Draft done, what's next?

Photo by Rick Campbell

Hooray, I did it! I finished the next draft of my pseudonym's novel (codename WIP1) on deadline! It seemed kind of touch-and-go there for a few days - I got behind schedule and then needed a day and a half to recover from my time with the Weimaraner puppy - but I pulled it off. Go, me.

So what's next? The book is with a group of beta readers for a couple of weeks. When I get their feedback, I'll give myself a week to read and think about it before I spend a week re-reading the book and making revision notes to myself. Then three weeks to make revisions, then another round of developmental feedback with line editing, then copy editing and self-publishing.

During those three weeks of revising WIP1 I plan to spend the entirety of my writing time on that project, but until then I'll continue to work on the short sf stories and resume my research on self-publish print-on-demand options.

The other major thing on my mind, as a result of New Year's reflections and some conversations with another coach/editor, is some visioning work around my coaching and editing business. More on that below in this week's...

ROW80 Update
"A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life." 

[Note: This update only includes the past week's tasks and the coming week's tasks. If you'd like to know how they relate to my goals for this round, you can read my 2015 Round 1 Goals post.] 

Creative projects Past week's task: Finish the draft of WIP1 by Wednesday and send to beta readers. Done! =*D
Coming week's tasks: Stay away from WIP1; write 1st drafts of sf shorts "Remembered" and "Conformity II;" continue print-on-demand research by comparing packages and pricing between Xlibris & Outskirts and inquiring about book pricing & royalties (both say you keep 100% of the royalties but it doesn't say what you need to price a book at in order to get returns).

Blogging
Past week's tasks: Publish next guest post in the writing success series, by comedy horror author Scott Burtness. Posted! Scott's guest post identifies five milestones for his success, which I thought was a great idea. I also found it interesting that he fell into writing for fun without having ever seriously considered it as a career.
Coming week's tasks: Post on Wednesday and Friday.

Reading for fun
Past week's tasks: None. Read 2 books for fun in the same genre as WIP1 that weren't on my list.
Coming week's tasks: Get The Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson from the library.

Community participation
Past week's tasks: Comment on 2 ROWers' posts. Done.
Coming week's tasks: comment on 2-3 ROWer posts; participate in #writeclub on Twitter on Friday.

Social media
Past week's tasks: Spend at least 30 mins on Twitter on Thursday and Friday; at least 2 posts to the FB page. Sort of. I definitely spent a little time on Twitter at least one day, and I posted to FB once.
Coming week's tasks: 30 mins on Twitter, 3 times; 2 FB posts on the LLC page; promote #AskAnEditor, a live chat I'm holding on Twitter next Sunday, Feb. 15 at 9am Pacific time.

Editing/coaching
Past week's tasks: Draft at least 1 coaching-focused post. I have ideas but did not draft. One of the books I read this week betrayed me, so I've taken notes for a blog post on how we as writers can avoid that in our novels. I think that'll probably be Wednesday's blog post, while it's still fresh in my mind.
Coming week's tasks: I have a whole list of questions related to my editing and coaching work that I want to spend time thinking about over the next couple of weeks. The answers will inform the language I use on this site as well as my fee structures and my professional development plan for the rest of the year. My tasks are to spend at least 30 mins a day freewriting in response to those questions and to write Wednesday's post about book betrayal.

What are the stages of your writing process? What's the next step after you finish a draft of something?


This is a blog hop! Click here to read other ROW80ers Sunday updates.