Cathryn Louis, Author of Contemporary Fiction

Hello…hello…hellooo… Where are you…are you…yooou… Echoes resounded from the void in my timeline. I’d been so focused on tightly winding the action that I’d overlooked the leap from Sunday morning to Monday morning. Sunday afternoon and evening didn’t exist.

Once I’d stumbled across the hole, I saw that it should have been painfully obvious. Having that much time missing – out of a story that takes place in less than a week – was similar to viewing a vividly rendered canvas where the artist had left a large blank spot.

I carved a few hours out of my real world last Friday and Saturday for marathon ‘fix-it’ sessions. I had to unwind the action and create the rest of my fictional world’s Sunday. At first, I was at a loss. The protagonists worked together like components of a well oiled engine; propelling it purposefully toward the climax and resolution of the action plot.

Hmmm… Resolution… Hmmm… That means conflict…

Understanding dawned. There was time for at least one more disruption before the climax. Time to prevent the protagonists from being quite so chummy.

Determined to avoid creating a flareup that didn’t fit the story line, I combed through the outline, storyboard and existing manuscript; looking for something that I hadn’t fully developed. Then I saw it. The hero and heroine had had their romantic differences, but her analytical acumen had never gone head to head with his strategical shrewdness. Exploiting such an encounter made for a game changing showdown – and on the eve of battle.

Perfect! Okay I admit it… I’d planned the confrontation all along.

Not! But it had better read that way.

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#ROW80 update, 03/06/2011:

• Goal 1: Completed the storyboard for 194 of 211 scenes. The end is in sight. Trying to figure out how to transistion from setting up for revision to actually writing.
• Goal 2: About 2 hours a day this week instead of 3. Starting to get pieces of story in my brain and am taking the time to write them down.
• Goal 3 – Haven’t missed a post!

Hope things are going well for you!

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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « action - battle - climax - conflict - echo - gaps - outline - storyboard - timeline - wip »
4 Comments »

November 16, 2010. The day I began the revision outline for the novel that is becoming Sparks. By the very next week I knew that while an outline is a must, it doesn’t give me the level of detail that I need. So I added a storyboard to my revision artifacts, and was still confident that I would complete them all and be set up for revision by the end of the year. But December 31, 2010 flew by…

Of course it did – I hadn’t considered the holidays. Surely I would be done by the end of January. Missed that date too…

Now the end of February is here – and because I removed one chapter, but added three – there are still four chapters of outlining and storyboarding to go.

No tantrum this time; no acting out; not even a small rant. I’ve embraced the reality that experienced writers already live in. It takes time to deliver a story so sumptuous that it tempts ravenous readers to try to devour it in one sitting. Such a story is not to be confused with one so shallow, that readers flip through it in a sitting; nibbling only at the ‘good’ parts. My particular novel has to aim to be of the sumptuous variety; and has to pay off with cognac and dark chocolate truffle cake for dessert. Otherwise it will be merely a confusing collage of disconnected passages – a failure of mine, not of the story.

You’ll know from other posts that I’m a first timer, and I’ve complicated things for myself by having multiple plot lines (each with multiple subplots), multiple POVs, a prologue and a rather large cast of characters. But that’s the story as told to me by the main characters, so I’m honor bound to write it. The only open question is whether I will write it well.

When I’ve completed the outline and storyboard, I’ll have the skeleton of the revised story as well as writing (or editing) prompts for each of the over two hundred scenes. Since I’ve also marked up the original manuscript with storyboard scene numbers and rewrite goals, I easily see how different the revised version of the story is going to be. For complexmnovels, storyboards rock!

Even so, the closer I get to completing the storyboard, the longer it is taking. I’m being careful to insure that the main plots and their subplots are fully resolved and that the story ends with the characters exactly where readers want them to be. How do I know where that is? I don’t. The best I can do is make an informed guess – based on my knowledge of the story – and hope I get it right. Or…does a Ouija board work for fictional people?

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#ROW80 update, 02/27/2011:

• Goal 1: I can’t believe it – I finished the revision outline for the last four chapters! It was a marathon Friday/Saturday night. But…I still need to storyboard them. That may take a couple of weeks.
• Goal 2: I’ve accepted that 3 hours on Tuesday is not going to happen and that Thursday will also be a short day. I make up for it on the other days. This week, I still averaged about 3 hours per night because of Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
• Goal 3 – Haven’t missed a post!

