Thursday, July 29, 2010

A sign?

Last week when I was at Chautauqua and having all that trouble printing, I made a mistake. I was frustrated, trying to add printers, change default printers, and generally do whatever it took just to get something, anything, to hand in. While trying to print a chapter outline that my mentor had requested, I left several jobs in the print queue for my printer at home. Which, in my rush, I totally forgot about. So this week, when I went to print out some Slushbusters critiques for our meeting, guess what happened? Yup. I now have multiple copies of said chapter outline.

The most important information I got last week about my manuscript was to spend more time looking at the big picture. My mentor helped me see that my plot needs some work. Theme is clear, characters are pretty good, voice is good. Plot. Needs. Help. I was told that this is the fun part. Boy, I sure hope so! Regarding it as the fun part is way better than thinking of it as more work I have yet to do on this manuscript I've been working on for over three years.

I had been considering marking up my hard copy of the manuscript. I'm not a pen-in-hand kind of reviser. I'm more of a read-it-on-the-screen-and-delete girl. Now that I have on my desk all these copies of the very outline I need to revise, I'm thinking it might be a sign.

Tomorrow, the red pen and I have a date with at least one of those copies.

3 comments:

Kristi Tuck Austin said...

How did the date with the pen and outline go?

Michelle said...

Great! I also have an outlining worksheet I got from my mentor. I still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling very motivated.

BTW, Kristi, I saw you're signed up for JRW. I'm planning to register, so we'll see you there!

Kristi Tuck Austin said...

That is fantastic to hear. I'm excited for you.

I hoped you would register for JRW. I keep checking for you and the other Slushbusters.