I feel like, today is the first day of a whole new beginning for me. I’ve gotten through the editing of my first novel, at least the first good edit pass of it. It’s really more then the first pass I suppose. I went through the bulk of it a few times, as I didn’t really know what I was looking for when I did an edit. At first, I was just cleaning up spelling and grammar. Then, I started hacking out way too many words, and making everything too choppy. Then, I finally came up with a spelling and grammar check, that looked more at sentence flow and got rid of things like over explanation, which I seemed to do a lot. I could still make another pass, and include some more conflict, and reveal more about the characters. I do want to make it longer, and get two novels out of it. It just occurred to me, that the first half of the novel (which could be the first book), should be about Chaz’s family, and doing everything he can to get them back. Then, he should realize, that he can’t get them, but somehow, there is a happiness to it, as he sees a chance to finally rid the world of the zombie freaks, but getting Christa to Fort Knox. Which, would be, where the second book kicks in. That would kind of make sense. The main goal of the first one, would be Chaz getting his family, and the second would be of ridding the world of zombies. That’s how to do it. That would make perfect sense. There are a few more things, I should do with the novel now at this point, to make that happen. One, is write more character sketches. Really write some good background stuff about each of your characters. Maybe five thousand words, or maybe not that quite much, although, that might not be so bad. There’s only three main characters, and you could do that. There were some good layouts on the CritiqueCircle site I think, that you could use to get yourself started. You could likely have all those done in a couple of days. Even if you did 5000 words each. Plus, I would like more backstory on the zombies. Another 5000 words on them would be good as well. They really are like another character. And, perhaps another 5000 words or whatever on the world or environment they are in. Since that is also a character in the story. That would be really good. If you did a detailed character sketch on each of Chaz, Alex, Christa, Zombies, Environment, then you as a writer would understand so much more about the story and the world your writing about. You could give the story so much more depth. Then, you could add another 25K words, to get enough story for two seperate novels. Then, you could throw in more character description … reveal more about your characters, and their reaction to things, as well as get rid of the choppy editing you did, and introduce some more conflict, and get rid of so much narrative. Or, at least break up some of the narrative. Provide extra character action, and show a few things in the world. So here is maybe a breakdown in list format of what happens next.

1. Write a detailed (no more than 5000 words each) description on each of the following:
   • Chaz
   • Alex
   • Christa
   • Zombies
   • Environment
2. Add at least another 25K of story to have enough to break the novel into two seprate novels. Edit those words as you go. 5K write and edit per day.
   • You should spend some time outlining this before you start.
3. Look through the CritiqueCircle suggested edits for the first 5000 words and add what you think is necessary.
4. Make sure there is enough conflict in each of the scenes. Maybe just every other scene.
5. Do a “content” edit for the following:
   • Show more of the characters reactions to the events of the story.
   • Make any choppy sections flow better.
   • Break up larger sections of narrative: more “show” instead of “tell”.
   • Check and use your ‘editing notes’ in yWriter.
   • Format story for Emily

You have 9 more days, till this goes off to Emily your editor.

Step1 – 2 days Step2 – 5 days Step3 – 1/2 days Step4 – 1/2 days Step5 – 1 day

That would be pretty impressive, and I think pretty doable in the time left. And, something you could carry forward into the next books in the series. I would be quite happy, if all that happened before the 9th.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: editing PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: write, read, plan whole30 TV: Orphan Black, Mad Men, Grays Anatomy BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: 1 hour walk WEIGHT: 171 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: sausage SNACKS: orange, grapes, apple, spoon of almond butter ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:30 AWAKE: 6:30