Adara VS May 2022
In today’s video I look back over May, including a fantasy overhaul, my first rejection, proof reading and novel competitions! It was a record breaking month for productivity.
Footage opens under a parasol and tree canopy, before showing Adara working on her laptop in front of a window with trees in the background. Next Adara showcases her ideas box, which is blue with gold dots. Then she opens a hardback green notebook and write the times she worked on her novel in it. This is overlayed at times with footage of her working outside and a screen-shot of her Twitter page. Then she sticks over 100 gold stars into the notebook according to the 2400 minutes she worked.
Transcript
Welcome to the Canopy; a place to write my story one day at a time.
Hello and welcome to the Canopy!
In today's video: Adara versus May.
Revisions Mayday or Proofreading Success?
This month was a bit all over the place, but it had some form of progression. Before I get into that though, I'd set myself a rewards tariff. So for every 20 minutes I worked, I earned one gold star. For every 10 gold stars I got, I could trade them in at the end for the right to buy myself a new book as a reward.
In a rare turn of events, this month instead of setting a goal like 20 minutes per day, I had an actual deadline to finish up by, so I worked backwards from then, and the result was astonishing. Exhausting, yes, but pretty record-breaking. So what happened in May?
Last month I dipped my toe into the waters of querying for the first time. Following that I received my very first rejection which was personalized and very very encouraging. Coming to the end of an old project anyway, it was about time I revived an old friend, but this time with a twist.
This is what I call an ideas box. The first ideas box was how I came up with the idea for my current novel. It has a slot in the lid, so that I can write my ideas down on little cards, and just slip them in as they came to me over the course of a few weeks. However, I somehow lost that box and I've had to start again with a new box. So this time instead of making the slot on the top, I've created a hinge mechanism, and I'm using it instead to record all the positive feedback I get about my writing, because querying can be tough, and I want to be prepared.
Also in May, responding to certain world events, I created version 4 of my novel, making all the violence in my book fantasy based e.g. fantasy weapons and paranormal creatures.
I also interrupted my proofread to fix the fact that my main character apparently had very bad stomach issues, given the amount of times her stomach flipped, turned or churned. At one point I thought I'd have to send her to a gastroenterologist, but by the end of it, or at least hopefully, that's no longer the case.
As part of my proofreading experiments, I attempted to work outside using a notebook and a kindle, but it did slow me down with sounds in the background, and being out in so much nature. There was just so much to look at. I had much better success instead using text to speech software indoors, because writing everything down was slowing me down, instead of just going through applying the changes as I heard them.
So following last month dipping my toe into querying, I officially entered the query trenches this month, having done research and a huge proofread of my novel, and rewriting my query and synopsis.
I now have a strong feeling of theme and pitch for the work which I can transfer onto other novels in the series, which I now have ideas for number two, and potentially number three. I hope to start making a loose outline of book two in June, so I have something ready to work on if book one gets picked up. If. Saying that, book one can be read as a standalone, but I would love to revisit this world.
I also did something which I never considered much before now, which is I've entered novel competitions: the Write Mentor Novel in Development Award, the Times Chicken House Competition, and the Bath Novel Awards, which although it's for adults, they also accept YA.
I rarely use external deadlines but they were very helpful in keeping me accountable with the pace of my proofreading.
In my experience:
Writing the first draft = magic.
Revising = magic.
Editing = a magical battle.
Proofreading = is the paint dry yet?
But I pushed through, and in the end I'm happy where it ended up.
In other news, I read five novels this month, including my own. I also broke my Wordle streak for the very first time at 119, because I forgot about it. Then came the inevitable question. Do I continue to do the daily Wordle puzzle after I've broken the streak? Yes, because it's a fun daily puzzle and I've started to look forward to it on the morning!
I also managed to catch up with a long time school friend, and a colleague, and after a pretty bad day I was cheered up to see an amazing 8888 followers on Twitter. Beautiful but staggering! I can't thank the writing community and AuthorTube enough for being there for me; from first coming up with my novel idea, to write-ins, to drafting... the entire process; then bonding and commiserating over the tough revisions and hard editing process. It's been a journey, and I hope that I can continue to bring you along with me as I go.
I also managed to find time to catch up with a few writing podcasts that I like.
My top three:
Queries, Qualms and Quirks: about traditional writing processes;
The Creative Penn: to keep up to date with all things self-publishing and tech related;
and
Writing Excuses: for bite-sized writing craft lessons.
I highly recommend all three!
So the numbers are in. How did I do this month, with last minute revisions, edits, proofreading and queries?
I worked for a total of over 2000 minutes, which worked out at over 40 hours. Let's count the stars.
This is unbelievable...
That's a total of 115, although I may have miscounted. It might be 116 from the first page, meaning I've earned the right to buy myself around 10 or 11 new books as a reward?
Hello! Quick note from future editing me here. My total count was 106 stars, which still makes 10 new books in the end. By this point in the recording I had been sat at my desk with my feet down for around 20 minutes. That is normally my time when I have to lie down, and it shows with the extreme amount of brain fog going on at that point.
I am very pleased. I did not expect that in the slightest! I didn't think it would take me as much time as it did, quite honestly, but then again I wasn't expecting the major revisions that I would need to do. My major plot not so much, tweaks to get rid of guns and instead making them more lasers... It's exciting, and I'm very pleased.
Maybe I should have gone for 30 minutes? But I'll know next time I'm coming towards the end of a project that I should probably boost that count, but after all my hard work this month I'll take it, and in June I plan on taking things much easier now that the competition deadlines have passed. I'll do queries and have a bit of a break. I'll also be letting ideas for potential sequels stew, and I hope to have a solid chapter outline for book 2 by the end of the summer.
So that's it for this video! I have to go now, as I have a query letter to look over for the umpteenth time, and as I continue to write my story...
...one day at a time.
Credits:
Thumbnail and ending image created free using canva.com
Video footage: Adara Spence
Music credit 1: opening and ending theme – Adara Spence
Music credit 2: Soon We'll Fly by Ghostrifter Official https://bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/35reep7
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/q2vomZqSJuE Music
Credit 3: Beloved - Sakura Girl https://soundcloud.com/sakuragirl_off...
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/3ji1zZc
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/omTgn4GQcKA Music
