Category Archives: Writing Business

Fail Deadly, the Next Step: ß

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I am almost finished with Alpha, soon to need Beta. Which is to say, I am near the end of the rewrite of my third novel, Fail Deadly.

The first draft was the easy part … six months on a roller coaster ride, wind in the face, screaming along the tracks of the plot. Unalloyed joy. Then began the hard part: Rewrite. I am truly fortunate to be a member of three critique groups, so the chapters have gone before a jury of talented writers. Line by line, character by character, week by painstaking week, they have stayed with the story. They are, in the parlance of writerdom, the Alpha readers. I am almost through integrating many of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of suggestions.

The next step is the Beta. The Alphas can’t do it — they’re too familiar with the detail. I will need several people willing to read the manuscript all the way through, looking for character flaws, plot inconsistencies. Or perhaps most valuable to me (as well as most painful), saying, “I got bored at page X and couldn’t finish.”

If you, dear reader are interested in being a Beta, let me know through Contact page or straight to gotuit5243@gmail.com.  I’ll have the manuscript in Word and PDF files, e-books in Kindle and Nook formats, as well as a few paper copies.

Writing Time

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I am beta testing a new online writing class produced by a fellow member of Minneapolis Writers Guild. She’s a great writer, young and therefore tech-savvy. So the course ought to be good. (See Click Clack Writing for more. The developers say the course will be out early next year,)

The second lesson talks about writing space (I have a comfortably messy one) and time. Specifically, being purposeful about setting aside a time to write.

Ulp.  I was going to start drafting the fourth novel in May.  Today, I have bupkis.

You’re retired, right?

No, goddammit, I’m a writer now. My next career.

But you have plenty of time to write, no?  Because you’re,  uhh, re… a writer.

Umm. Theoretically, yes. Practically, not so much.

The last six months has been mostly devoted to publishing my first book, Fatal Score. That’s part of writing, isn’t it?  So the investment of maybe 500 hours is justifiable … particularly since I have a series.  Next book will be 200 hours.

Then there are the critique groups.  When we moved back to the Twin Cities, I was anxious to find a writing group. Sometimes anxiety over-produces. I’m in three now.  600 hours per year for meetings and reading submissions.  The critiques are great, and lead to a couple hundred hours a year of rewrite.

This year, that’s a 2/3-time job before the first new word goes on paper.

You said you’re a writer. You claimed it as your next ‘career’. Careers are by definition full time. So, what about the other 1/3?

Well, life is what happens when you’re making other plans.

November will see the launch of Fatal Score.  By February, I’ll be finished editing the audio version.  Some new words of the next draft will surely leak out before then, because the writing reservoir is full to overflowing.

But yes, I do need a goal.

On to lesson three of the new class.