this.  They have willingly sacrificed hours of their time to read your writing and critique it because they know you will do the same for them.
  6. While your critique group has it start the next revision.

That’s what this post will focus on.  My process, in general, is an inverted triangle: start broad and become more narrowed through the revision.  Every writer has a process.  This works for me, for now.

On the first revision I was focusing on story arc, plot, characterization, what chapters can go – big picture stuff.  Now, I am getting more narrowed.  I am breaking the chapters into scenes and sequels and I am looking for specific elements.  And what I’m doing is not original.  I have taken what I have read in craft books, learned at conferences, and researched online to synthesize my process.

This step of my process was largely taken from a blog that was summarizing a book.  The blog:  Writing the Perfect Scene (beckons all perfectionists!)  The book: Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain.  (Admittedly, I have not read it yet.  As a SAHM my writing time is very limited.  But perhaps that will be the craft book I read after my next rough draft.) Refer to either or both of these for expanded information.  I will hit the highlights.

Tools: 3 different colored highlighters, a fourth marker of a different color, a red pen, green pen, tablet with Index Card app (By the way, this is a revised method.  My first was even more involved and I quickly realized I was working harder not smarter.)

Each chapter is compiled of scenes and sequels.

In a scene there is:11170843-highlighter-pens-in-desk-organizer-for-home-business-back-to-school-projects

  • a goal: the MC (main character) goal for just this little moment in time, which ultimately is somehow tied to the big goal/story arc – when I identify the goal I highlight it in blue.
  • CONFLICT! – internal or external, obstacles stumbling blocks the MC is dealing with in the scene. (I uses yellow highlighter – like warning road signs)
  • DISASTER!!!! – the thing that keeps the MC from reaching the goal (I like a pink highlighter for his one, it’s close to red. – I know, I am a very deep thinker!)

After the disaster the sequel begins:

  • Reaction: an emotional response that follows the disaster, will probably include dialogue or internal thoughts. (back to blue highlighter)
  • Dilemma: the MC is in a situation with no perfect solution that will allow him to reach his initial goal.  The MC sorts out his options. (yep, yellow highlighter!)
  • Decision: MC has weighed his options and chooses a path, therefore a new goal.  (red again. though sometimes it is also blue for my next scene.)

Most of my chapters have between two or three scene/sequel cycles.  Some had just one, the most was probably four.  Keep in mind. my chapters run about 9 or 10 pages.  So what I’m calling scenes may be what someone else calls a beat.  I’m not going to get hung up on vocabulary.  The important thing is that I am analyzing my text for the good stuff it needs to have.  My book is also an action story, fast paced.  Stories that are slower paced or focus more on building suspense or scene setting may have longer chapters or fewer scene/sequel cycles.  With my target reader in mind, I need to keep the pace up!

The purposes for the other tools:

  • Purple marker: noted flashbacks, internal monologue, and transitions (all of which were used SPARINGLY!)
  • red pen, to do what red pens always do!
  • green pen – to record MRUs – ooooh what’s that? I’ll get into that in my next blog.
  • Index Card app: After I completed each chapter I recorded for each scene: the number of the scene, the chapter it belongs to, the act it was from, the headline, the goal, conflict, disaster, the number of words and MRUs (oh! there it is again!) and humor.  And for each sequel I did the same thing, but recording the reaction, dilemma, and decision instead.

What good did it do?

I quickly realized when I was missing key components.  Sometimes an entire sequel was missing.  I have at least 5 scenes or sequels that need to be written – and one entire chapter.  And the opposite is true too.  I am able to see what isn’t a scene or sequel that is moving the story forward and can be discarded.  Repetition, lack of scene setting, drifting from the plot,  wordiness – it all stands out more.    I noticed my habit is to often skip past a reaction by the MC to the disaster.  And I’m sure there is more too.  Thankfully, it’s all recorded on my index cards!

Next time – MRUs. They are nothing like MRIs!

Til then,

Happy Writing!

By the way, what it one thing you always include on your index card when you are analyzing your story?

Westview Questions of the Week

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Mrs. O'Leary and her cow

Mrs. O’Leary and her cow

I recently visited Westview Elementary School in Champaign, IL.   I brought some questions home with me to answer on the blog.  May I add, I am impressed by the thoughtfulness of the questions.

1.  Do you like being an author?

I do enjoy writing quite a lot.  It is a bigger job than I ever imagined and sometimes incredibly challenging.  On the other hand, I enjoy seeing a story come to life at my fingertips and I LOVE hearing about the enjoyment my book brought to others.  If I can write something that makes kids want to read, then every moment of the battle during the creation is worth it!