We’re just under a month away from the end of this session. Best of luck to all!

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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « characters - collage - deadline - debut - editing - outline - plot - POV - revising - Sparks - storyboard - subplot - wip »
12 Comments »

More bloody red ink, spewing endlessly while I cut, chop, whack. This time I’m attacking the characters.

After all the gore, about forty fictional people have survived. They are the community of the heroine and hero; the other protagonists, the antagonists, and folks that don’t have a clue about what’s going on – but are nevertheless affected. Though all of the characters are important, only about fifteen have major roles.

Traditional romantic suspense stories generally have only the hero, heroine, heroine’s protector, an antagonist or two, and maybe one or two additional characters as foils or confidants. For this story of corporate intrigue, traditional numbers and roles are too confining. The heroine is an analyst who works with a team of other analysts. The hero, some protagonists and the main antagonist are executives with partners and staff. The hero and heroine share their leisure time with friends. When the heroine discovers that ‘the sky is falling’, she doesn’t drop everything and run off to isolate herself with the hero. They both work to maintain normalcy in their world while trying to figure out how much of the sky is actually falling and how to prevent being flattened when it does.

Though challenging to keep them, I need all the remaining characters. They help expose different attributes of the heroine and hero by drawing their thoughts out onto the page where they can be seen. Not by switching through forty points of view (though that is a thought…), but by revealing character traits through dialogue. The heroine communicates differently with one of her posse than with a corporate teammate. The hero doesn’t interact the same with corporate associates as with his crew. Having the community of characters simplifies the task of juxtaposing the heroine’s and hero’s personal and professional lives. They also provide information about – and various reactions to – the disrupting consequences of the heroine’s discoveries.

The community of characters is organic to the novel. Each one has his or her own personality and reason to exist. My goal is to show them as real people; not as nebulous clouds of loosely defined characteristics, dropped into the flow just long enough to focus attention on a particular personality aspect.

How is it going? Good question. I have no answer yet. What I do know is that I must get it exactly right. The tone and delivery of the dialogue have to be sincere. Especially with the hero’s interactions. It can’t sound as though ‘this female author thinks this is the way men talk’; a failure that would rip the heart right out of the story. Luckily, I have a way to avert that disaster. No chopping, cutting or whacking this time. Going for a weapon with more finesse. En Garde!

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#ROW80 update, 02/20/2011:

• Goal 1: Five more chapters to create revision artifacts for. The closer I get to the end, the more intricate the work and the slower I go. It’s maddening! But still, there’s been progress…
• Goal 2: Very close to my 3 hours per day goal. Tuesdays tend to be the hardest day. Only managing an hour there. Yesterday rocked!
• Goal 3 -Still posting!

Hope ya’ll are doing well!

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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « characters - dialogue - foils - hero - heroine - red ink »
14 Comments »

Now that I’ve eliminated my intrusive voice, coaxed the plots and subplots to play nicely together, gotten control of pacing, and overcome my hesitance with love scenes, it’s time to complete the set of revision artifacts (outline and scene notes) for moving the plots toward their climaxes. I was very excited about getting to this point – until I saw that I have to say goodbye. Bid farewell to the pieces of story that don’t belong.

It barely matters how much I love them. It matters less that they’re witty conversations, scenes of poignant character bonding, or beautifully detailed descriptions. These snippets aren’t like the long stretch of exposition I got rid of earlier. Putting that on the chopping block was easy. These are little islands of artfulness that I had thought would make interesting reading. I am reluctant to pick up the red pen and eliminate them. But no matter how long I procrastinate, whine, or otherwise behave badly; they have to be cut. Maybe I’ll get a chance to use them in other stories, but they have to come out of this one.

Having learned that timing is everything, I now easily see that these showy bits of fluff are mucking it up. They’re too costly – slowing down and confusing the story; sabotaging my ability to sustain tension and suspense. Packed into the next forty eight hours of the escalating action plot are several loud arguments, at least two fights and a murder. I really love the sweeping panoramic description of Skye Pointe, but no time for it. Gone. Then there’s the scene showcasing the research I’d done on six-man yachting. I am extremely proud of it, but the action has to keep moving. It’s out. Ditto for the beautifully detailed description of the hero’s family estate. Doesn’t really fit in the middle of a fight. Axed. Next up is the trip to the museum. Wait a minute… That’s important to the story line. Have to keep that one!

