vlog | Michelle Proulx - Author

Posts Tagged With: vlog

Thoughts on Manuscript Pruning

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

So as you may know, I’m trying to cut my manuscript by 21k words to bring it down to 100k. Ready for the current word count?

Drumroll, please.

dadadadadadada ((drum roll))

108,354 words

I know, right?!! I’m more than halfway there! Woo! And I didn’t even cut out that much — it’s mainly tightening up sentence structure, deleting adverbs, and destroying the word “suddenly” whenever I come across it. I have cut out a few scenes, but they’re always either redundant, never did make sense in the first place, or both.

So despite my initial worries about this whole process, I’m actually really glad I did it. The book is going to be much tighter now, which should make it a quicker and easier read without losing any of the fun/humor/romance/action/angst. (I’m kidding, there really isn’t any angst. Well, except for the part where ****** sells ****** to the ****** and then ******* kills ****** — but other than that, no angst!).

I’m positively chipper today, aren’t I? Maybe because I’m halfway down to 100k words, and I’m not even halfway through the manuscript yet. I wonder how short it will be when I’m finished? My current bet is 95k words. That’s still a decent length for a book, right? RIGHT?

It occurs to me that I might be getting ahead of myself. I’ve still got 8k words to cut, after all, and that’s going to take at least another few weeks. Cutting your manuscript is a marathon, not a sprint. Luckily, writers are particularly dangerous over short distances. Did I just directly contradict my metaphors? Yes. Did I horribly botch a LOTR quote? Also yes.

I’ve really got to work on that.

Anyway, I’m planning to record another vlog (because that didn’t take *forever* last time). As such, I shall share a secret with you:

My editor/manager will be appearing on the vlog!

She’s also my mom, so be nice if you happen to leave a comment. I don’t know what we’re going to talk about — I imagine I’ll take about an hour’s worth of footage, then cut it down to 5 minutes of random chatter — but whatever we talk about, it’ll be awesome. So stay tuned!

Phenomenal game of the day: ((click here to play!))

Try not to die when the unicorn evolves. It’s harder than it looks. And make sure to pop back here and tell me your high scores!!!

Categories: Writing | Tags: adult swim, author, books, ebooks, editing, imminent danger, robot unicorn attack, self-publish, vlog, writing | 18 Comments

I’ve finally submitted my manuscript!

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Michelle Proulx

This image has nothing to do with the post. I just like it because it’s awesome.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s official. I have finalized the manuscript for Imminent Danger and How to Fly Straight into It. It is written, edited, revised, and submitted to iUniverse via their incredibly complex submission form.

So what does this mean?

Step One: Editorial Evaluation

To quote Rebekka, my iUniverse “Check-In Coordinator”:

Your project is now ready for its Editorial Evaluation. Your project will be assigned an Editorial Consultant and you should hear from them within 2 – 3 weeks (once your Editorial Evaluation is finished). It’s helpful for you to understand that the Editorial Evaluation is a general overview of your manuscript, which focuses on key industry-standard areas, based on your genre of book. Some of these might include: point of view, grammar, plot points, etc. At the end of the Editorial Evaluation, you will receive a 10-15 page form, which highlights areas of possible improvement in your manuscript and gives you pointers regarding how to make your manuscript more marketable.

Now, my hope *fingers crossed* is that there won’t be many suggested changes. I hope this because I have had approximately 15 people read the manuscript and made a zillion revisions based on their suggestions, so there really shouldn’t be all that much left in the book needing fixing.

Of course, these are professional editors reading the manuscript, so they’ll probably catch something or suggest something that my myriad proof readers missed. I’m cool with that. As long as they don’t tell me to “re-write the entire book” like one super-helpful reader did (*sarcasm*), I’m good.

While I wait for the Editorial Evaluation …

I bite my nails and hope it turns out well! No, seriously, I will probably get back to editing the sequel to Imminent Danger. When last I checked in on it, it was titled Interspecies Relationships and How to Make an Already Complicated Situation Worse. As that is somewhat of a mouthful, the title will be one of the first things I change.

My big thing with a sequel is making sure it’s as good (or nearly as good) as the first book. Because is there anything worse than reading a sub-par sequel to a book you love? Famine is worse, probably. Poverty. Child soldiers. Slavery. But you get my point!

And what is there in store for us, your loyal blog followers?

I just switched to “FAQ” mode. Whoops. Anyway, I really want to start posting excerpts from the book, which y’all may or may not read at your leisure. That won’t happen until the Editorial Evaluation gets back, however, so until then … expect pretty much the same. Random thoughts on writing, links to various photos/videos that probably no one but me enjoys, etc.

Woo!

Thanks, as always, for letting me ramble on. Speaking of Ramble On, that song has an entire verse about Lord of the Rings. Talk about awesome.

Right. So that’s my news, as well as my random link of the day. Happy Thursday!

PS: Can I even say PS in a blog? Right. Moving on. Does anyone have an opinion on vlogs? Good? Bad? Annoying? Would anyone watch an unknown author ramble about her publishing experience for 3-4 minutes? I won’t force you to watch any vlogs if you say yes.