2.  When did I first decide to write?

Sometime in 2001 I was reading about the Great Chicago Fire and thought it would make an exciting setting for a historical fiction children’s novel.  At that time I was a teacher and didn’t have the time to even dream about writing let alone try to do it.  A few years ago after being a stay-at-home mom for a while the interest came back to me.  Then one day I was sitting at a cafe by myself having some lunch and thought about how some really great ideas started on napkins.  And so I began writing some words of a story, not on napkins, I did have a notepad with me.  I had no idea what I was doing or where it would take me.  But it was fun.  (The words weren’t so good when I look back at it, but it was a great way to get started!)

3.  How many books have I written?

This is my first, but certainly not the last.  I have ideas bubbling in my head, so I need to finish this one and move onto the next!

4. Does the book have to be like the movie?

Generally, the book comes first and only a very small number of books are turned into movies.  I love to watch movies, but nine times out of ten the books are always better!

5.  How did the fire start?

For a very long time a poor cow was blamed.  Someone put that idea in the newspaper and it became fact, even though it wasn’t.   The world thought that a cow owned by Mrs. O’Leary knocked over a lantern while being milked.  That fire grew uncontrollably due to several reasons and burned for two days destroying much of the city.  In my research I read a book call The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow by Richard Bales.  In this book the cow and Mrs. O’Leary are proved innocent.  It appears that the likely cause was someone smoking behind the barn and accidentally started a fire.  No one stepped forward to take the blame.

6.  What does the main character look like?

My main character is a twelve year old boy who is an Irish Catholic.  He is lanky with black hair and blue eyes.

7.  How do you focus?

It is very easy to get distracted or to feel lazy!  It is sometimes hard to sit and get started.  If the house is too quiet it’s hard for me to concentrate.  Having soft music on or something like the weather channel or a news channel on quietly provides enough noise to help.  But if I put on a show that I like, forget about it, I’m watching tv instead!  It also helps me to set a goal.  Once I get started I want to reach that goal.  If it’s a really tough day to focus, I may even give myself a reward for completing that goal.

Documentary Novel vs Historical Fiction

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identity crisisYou write about what you already know, right?  But, you also write about things you want learn more about.   Admittedly, after researching this topic I may be more confused than when I started.  Let me see if I can work it out!

The easy part: Historical Fiction

  • The setting of the story is historical, a real time and place of years past.
  • Characters: Most of the characters are fictional, some may be real
  • Plot: Events through the plot will be a blend of true and created.
  • Historical: The writer presents historical information accurately.
  • Fiction: The plot is the engine of the book, history is secondary, but must be accurate.

Examples

  • Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
  • The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Goodreads has a list of 653 of the Best Children’s Historical Fiction.

The hiccup: (and something I learned in my research!)

In order for a story to be historical fiction, it must be historical to the author.  If I were writing a novel set in London 2013 about a girl who desperately wanted to become a nanny for the future king, it would be contemporary fiction right?  In twenty years it would still be contemporary fiction from a different time.  So the argument then is books like those written by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Laura Ingalls Wilder would not be historical fiction because at the time they were written they were contemporary fiction.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Onto documentary novel – the waters get a little more muddy for me here.

I have seen three different definitions for documentary novel.

1.  True event + real people told in a narrative format.  (plot, dialogue, characterization)

  • From this definition, I have only found one title that keeps appearing, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.  I have not read this book, so I can not speak accurately to it.

until . . .

  • Loving vs Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell came out in January 2017. Loving vs VirginiaAnd this one I have read. It is written in verse and alternates between the two lead characters, who are historical figures. I spoke to Patricia regarding this book. It is as historically accurate as is possible considering the main characters have both passed away. Through in depth interviews with friends and family she was able to ascertain specific details to the events of the story. The area that the author must take a little liberty is when there is dialogue.

2.  A historical fiction novel that includes articles of history within the pages.  These may include quotes, advertisements, and the like.

  • Countdown by Deborah Wiles is an example of this.  Newspaper clippings, advertisements, and quotes are scattered between the chapters.

3.  A historical fiction novel in which the format appears like non-fiction articles.

  • The title that came up most often for this genre was Nothing but the Truth by Avi.  This is written as a series of diary entries, dialogue – as it would be seen in a play, memos.  Again, I haven’t read this one, but I am curious and it’s made my list of books to read.

