Celebrating the Delivery of a Manuscript

Hallelujah! I can back away from the keyboard that I've been bent over for months. On Sunday, April 1st, I delivered the manuscript for Cataract Canyon, the third book of my RM Outdoor Adventures series, to my acquisition editor at Midnight Ink. Yes, April 1st was the due date, and I was working on edits and prose polishing right up to minutes before I hit the Send button.

I'm proud of the book, and I feel that it unravels an interesting and intense mystery that stresses my characters. However, every time I read a chapter, I found something to improve or change, even though each of the chapters has gone through multiple edits.

And frankly, I'm going to continue to edit the manuscript after I turned it in. My critique group has yet to give me feedback on the last two chapters, and I'll incorporate their suggestions in the manuscript. After it rests for a couple of weeks, I'll read through it again, and I'm sure I'll find things to change. I'll fold these changes in with those that I will make as a result of my editor's feedback. In the meantime, I'm on pins & needles, hoping that she likes it and doesn't have too many changes for me. I'm sure she'll have some, though.


I just hope her feedback doesn't take the form of the above photo. Wish me luck, please!

The Next Phase: Full Manuscript Review

Like many writers I know, I belong to a writing critique group, where we periodically review and comment on each other's work. My group meets twice a month, and we can submit up to 20 pages or 5000 words for critique each time. That means it takes quite a few months to review a whole book-length manuscript. Like the pencil pusher above, I've been pushing chapters of my latest manuscript through my critique group for a long time and have been editing the chapters based on their feedback. They still have a few chapters to go, but it's time to move on to the next phase of soliciting feedback on my manuscript.

That phase is a full manuscript review, where I ask others to read the full book manuscript at once and give me overall comments on the whole thing. One of the main things that this can accomplish that is hard to do one chapter at a time is to discover pacing problems, where the story slows down too much and the reader loses interest. Another type of problem that a full manuscript review can often find is continuity or logic problems that span multiple chapters--or skip multiple chapters.

Yesterday, I sent off the full manuscript of my latest book project (Cataract Canyon, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series) to two trusted reviewers. The first is my literary agent. She reviews all of my manuscripts before I deliver them to my publisher. She has a good feel for the mystery market, for quality writing, and for what readers prefer and can tolerate, so I respect her judgement. The second reviewer is a fellow mystery author whose work I admire and who has traded critiques with me in the past. He doesn't have a full manuscript for me to review right now, but I am willing and ready to return the huge favor whenever he finishes his next book-length manuscript.

While I wait for their feedback, I'll continue to edit the manuscript myself, using critique group feedback and my own editing criteria and guidelines that I've developed for myself over the years. And, I'll hope that my two full manuscript reviewers don't find anything drastically wrong!

Third Week's Word Count

Today I'm hanging my head low. After getting off to a roaring start for the first two weeks of writing the rough draft manuscript for Cataract Canyon, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventure mystery series, my word count this week was a measly 1,000 words or so, for a total to-date of 12,000 words. My goal was to be at 14,000 words by now, so I'm behind. Groan!

What's the reason for the slippage? A multitude of real-life and writing-life conflicts reared their heads. I lost about two days to our once-a-month transfer from our Breckenridge home to our Colorado Springs one, a 50th anniversary celebration in Denver for family friends, a half-day hike with another friend, and packing up boxes to transfer to Breckenridge the next time we go up. I lost another two days to the RMMWA meeting where my editor spoke on a panel of two, to a long lunch (2.5 hrs!) with my agent and editor, and to the RMFW Colorado Gold conference book signing. I had volunteered to help set-up for the signing, then there was the signing itself, and the all-important gabbing and catching up with conference attendees before and after.

Finally, I lost about a day to hitting a research gap that affected the plot and trying to work through it. It was a question that will be answered when I take my Cataract Canyon whitewater rafting trip the week after next, but to continue to make writing progress, I needed to know the answer this week. I found enough information to start up again and added about 1,000 words, but the week was too far gone to do more.

