First round of edits, DONE!
Hiii, everyone.
So, today I went to the pool. Got a little bit more tan. Almost finished reading XVI. Anddd ….
I FINISHED THE FIRST ROUND OF EDITS for my yet-to-be-named contemporary YA that takes place in Las Vegas! Which needs a name, because it would just be easier that way, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it should be.
310 pages, and can’t figure out a name. Go me.
I don’t want to jinx myself or anything (not that I necessarily believe in “jinxing” oneself), but the first draft of this novel was relatively decent. I actually felt caught up in reading it. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing because it’s interesting to read (at least it was to me), or a bad thing because I might have missed edits, but we’ll see. I’m about to print it out to do paper edits, and I usually catch more there.
And so the cycle begins. Computer edits. Paper edits. Computer edits. Paper edits. You get it. Sometimes it feels endless. And I feel bad for the trees because I use so much paper. But hey, at least I buy recycled paper.
On another note, I haven’t heard back from publishers on the novel that my agent submitted recently. I’m going to be positive and look at that as a “no one has said no yet!” Which they haven’t.
Watch me get a “no” tomorrow. Or, back to positivity, maybe I’ll get The Call.
Except that it’s a Sunday, so neither of those will most likely happen.
Time to do some MAJOR printing! As in, 310 pages of it. And then finish reading XVI.
xoxo,
Michelle
Yay! That's so awesome, Michelle! I can't wait to read it. The name will come to you. Enjoy your editing, editing, editing, and when it's ready, send it my way! 🙂
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I have a question, on what program do you write your novels?
Do you use Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer or iWork, etc, because I am currently writing a novel and I was wondering if it is different for when you finish it, print it out, and hand it in to an editor. Would the novel be shorter on a book if the printed pages are 300 pgs, and then on the book it's only 130? Or would the font have to be in account?
I know it's too early to be concerned about this yet, but I was just curious.
@Karla — I use Microsoft Word to write my novels. I also have a lot of notes, and to keep track of those I use TextEdit (Notepad on Windows). When you query agents (once you get an agent, they'll shop it to editors for you), the agent will ask to read your manuscript. They will either ask you to snail mail it or email it. The industry format is Microsoft Word, 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1″ margins. The publishing house takes care of how to format the manuscript into a novel, but generally YA novels should be around 60,000 – 80,000 words.