As of yesterday, I have officially hit the halfway point in my exhaustive edit of Chasing Nonconformity. Huzzah!
Mother and I started off our editing “SHWOOP” sessions, as we call them, back in February. We meet on Google Hangout every few days and spend an hour or two working our way through the book. This was very slow going, as it usually consisted of mother reading a sentence, staring at it, deciding she didn’t like it, and then telling me to re-write it with very vague directions on what she thought should change. This might repeat four or five times for a single sentence before we moved on to the next and started the whole process again.
You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. It was taking forever.
Then, a few days ago, inspiration hit. More like common sense. If both of us go through the chapter separately before we meet, we’ll have already ironed out all the wrinkles and the SHWOOP session itself will be smooth sailing!
Has your brain exploded yet? Because mine did.
Anyway, our SHWOOP sessions over the past week have been going phenomenally well. We get at least a chapter done a day–two yesterday!–and we’re practically flying through the book now. It probably also helps that we’ve hit the halfway point and the action’s really picking up, so we may or may not be getting through it faster as a result.
I thought I’d share some random facts about the book with you now, since you’ve all waited so patiently and deserve a teaser. Please note that everything listed below might change–I still need to do my uber-beta-reading round, and comments from that could easily shift things around. Anyway, as promised …
*SPOILER ALERT*
An insider look at the current draft (not final, but getting close) of Chasing Nonconformity
- # of chapters = 42
- Current word count = 98,997
- POV characters = Eris, Varrin, Miguri, & Sebara (new character!)
- Planets/systems visited = 6
- # of times Varrin smirks = 14
- # of times Grashk hisses = 17
- # of times any character sighs = 66 (oh dear)
- First sentence in the book = “Sebara paced outside the bronze double doors that led into the private chambers of Trystan Gara’dar, second son of the emperor of Rakor.”
The end.
Unrelated media of the day:
Okay, this is a fun one: Harry Potter quotes taken out of context … (Source)
Michelle Proulx - Author 
A lot of Snape in those quotes. Good luck with the rest of the editing.
Haha yes, apparently Snape is a very suggestive man. And now that I’ve said that in a sentence … ick.
Definitely gross.
Reblogged this on mishaburnett and commented:
The long wait is… still going on. But it is possible that I will get the sequel I’ve been waiting for before I’m too old and feeble to read it.
Oh my goodness! This summer — promise 🙂 Granted, it may be the end of the summer, but it’s coming!
Lol – the Potter bits are hilarious! 😀
As for the update, congrats on the breakthrough! You reminded me of my first editor, who would simply comment “surely you can find a better way of saying this” whenever she didn’t like something… I so wish she would tell me what was wrong with those parts 😀
Isn’t it frustrating??? Sometimes, after the sixth or seventh rewrite, I’ll be like “Mom, just TELL me what you want me to write!” and she’ll go “Oh no, you’re the writer, I’m just the editor”. It’s maddening.
And thanks! My mind is still kind of spinning from how vastly more efficient this new method is.
Great quotes. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the editing process… wish I could say the same.
Well, “enjoying” is a strong word. More like “enjoying it marginally more than I was previously, which was not very much at all”. But it is nice to finally be going at a decent clip–that much I can say 🙂 Happy editing!
I now have that imagine of Flitch and Snape stuck in my head, now can you tell me how I can wash my brain?
Ahahahaha. Well, in the theme of Harry Potter, I would suggest a good Scourgify spell.
Good luck with the editing. Looking forward to reading the sequel. About half way through the book right now – good stuff.
Many thanks 🙂 More good stuff to come!