There's all this stuff in my head...: Next step of writing: Fleshing out those bones

Okay so it looks like I fell off the planet. Promise - I'm still here. The last four years have been ... hard. There's no other word for it. Everything is fine. I'm fine, but I've been the caregiver of my mom who has Dementia. Between her needs, work, etc I seem to have lost control of my time. I am still writing and am trying hard to get back to my blog.

In case you weren't aware Phaze and HSWF which where under the Mundania Umbrella have closed. I was smart enough to get my titles back before all this happened. I'm happy to say the three books I sold to HSWF have been picked up by Melange Books and are available through their Satin Books imprint. I have even sold a new title to them called Magical Quest due out in 2022

I have also been lucky enough to find a publisher for my Vespian Way series. I'm now with Blushing Books under the name of Bethany Drake. I have five titles out with them right now and am close to submitting two more. There's Desire's Destiny, Desire's Duty and Desire's Promise. Then there is two in my werewolf series, Tears of the Queen and Legend of the Tears. I have just finished the rough draft of the third book in the series and have plans for a fourth one the moment I submit it.

I'll probably still be sporadic here on the blog. Unless I win the lottery and can hire someone to help me I can't avoid it, but know I'm still here still working hard in the background and am hoping to do better at keeping my blog alive.

Barb:)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Next step of writing: Fleshing out those bones

So now you have the bones. The rough draft is done and you now have to go through it and make it shine. Where to start? I'd recommend you start where you feel drawn to. I normally read through the manuscript to see where I'm weak but I can't help but make corrections as I go through. I ask myself questions:

Does the scene flow?
Does it move the plot forward?
Does the dialog make sense?
Is there enough description or too much talking heads?
Does each scene end with a hook?

I might go through my manuscript three or four times to catch it all. Now I feel I need to explain this. I did try to cut down the amounts of edits needed but found that didn't work for me. I need to do this in stages to get the best story I can.