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• Goal 1: From Chapter 14, both plots begin the spiral up to their climaxes. I had to make some adjustments to focus them. In spite of the scene cutting I did, I ended up with an additional chapter. So even though I finished Chapter 14, there are still 6 more to go! Crazy that I cut scenes and end up with more…
• Goal 2: There were only 3 days that I was able to spend 3 hours. I only managed an hour here and there the other 4 days. I need to do better this week.
• Goal 3 -Still posting!

Hope everyone is having a better time of it.
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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « blues - characters - climax - exposition - narrative - pacing - scene - sex - skye pointe - subplot - voice »
12 Comments »

Update, 2/23/2011:
You’ll see that I have cancelled the Kickstarter “Launching Sparks” project. Though there is only one public backer, I’ve gotten the support that I need. My experience is atypical and I can’t draw any inference from it to help future authors. I can, however, point you to this article by Monica O’Brien.
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This post started off as a note at the end of my weekly post. The note kept getting longer, demanding a post of it’s own. It has to do with the new bling on my right sidebar.

It’s a personality trait of mine that I take a leap and then look around to see where I’ve landed. Most of the time I end up okay; but there have been landings that have been inordinately painful. Hopefully, this isn’t one of them. Here’s the story:

Earlier this year, I saw a tweet from Jeanne Bowerman regarding support for the  “A Year Without Rent” project by  Lucas McNelly. I checked it out on Kickstarter, which I hadn’t before known about. I thought it was a great project and became a supporter. I also recognized that Kickstarter is a great way to support arts projects. I enjoy getting the periodic emails from the project and keeping up with what they are doing. A thought started to form in the back of my mind…

Meanwhile I continued working on my novel, immersed in developing my revision outline and other artifacts. This past weekend, I reached the point of ‘knowing’. I know, without doubt, that I am publishing this book. That realization hit; then the idea bloomed. I played around with it… Sat on the fence… Hopped off the fence a few times – on one side and the other… Then I decided to take the big leap. I’ve created a Kickstarter project for my novel.

There are only a few book projects on Kickstarter. Of those that I saw, the authors with non-fiction projects were all successful. Those with fiction projects – not so much. The projects seemed to be inviting support during the concept stage, without very much to offer in return.

Why do I think my project will work? The truth is – I’m finding out just as you are. In my case though, I’ve already funded the first critique of my finished manuscript; I’m fully committed to the book’s commercial success. What remains are editorial review of the finished outline, two to three rounds of manuscript revision/editorial critique; copy editing and publishing services. I’ve called it “Launching Sparks”, in honor of the new title of the book. Even if my project is unsuccessful, another author may find the key that sparks participation. I will be a data point in their research just as current Kickstarter authors are data points in mine.

Our reality is that editorial departments of publishing houses no longer nurture the development of authors. Agents are so inundated by would-be novelists that they pass on everything except the best of the most polished stories. Gems in the rough typically don’t get found and polished. Editorial and some publishing costs are now being absorbed by authors that travel the route of traditional publishing. Even a few seasoned Indie authors who were gracious enough to correspond with me indicate that they are taking on more editorial and publishing costs now than in years prior to Y2K. Worst of all, even though there still seems to be a steady demand for the written word, we’re losing bookstores. Many independents have closed their doors and one of the largest chains is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Could it be that it’s not all about ebooks? Could it be that there just aren’t enough books making it through the gauntlet to bookshelves and ereaders?

Though currently unorthodox for an author, maybe Kickstarter and similar support sites are a part of our future; a path for some authors (debut and seasoned) to showcase and build buzz about their book as it’s being completed. Check out “Launching Sparks” and leave a comment here or there. I’m interested in your thoughts – and I invite your participation.

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#ROW80 update, 02/06/2011:

• Goal 1: You can see from this post that I got myself involved in a different sort of a project. In spite of that, I finished the revision artifacts (outline, scenes, and manuscript markup) for Chapter 13. Now only six more to go!
• Goal 2: I spent far more than 3 hours a day this week on the novel; but only about 9 total hours on the revision. Back in the groove now.
• Goal 3 -Still posting!

How’s everybody doing?

