Writing Update

Yesterday I finished my revision of Thrice-Blessed and sent it off to Awesome Agent Jim.

I feel strangely confident about this ms. It was a sort of euphoric revision. I knew I was making it better; I could just tell. I added two scenes, but otherwise there were no huge structural changes, mostly world-building and character stuff. I keep feeling like–shouldn’t it be harder than this? Shouldn’t I feel all doubtful and angsty? I fought so much with my last book, and I worked on it for so long that I had a sort of revision blindness about whether I was making it better. Writing and revising Thrice has been really joyful and…I don’t want to say easy, because it’s never exactly easy. But…lighter.

I am so excited about this ms. It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever written and I can’t wait to see what Jim thinks of it and what happens next!

Now I have two manuscripts to read for my awesome critique partners and a host of ARCs from ALA to catch up on. I am also turning my attentions to what, in lieu of an actual title, I am calling the Theatre Ghost Book. Last week’s research involved high school theatre rehearsal schedules, central PA last names, and high school juniors’ curricula. This week’s work involved buying a copy of the play adaptation of LITTLE WOMEN and researching death stats (how many people in a particular area die per year, and per month, from which causes and at what ages). Tomorrow I’m going to research the notion of auras and also color signifiers!

Ooh, and now that I think I’ve nailed down the characters’ names and basic premise, I’m going to start plotting this weekend. After I finish the first season of Vampire Diaries. (Priorities!) For Thrice I used a modified version of this 9-box plot tool described by C.J. Omololu. It was crazy-helpful so I’m going to see if it works again.

What about you? Do you pre-write or outline or research, or do you just dive right in?