Tracking my progress publicly also means tracking my lack-of-progress when I fail to meet my goals, so here it is. I hope my report at the end of next week will be better. It couldn't be much worse!

Second Week's Word Count

As I posted last Saturday, to keep myself accountable, I'm going to publish my weekly word count at the end of each week on my Work-in-Progress, Cataract Canyon, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventure Mystery series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner. Last week, my total was almost 7000 words, and this week it was a little over 4000 words, for a total to date of about 11,000 words.

The estimate is hazy because I discovered that I had an old version of the file on my memory stick after driving from our Colorado Springs home to our Breckenridge home. I was missing a half day's work. I'm hoping that when I get back to Colorado Springs, the version with that work will still be there and I can do a merge of the current file and that one and move on. Otherwise, I'll have to rewrite it. In the meantime, I'm moving on in the file I have.

I wrote fewer words this week for a couple of good reasons, so I'm not unhappy with the count. First, my grown daughter and a friend visited for a few days while on a 3-week cross-country tour, and spending time with her was more important than writing. Second, in the book, I've gotten to the point where the whitewater rafters have launched their rafts and begun the trip. However, I won't be taking the trip myself for two more weeks. So, I got bogged down with having to do some online research. I learned enough to keep on making progress, with some holes that will get filled after I take my trip.

First Week's Word Count

To keep myself accountable, I'm going to publish my weekly word count at the end of each week on my Work-in-Progress, the third book in my RM Outdoor Adventure Mystery series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner. I usually get off to a good start on my rough draft manuscripts, because both I and the characters are raring to go once I stop work on my scene outline and character profiles and start writing. Where I tend to bog down is in the middle, and hopefully this public accounting will get me over that hump.

My goal for this week was 5000 words, and by working last night, I managed to write almost 7000 words, finishing chapters one and two. I'm very pleased with this progress, though I know the early chapters will need a lot of refining after I take my research trip to Cataract Canyon in Utah in September, which is the setting (and title) for the book.

Today, I'm teaching a workshop to a group of 35 middle-school-aged Girl Scouts at their CSI-themed campout near Woodland Park. Titled "Constructing a Mystery," I hope it gets their creative juices flowing, so they can brain-storm some potential mystery scenarios of their own.

Hunkering Down to Write

I've put myself on a daily and weekly word count schedule for my work-in-progress (Cataract Canyon, the third RM Outdoor Adventures mystery starring whitewater river range Mandy Tanner), so I won't be posting as often as I usually do to my blog. When I have something to say and some moments to type it up, I'll post an item. But otherwise, I'll spend my writing time on the rough draft of the manuscript. I plan to post daily announcements on Goodreads, Facebook, and Google+ on the words I write each day--mostly as a way to crack the whip on myself to keep on making progress. So, if you're interested in how I'm progressing, check my page on one of those social networks.

In the meantime, I could use some words of encouragement! How do you keep yourself motivated to keep on cranking out words on a long manuscript or to keep making progress on a long project? What advice do you have for me--and other writers? I'd appreciate any support or comments you have to offer. Thanks!

Laying the Groundwork for a Rough Draft

I've been working on laying the groundwork for a new mystery manuscript, the third book in the RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series starring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner. The first book, Deadly Currents, was released by Midnight Ink in March this year. The second, Wicked Eddies, will be released in May of 2012, and this third one, that I'm calling Cataract Canyon for now, should be scheduled for May, 2013. I hope to finish the rough draft by Christmas.

Cataract Canyon will take place in Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River south of Moab, Utah. I envision it as a "locked room" style of mystery, but in this case, the room will be the canyon itself. Mandy and her boyfriend Rob Juarez will lead a 5-day whitewater rafting/climbing trip down the canyon in the fall, when very few outfitters lead trips down the canyon. Thus, they'll be isolated. Of course, one of their clients will be murdered, and the killer will sabotage their satellite phone at the same time, cutting the adventurers off from the outside world. Mandy and Rob will be locked into a race to find out who the killer is and to get all of their clients off the river as soon as possible, alive and safe. But the killer will have other ideas ...