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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
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My biggest nemesis – the love scene. I interrupted my progress this week, working myself into a snit about it. The way my story is written, the scenes have to be hot and passionate; expressing the love between two strong, independent people. The problem? I’m not that into sex.

Let me clarify – I’m not that into writing sex scenes. I’m referring to the ones having all the body parts exposed and labeled; with intimate details of the act. Other authors are into it, and do it very well. Knowing that I’m not one of them, I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. I re-read scenes in the existing manuscript where the characters move from the action climax, through the romantic buildup to the romantic climax.

Awk-ward. Now what? I’m doomed!

A twitter conversation with a writer friend helped the light bulb go off in my head. Thank you, Kathryn Magendie! She’s katmagendie on twitter. With her help, I was able to figure out my  new rule. It’s very simple: If I’m too embarrassed to read it aloud, then I need to rewrite it. Period. I have to find the balance that works for me and my style of writing. I’m sure it can be better, but here is the first attempt using my new rule…

Battle weary survivors; their eyes meet, their hearts touch. Each finding solace in the other’s embrace. Comfort gives way to desire, a more intimate heat starts to rise. She reverberates with his heartbeat; her every breath filled with his scent. She raises her head from his chest, her lips searching for the first taste of him. Wrapped tightly around her, aroused by the sensation of skin touching skin; he lowers his head and presses his lips to hers. The heat rages. Burning, intensifying, fueling their caresses. They yield one to the other, their bodies erupting in waves of unbearably exquisite rhythms. Gradually their breathing slows, their movements quiet. Sated, they drift, cradled in each others arms.

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#ROW80 update, 01/30/2011:

• Goal 1: My progress on the outline ground to a halt this week. I questioned my ability to write scenes with sexual tension and more intimate encounters. I took this week to figure out how to write the scenes I need to write, resulting in this post. Needless to say, I’m not going to finish the outline in January as I had planned, but I’m not unsatisfied with my progress.
• Goal 2: Held to my goal of three hours per day for the first three days of the week. The next three days I wrote very little, but got back on track last night. I found that I’m able to outline the love scenes far more easily now. I understand my style.
• Goal 3 -Still posting!

Hope your week was better!
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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « battle - climax - love story - nemesis - scene - sex - storycraft - voice »
17 Comments »

Flying down the freeway one cool June morning, we laughed and talked, enjoying each other’s company. It was my first trip through the mountains to his favorite beach. He decided to take the scenic route and turned off onto a beautifully picturesque two lane road. It was charming – until we reached the mountains.

Far too comfortable driving the familiar road, he continually took one hand off the wheel, waving it high above the windshield to point out one landmark after another. We raced through each hairpin turn; the engine thrumming louder and softer as he accelerated and decelerated. The tires squealed when he banked into each turn and I swear I heard pebbles and other pieces of the roadside tumble over the side of the mountain when he floored the gas pedal on the way out. I was petrified. Mile after mile, it looked as though the nose of the car purposely sought out the edge, and felt as though it’s rear tires found air.

Meanwhile he chatted excitedly, fiercely relishing each challenge the road presented him. To this day, I remember not a single word he said. Terror was not just an emotion, it was my entire state of being. Speaking was impossible; my mouth didn’t remember how to open. Even my thoughts were inarticulate. I couldn’t pull enough of myself together to scream. I tried to keep my eyes closed behind my sunglasses, but the sounds without the visuals seemed much louder and the jarring momentum was far more scary.

Then we started downhill.

When the short straightaways faced west – and my eyes were afraid to close – I saw the ocean in the distance, about a thousand feet below us. The downhill curves were – unbelievably – even tighter and closer together. The only thing left to me was to give myself over to the One. I was that sure I was going to die.

Reaching the gentle down slope to level ground was joltingly unexpected. One last nearly vertical tight hairpin and we were out. It took several minutes for my mind to process that the mountains were behind us. I felt myself beginning to thaw, and was soon able to unlock my knees and gradually remove my foot from the imaginary brake I’d been pressing. During the next few miles, I convinced myself to loosen my grip on the door handle and unclench my other hand. The fingernail impressions in my palm were so deep, I’d almost drawn blood.

Though it was obvious that I had found the drive disturbing, I never let him know how panicked I was (until now). I spent our time at the beach in a daze, dreading the drive back. It turned out to be a little easier than the trip out because we were on the inside lane. I did fear that oncoming cars, tightly hugging the curves, would swerve into us; or that we might take a turn too sharply and crash into the mountainside. Those worries were nothing compared to the terror I felt on the way out. Odd that I preferred smashing into a cliff over tumbling down the side of one.

