A Week of Mondays – Week 10 #BehindTheBook

I hope everyone’s having a great NaNoWriMo! I’m busying revising away and trying to fill in the countless blanks in my manuscript. Sheehs, Past Jessica! You really left me some big work!

Here’s a recap of what I did this week!

WEEKLY SUMMARY:

Date: 11/5/14 – 11/12/14
Word Count at the end of Last Week: 70,773
Word Count at the end of This Week: 74,450
Net Change: +3677
Total Pages Revised: 109

I spent another week revising what I already have and filling in holes that I’d left behind when I was “fast drafting” One giant hole that I filled up was a very important climatic scene that repeats itself each day (so I really had to get it right). When I was writing the first draft, I kept skipping this scene, because A) I wasn’t inspired to write it and B) I didn’t have enough information to write it. I knew this scene would be pivotal in each of the seven Mondays. I also knew this scene had to progress as the week went on and build upon the last iteration of it. And so I wanted to wait until I had more of the story ironed before I tackled it.

Earlier on in the week, I tried to write the scene and it came out horribly. I trashed the whole thing. Then I was afraid to try again, afraid that the second attempt would be just as horrible. I called up my very good friend Morgan Matson (who is my plotting buddy) and we talked it through. She offered me some great advice and sparked some amazing ideas. But I was still afraid to write the scene. So I did what I always do when I’m “stuck.” I went and got a massage. I do some of my best brainstorming on the massage table. I’m not sure why. Something about my mind relaxing, I don’t know! But it worked. Like it always does. Something clicked on that table and after the massage, I ran to my car to record the idea into my phone. I attempted to rewrite teh scene the next day and although it wasn’t perfect, I knew it was on the right track. It was a frame work I can work with. So over the next few days I started rewriting the other iterations of that scene and they continued to work. I also filled in a few more blank spots that I’d left along the way, rearranged a few blocks of text that weren’t working where they were, and added to my revision to-do list.

I’m almost caught up to the part where I left off on the first draft (middle of day 5). Once I catch up and I’ve filled all the holes I can, I’ll continue on with day 5 and finish the draft…as in, write “the end.” Then I’ll do another full pass of revision and another read-through before turning it in (hopefully by Thanksgiving!)

In case you missed the first post, I’m live blogging (diary style) the progress of writing my new manuscript, A WEEK OF MONDAYS (which will be released by FSG/Macmillan in Spring 2016), to give fellow writers (and readers) an inside look into my writing process. And maybe give me a little insight as well!

Click here to read the first post or you can follow all the posts by clicking here.