To research the location, my husband and I will take our own 5-day whitewater rafting trip down Cataract Canyon in mid-September. I've been outfitting myself with the proper clothing and gear for such a trip and reading about the canyon geology, topography, flora & fauna, Native American ruins, and more. All of this is fodder for the book, stuffing the research file.

What I also do to lay the groundwork for the rough draft of a manuscript is to define the major characters, give them names, and fill out personality profiles for them. I already have personality profiles for Mandy and Rob, and two of their rafting guides who will come with them, Gonzo Gordon and Kendra Lee. However, everyone else, including the climbing guide they hire and the twelve clients that will ride the Colorado River with them, are new characters. So, I've been spending a lot of time getting to know them.

The third major task I take on in this pre-draft phase of a manuscript is to create a scene-by-scene outline. I usually have about 40 scenes in a book, about two to a chapter, for about 20 chapters in an approximately 75,000 word mystery. And by the time I start writing the rough draft, I've usually defined 34-37 of those 40 scenes. The outline is still flexible, allowing for scenes to be added, deleted, or changed, but most of the story is documented in the outline, which expands in length and detail as I write the rough draft. I currently have defined 27 scenes, so I'm about 3/4ths of the way there.

I usually know when it's time to start writing the rough draft. The groundwork has allowed my characters and the plot to become well-enough defined that the characters start talking to me and each other in my head, keeping me up at night. They clamor for their story to be told, and after reining them in for awhile while I nail down the story structure, I finally have to let go and let the story begin. The characters are already talking to me, so I'm thinking and hoping that I'll start writing the rough draft some time next week.

Two Milestones on the Same Day

Last Friday, I encountered two milestones in the book publishing process. I celebrated one on Friday and the other one today. First, a copy of the uncorrected proof (or galley or advanced review copy (ARC)) of my upcoming March, 2011 release, Deadly Currents, arrived in the mail. Deadly Currents will be the first book in my new RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series featuring whitewater river ranger Mandy Tanner. This is the first time I've seen the manuscript printed up in book form, and dang if it doesn't look good! :)

The ARC came right on schedule, 5 months to the day before the March 1 release date. Magazine/journal reviewers need that 5 month lead-time to read the book, write the review, and schedule it for publication. Please cross your fingers for me. I'm hoping for at least one good review that I can quote on my website.

My husband and I went out to dinner at the local Outback Steakhouse with friends Linda and Don Friday night, and I brought the ARC along to show them--sealed in a plastic bag so no food or beverage would be spilled on it. When the waiter asked what we were so excited about, Linda went into her BS mode and introduced me as a famous author whose next bestseller had just been sent off to reviewers. She encouraged the waiter to have the manager come over and meet the author, and she said the least the manager could do was buy me a celebratory drink. By then, I was all shades of red.

The manager did come over, shake hands with all of us, listen to Linda's gushing story about me, look at my ARC, and accept a bookmark from me. Then, he comped me a drink! A blueberry martini, no less. Yummy. Needless to say, I recommend that everyone go have dinner at your nearest Outback Steakhouse. What a great place! After I got over my embarrassment, I thanked Linda for the little party in a glass, and the waiter got a big tip, too.

The second milestone was reaching the halfway point in the rough draft of my current manuscript, the third book in the Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series. My outline includes 20 chapters, and I finished the rough draft of chapter 10 Friday afternoon. To celebrate that milestone, and to get rid of the stiffness from spending hours and hours typing on a computer keyboard, I scheduled a massage for myself. So, if you're reading this Monday morning, think of me laying there in bliss while my massage therapist Barbara's magic fingers work all the tension out of my muscles. If you live in Colorado Springs and would like a referral to Barbara's Trager-technique massage practice, contact me at my website, and I'll put you in touch with her.

I think it's very important to celebrate the small milestones in the publishing process, given how long it takes to write and edit a book then for a publisher to publish it. If you're a writer, what small milestone have you celebrated lately?