If that drive had been a book, would you have stayed or bailed after the first few turns?

I love to read the books where I fully experience the development and epiphanies of the main character. In my own book, I flew by my main character’s major epiphany far too fast. Receding in the rear view mirror, it disappeared into the turn I’d just accelerated out of almost as soon as it occurred. I raced on, banking rapidly into the next crisis. In that stretch of the story, I sped past many of the developmental changes that my heroine experienced; in too much of hurry to flesh out the action. When she acted on her new-found knowledge, there was little evidence showing from whence it had come.

Of course, the fly-bys are being fixed. I’ve added to the revision outline, expanding the story to show her epiphanies and other experiences. By the time I had adjusted the full outline to accommodate the changes, I’d added a new chapter. I may have to adjust my ROW80 goals to show that the outline is taking a little longer than planned. But that’s okay, because the ultimate goal is to deliver my best possible story.

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#ROW80 update, 01/23/2011:

• Goal 1: Revising chapter thirteen now heading to fourteen. May not make the end of the month, but feels like I’m making significant progress.
• Goal 2: Was averaging about three hours per day until Friday and Saturday. Will make sure I have time today so that I can head into Monday on a positive note.
• Goal 3 -Still posting!

Hope you are doing well!

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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « action - characters - curves - driving - fear - fly-by - hairpin - pacing - The One »
9 Comments »

It was one of the nights that I spend with other parents who have also accompanied their children to ballet classes. Sometimes there’s conversation, sometimes we’ve brought something to work on, sometimes both. For me, it’s always both – I try never to ignore a nice chunk of writing time.

A new gentleman struck up a conversation. He’s a musician and was ‘scoring a play’. “A trivial thing,” he said. “Favor for a friend.”

I said that I was a writer and that I was working on the revision of my first novel. Surprisingly, he was interested in the process of composition as it applies to writing. I talked about flow, pacing, rhythm; and he saw it as very similar to melody, tempo and rhythm in music. I added that the concepts are generally applied to plot, but the best of us apply them to scenes or even sentence structure within scenes.

At one point, he looked over my shoulder at my scene notes and exclaimed, “Ah – but you’re playing a duet!”

Of course, I had no clue what he meant. “Excuse me?”

“Your notations here – main plot, secondary plot – it is a duet, is it not?”

I was astounded. Of course he was right. Each of my scene notes includes which plots and subplots the scene addresses. He saw immediately what has been nagging at me since the beginning of my outlining process. I knew that flow, pacing, and rhythm were not the complete picture for this story. And here, in this chance conversation, the last piece of the puzzle was nearly in sight. I had to know. More accurately, I was dying to know. How could I make the two plot lines play well together? So I admitted my ignorance and listened to his explanation of how duets are written.

Among other things (that went way over my head), he talked about varying the dynamics of the two parts so that within the framework set by the melody, tempo and rhythm; each part is written as softer (piano, mezzo-piano, pianissimo or pianissimo possibile) or louder (forte, mezzo-forte, fortissimo or fortissimo possibile) depending upon which part is in the lead, which is in the background and what mood is being set at each point in the composition. I was fascinated.

Then with great enthusiasm, he said. “You can compose for a trio of plots – a quartet even!” Apparently my expression gave me away because he patted my hand and said, “But please understand – for a first novel, a duet is quite brave.”

Brave? I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I hadn’t known any better.

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#ROW80 update, 01/16/2011:

• Goal 1: Well I’d like to say that I’ve completed revision artifacts (outline, scenes and map) through chapter thirteen – but I can’t. One chapter got eliminated last week – but one got added this week, so I’m on chapter twelve. Still nine more chapters to go. Reading it critically, I could see that I had compressed the story. There wasn’t enough there so I added it.
• Goal 2: Averaged about three hours per day this week so doing better there. I had to really, because of the extra chapter.
• Goal 3 -Still posting!

