Ding Ding! Round One Complete

Image: ningmilo / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tonight I finally finished my first proper round of edits on my WIP. Only two months after I hoped I would! Getting to "the end" again was highly satisfying. Having to do it all again while incorporating notes from my critique partners feels a bit daunting right now, so I'm going to take a little break.

Even as I've worked through this process I've been learning a lot. I've been reading blogs and articles about how to tighten your voice, developing conflict and structure, and tips for showing not telling (which I struggle with). It's great to be able to have at least some objectivity about my work, and actually see places where I need to apply the learnings. There've already been some insights from the critiques I've received so far. I feel like I'm growing as a writer.

It's amazing how you don't pick up some things until you've stepped back from the story a bit. I said on Twitter the other day that I have a fondness for character names starting with "J", but this week I discovered two Steves and two Stevens. My characters would also look and smile a lot, and love taking deep breaths. They frequently felt sheepish (but maybe that was just me on their behalf). I'm going to do some Wordle clouds again to see which words I'm still over-using.

To take a break before I dive into round two, I'm going to have a go at the dreaded synopsis. I also have several different versions of a possible query, so I'd like to start narrowing down my approach.