So now that I see these definitions of documentary novel, I am wondering if that is the genre my book will fall into.  I have considered the idea of including bits from newspapers in my Chicago Fire book.  So now my question is, is that my choice or the editors?

What kind are you writing? Historical fiction or documentary novel?

Next time I will share the strategy I have been using to dissect my novel.  And boy, has it been eye opening!

Until then,

Enjoy Playing with Words!

Five things children look for in a good book

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boy reading to snakeMy favorite part of the school day was most often literature circle.  There was something very special about talking about a good book!  It connected people to each other, even students who didn’t always see eye-to-eye.  It gave them a chance to vent about their own lives when a character went through something they could relate to.  It was always therapeutic, informative, and bonding!

While children’s interests are as varied as their personalities, there are some elements that are consistently attractive to children.

1. Humor – Children love to laugh and they should! How many times has a child told you a joke that made absolutely no sense, but they burst out laughing anyway?  So make sure you include moments of humor.  Even if you’re writing a serious drama of a dark world, you must include moments of levity.  So what’s funny? That’s up to you.  Keep a little notebook handy and write down the things that amuse you.  What cracks you up?  Books reveal much about the author.  The humor you include must be funny to you in order for it to be funny to others.  Did you ever see a comedian delivering a joke he didn’t think was funny?  It just doesn’t work.

2.  Intrigue – Keep them guessing! Cliffhangers, twists, how will the character ever get out of the mess they got themselves into?  As adults we may think the plot is predictable, but that’s because we have read so much and we are not easily fooled.  And if you can pull off the unexpected and surprise your reader you have them hooked! I bet you will even figure out how to fool the well-read reader because you are that good.

3.  Something to talk about – Let’s face it, kids love to gossip!   The worst thing that can happen, has to happen IN EACH SCENE.  Don’t make anything easy for your MC and kids will be talking about it.

4.  Identification – Your reader needs to relate to the MC on basic struggles, so they care about the big struggles.  Most children have limited experiences to build from, but the core of children is the same.  They want to be loved, accepted, have friends, succeed, not embarrass themselves, privacy, have fun, to be safe, and more! That’s a lot of basic stuff to work with.

BUT, you still have to . . .

5.  Suspend reality – Your MC has to do things a typical child will never have to do.  Who wants to read a book that is as ordinary as life? We read to experience things we never could, to go places that are out of reach (some that don’t exist on this plane or in this time period), to be someone so very different (yet similar).

It’s so easy, isn’t it?

What’s missing from this list?

Next time I’ll compare historical fiction to documentary novel.  Which one are you writing? Are you sure?

Until then,

Enjoy Playing with Words!

Tackling Character’s Voice in 3 Ways

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Who am I? courtesy uskidsmags.com

Who am I?
courtesy uskidsmags.com

Which is easier: creating life or performing total reconstructive surgery where no vital organ or system is left untouched?

The nice thing about writing the rough draft was the liberty to write garbage just to move the story forward and find the end.  Now it’s time for surgery.  We’ll be hanging out in Revision Step Three: First Rewrite for a little bit.

During my reread, one of the things that stood out to me was the feeling that the main characters did not have a strong enough voice that easily identified them.  I don’t want my reader to rely on dialogue tags to know who is speaking.  The three characters I most need to focus on are my main character, the antagonist, and my main character’s sidekick.  These guys get the most words on the page, so they better count.

There are three things I am doing to help me craft their separate voices.

1.  Write a scene that occurs outside of the story.  Stories generally start on the day when life changes for the MC.  To help learn the character’s voice I have written scenes that occurred prior to or outside of the story, when life was normal, an everyday kind of conflict, an everyday kind of event.  No high drama, just take a look at your character before their world gets turned upside down.  I wrote a scene for my sidekick eating breakfast with her family the morning of the Great Fire.  It was lovely and funny, and I hate that there is no purpose for it in the story, but it’s nice having this special scene just for me.  It made me more familiar with the sidekick by helping me see her in her natural environment.

2.  Change the point of view. My story is being written from the third person, omniscient to the MC, but not all characters.  For a while my MC was not turning out the way I wanted him to be and, honestly, I didn’t really like him.  I rewrote the opening scene in the first person and I really got inside his head.  This naturally changed other parts of the opening scene, but I think it was all for the better.  I am keeping the story in third person, but stepping out and writing “diary entries” brings me tighter to my character without so much of the author’s filter getting in the way.