Two weeks down…
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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « choreography - dance - duet - flow - melody - pacing - plot - rhythm - scene - tempo »
16 Comments »

Zipping merrily along through my revision outline; making great progress. In the zone, every thought had a home. And then…I rounded a blind curve and had to skid to a brain locking stop. Hit an obstacle. Makes me crazy when that happens. Actually, the obstacle was an event. I had shown it from the heroine’s point of view; trying to keep the alpha male hero inconspicuously in the background. Bad idea. Like making ganache and expecting everyone to ignore the smell of chocolate. My attention kept getting drawn to him even though I hadn’t written him in. Where the hell was he? Obviously, the story begged for scenes from his point of view.

Piece of cake…

First, I enlarged the experience of the event by adding two scenes for him – one at the beginning of the event and one during. Good, but there was no closure.

Hmmm…not as easy as I thought.

Then I added a scene for him at the end of the event. Better, but not quite there – no transition for him to the next step in their story.

Fine!! Looks like I’m really going to have to work to fix this.

So I added the transition scene and read through that portion of the revision outline using “…and then”. Naturally, there were gaps.

Sigh…

I had to revise every scene associated with the event to adjust for the new scenes. Adding a mere two scenes had turned into adding four and adapting four more.

Finally – nailed it!! Now where’s that ganache?

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#ROW80 update, 01/09/2011:

• Goal 1: Completed revision artifacts (outline, scenes and map) through chapter eleven. One chapter was eliminated by being absorbed into the previous and following chapters. Only nine more chapters to go! Still looks like I can complete the outline by the end of this month.
• Goal 2: Averaged about two hours per day this week. I sidetracked myself with a potential new project – but NO EXCUSES! Have to hit my average next week.
• Goal 3 – Posted this week, so no problems there.

Hope everyone is doing well!

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Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « chocolate - editing - gaps - hero - heroine - obstacle - outline - revising - scene - transition »
10 Comments »

Yes – I know it’s customary to count down to the new year, and no – I’m not counting the wrong way. I’m saying goodbye to 2010, – or as I’ve come to think of it – my year zero; and saying hello to my year one. It will be my ferst furst first full year of being known as a writter writer.

In year zero: I started this blog. Looking back through my posts, I see that there are a variety of shared thoughts – from short stories, to essays, to my musings on writing, to the journey through the revision of my first novel. In the beginning, I thought I had nothing to say. I got beyond that though, and I’ve found lots to write about (including randomness). Posting has been a blast (even the sad ones). I hope you enjoy reading them.

In year zero: I joined Twitter – as an author. Big step for me; stepping out of the ranks of AA (Authors Anonymous) and openly declaring myself. How lucky it was that CathrynLouis was available! I took it as a good omen that not one of the millions of Twitter users had chosen that user name. On Twitter, I’ve met many communities of authors – the #amwriting, #litchat, #writechat, #scriptchat, #fridayflash, #fridayreads, #IndieBC, #ROW80 folks and more; I’ve learned from those in the businesses of writing, publishing and social media; and had a darn good time! I love dropping into the Twitter conversation several times throughout the day. Something is always going on. It’s a never ending Happy Hour. All I have to do now is find those vodka martinis…

In year zero: I created pages on Facebook and Goodreads. Posting more consistently on Facebook and becoming more involved on Goodreads are goals for year one. I have lots to share with Facebook folks and my Goodreads shelf is packed with books I haven’t yet reviewed and a fair few that I haven’t read.

In year zero: I joined communities such as Zoetrope and RedRoom. Being on Zoetrope really helped me tighten up my stories; being on RedRoom introduced me to many other authors and experts. I haven’t visited them as much since I have been revising. I want to spend more time on those sites, so that’s another of my goals for year one.

In year zero: I self-published my debut novel as an ebook. Once I understood that it was something that lots of people might like to read, I unpublished it; and am now taking it through a purposefully scripted revision process. Though I missed my goal of having the revision outline completed by the end of this year, I’m fairly well along and have created a process and document that work perfectly for this book and all the next ones. When this first novel is ready, I may again self-publish it, or opt for traditional publication channels. That’s a decision for year one. Year zero taught me the novel is good enough to give it my best effort – so I am.

Have you looked back over the year and itemized what you have accomplished? I think you may be surprised. I certainly was. That’s why I’m inspired to do even more next year; and I hope you are too. What a difference a year makes.

Goodbye 2010, and Happy 2011!

Filed under: OnRevising, ROW80 by Cathryn Louis
Tags: « blog - debut - novel - social media - stories »
7 Comments »