My Favorite:

3. Determine your character’s personality type.  There is a lot of research that goes into writing.  One of the golden nuggets I happened upon was The Myers Briggs Test.  Four short questions later and I found out which of sixteen different personalities my MC fell into.  Then I found High Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types.  What do I like about this?

  • It’s fun – who doesn’t like to take multiple choice personality tests?
  • It validated my perception of my MC, antagonist, and sidekick when I started reading their descriptions.
  • It gave me ideas to consider to make their personalities deeper.  None of them are the same personality type as I am.  (Of course I took it too.  How could I resist?)  Therefore, I don’t think exactly as they would.  For example, my MC is an ISTJ (Introverted Sensing with Extraverted Thinking), which the High Level people termed “The Duty Fulfiller.”  In the research I read, “The ISTJ’s word is as good as gold, and they honor their commitments faithfully.”  Well, I have a scene where my MC goes back on his word.  Even though this needs to happen for the sake of my book’s pacing, the MC has to be really conflicted about it.  AND the sidekick has to show the MC the value in the changed plan or else there is no way an ISTJ  would go for it.  A couple lines of dialogue and the text will be richer and the MC will be deeper.

OK – two bonus ideas

4. Raise the conflict.  Every conflict the character is in reveals more about him.  Keep making life harder for him and you will find out who he is.

5.  Skip the dialogue.  Once I start writing dialogue a scene can get away from me, a bit like chasing rabbits.  Write a scene (with conflict of course!) but very limited dialogue.  Stay close to the character’s thoughts, body language, reactions. You are most likely making this kid up, the more you know about him, the more you can reveal, the better the reader can identify with him.

What tricks do you use for developing your character’s voice?

I know you are going to take the personality test.  I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours 🙂

Next time:  Show don’t tell, using body language (I don’t know how many times my characters shrug and nod.  Somebody help me!)

Til then,

Enjoy Playing with Words!

BTW – I am attending the Wild Wild Midwest Conference with SCBWI this weekend.  Of course they have the no blogging policy, but who knows what ideas will spin from it!

Revision Step Two: Read through Rough Draft

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Read Through   Relatively painless.  But I know its the calm before the storm.

What I did:

1. Treated it like a book.  I sat somewhere comfy, usually on my couch after my whirlwinds were in bed.  Sometimes with a glass of wine.  But unlike reading for leisure, I had highlighter,  red pen, post-it tags, and notepad ready to go. Oh and a very critical attitude!

2.  Made a list of notes/symbols I would use.  My goal is not to do  major notes or writing scenes at this point.  I want to get through this bad boy in a few sittings.  The tags I used:

  • <—> reorder
  • zzzzz dragging
  • (  ) confusing
  • ?? cut/change
  • highlight – awkward/take another look at
  • + add details
  • – make concise
  • BL add body language
  • VIS visualize/add sensory details
  • 🙂 keep

3. Get reading.  The goal of this read through is big picture kind of stuff.  There is no point to line edit now, it would actually be a big waste of time.  I need to be merciless nonetheless.   I am not married to these words.  These characters work for me!  (Ever get evaluated on the job? Nothing like having a surprise observation by the principal when you’re having an off day!)

These characters and scenes have a job to do and if they’re not making life more complicated for my MC (main character), contributing to or setting up conflict, and making me want to turn the page, then I need to go back to them and consider their value – do they get the pink slip or remediation?  Yes, there are characters and scenes that are absolutely delightful.  The picture was painted vividly and the characters sounded really real.  But if they’re not doing their job, I have to be tough.  And I will keep these scenes in a deleted scenes folder for me to go back to and enjoy the beauty of my thoughts some other time.

Through the course of the read through it became very clear the parts I enjoyed writing and the parts I forced myself to get through!

4.  After reading I took some time for an essential part – more reflection.  It’s a best practice in education for a reason.  People need time to process and absorb what they’ve learned.  This is true for revising as well.  I am learning things about my writing while I’m reading it.  I need to grant myself time to reflect on my writing and not just jump right into the rewrite.  My rewrite will hopefully be more thoughtful and accomplish more if I take time to formally think about it.

Reflection questions after the first read through:

  • What glaring issues stand out?
  • Are there any scenes that can be cut? What needs to be done in order to cut them?
  • How’s the MC? Do I like him? Do I cheer for him?  Is he relatable? What changes need to take place to make him more attractive as a MC?
  • Is my antagonist believable?  Do I really dislike him?  What more needs to be done to make him more undesirable?
  • What are the really weak scenes that need a lot of attention to be saved?  What do they need?
  • What research still needs to be done?
  • Is the climax/resolution all it should be? Did I feel tension? Does it wrap up the ongoing conflict from the story? Is my end in my beginning?

I am sure there is more I should be thinking about at this point, but what it is I haven’t figured out yet.  If you have any reflection questions you think should be added to the list, leave a comment.

One more thing, I found this blog by James Scott Bell on revision.  One of his suggestions: Consider what a critic would objectively say after reading your manuscript, write it in a short essay.

I would say: The bones of the story are good, but there’s a lot of flab!

Next time I will tackle one of my glaring issues: voice! making sure each character is identifiable without seeing the dialogue tag!

til then – Enjoy Playing with Words!

Time to Revise! Step one: Reflect

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Stormy Day

Rainy days are designed for reading.  So today is a great day to get to reading my manuscript!   I took the recommended few weeks away from it and am ready to tackle it once again.

Where to start?  There are a lot of ideas out there.  So my revision process is certainly NOT mine but a compilation of many who have been there, done that.   There is no point to reinvent the wheel, right?

During my break from writing I took the time to read Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway and I gathered a lot of ideas to pay attention to during the revision process that will certainly surface during future blogs.  But before I crack the spine of the “Working Manuscript” binder, I needed to reflect on my book and focus on its big picture.  When I started writing it, I did not do a lot of pre-writing (besides researching the history side of it).  So now that the rough is finished I need to narrow the lens and get a tighter focus.

This brought me to a blog by Holly Lisle titled: One-Pass Manuscript Revision: From First Draft to Last in One Cycle.  Ya, I won’t even attempt to revise in one pass, but  I will probably turn back to the steps she shares many times.   I appreciate her suggestion to start the revision process by discovering what my story is all about.

Her first five tasks are:

  • “Write down your theme in 15 words or less.”

This was easier than I thought.  You know when you are given a word limit it adds pressure.  But I did it, and I think it is about right.

Obligation to family versus following your own dream.  Yep – that’s what I came up with.

  • “If you have sub-themes and know what they are, write them down too.”

It turns out I have about six sub-themes that I was able to identify off the top, there are probably more subtle ones that will come to the surface later.

We all have a story – societal positions – feminism (even though my MC is male) – overcoming fears – dealing with the death of a loved one – influence of religion  This feels like I’m missing something, but that’s OK.

  • “Write down what the book is about in twenty-five words or less.”

Twenty-five words is not a lot! About my story that has more than 60,000 of them!  (Ya, it’s way too long for my target audience – but it will get there!) This went through a few versions.

Boy aspires for things beyond family tradition, battles fears, fire, and family in pursuit of his own dream.  18 words!

  • “Write down a one-line story arc for the book’s main character.”

It turned into the longest run-on sentence in the history of run-on sentences.  Well, maybe not.  I used to teach fifth grade and I have seen the use of “and” seventeen times in one sentence.  But, is running-on a bad habit of mine?  No, I am one of the most concise writers I know.  (ha ha – remember the 60,000 + words I have to chisel!)  And I certainly never drift off topic!  (Hey, when you have two little children, you are used to having three or four conversations at one time.  It just so happens that may brain continues to do this whether I am with my whirlwinds or not!)

Anyway, I procrastinate . . .

MC battles fears, foes, fire, prejudice (couldn’t think of an F words), and family during the Great Chicago Fire and saves a few lives along the way, but ultimately sacrifices his own dreams for the sake of his family.

Then the biggy:

  • “Write down the main characters, and a paragraph of no more than about 250 words describing the story, sort of like the blurb on the back of a paperback.”

THIS WAS HARD! All of these previous steps certainly helped, but it was not pretty.  Started off with black ink, went to orange, then red.  With arrows and line-throughs everywhere! It turned into less than 200 words (oh-ya! 172 actually!) but I don’t think I would want it on the back of my book just yet.  And therefore, I am not putting it out here either.

But what did all of this really do?  It gave me the narrowed focus I need for my read through.  It also brought to my attention plot and character adjustments I want to make.  It was well worth the hour and a half it took to do this.

Next week I will discuss what I do during my read through of my rough draft, the second step of my revision process.

Til then, enjoy playing with words!

BTW, What do you reflect on to help you steer your manuscript?

And one more thing – credit where credit is due – the link to Holly Lisle in case you would like to see what else she says.