Today I was supposed to start the Pirouette Rewrite One-Pass Revision, but I’ve decided to wait until I move and get settled. I don’t want to lug around a 500+ manuscript. And, more importantly, I’m just not ready yet. The story is simmering in my head, but I’ve been focusing on Survivor, and that’s helped me get the needed distance from it. I want to feel ready to rip it to shreds. I’ve already made a list of what needs to be changed, so I have that as a guideline.
I’ve been told different things about distance — 1 month, 6 mos, more than that, even. I’m not sure I can wait that long. Pirouette will call to me. I’m sure it will, when it’s good and ready. I’m not writing to the market (I hear that’s not a good thing) but I would like there to be a market for it when I start the agent rounds. But I’m also not going to push it. I don’t want to send it in when it’s clearly not ready for agent perusal.
Can we just fast forward to the end of the Revision and call it done?
Just kidding. This will be an interesting experience, being my first real revision.
Survivor is just moving along. Things have changed a bit, but for the better, I think. I think I have a shot of getting it done within the next few months (!). If I work my butt off, that is. Timeline-wise, we’re just before the climax of the book. So it’s almost there. Pantser me, I meandered a bit, but I’m not off course…just taking a detour.
I could wrap it up within the next few days, but that would take away from the power of the story. There’s a very specific thing that needs to happen to set the MC in a new, healthy direction. I’m moving towards that.
I also have another idea percolating. My awesome writing partner emailed it to me.. It’s for Silouette Nocturne Bites, 15k novellas. Paranormal. That’s about 40 pages. And it would be a challenge to write something tighter. Ideas….one of them is basing it off of a really cool song (by guess who? Queensryche!) and another is a serial tracker thing. Yet another is vampires underground. Don’t know how I’ll choose. But there’s no deadline, so I’m just going to let this one simmer away.
That’s about it. No Revision, working hard on Survivor, got some new things to flog the muse with.
Weaver of Words 
The distance is right when the distance is right. Some people can edit right after finishing–others need a year or more. What works, works.
Don’t worry about the market. Even if the bubble collapses, a truly stand-out work can still find a home and readers. That’s what you’re going for–something that lasts.
Remember, the Nocturne Bites line is 10-15k, and that’s a hard upper limit. Given how long you write 😉 , you might want to shoot for the lower end. Or just write something to submit to the regular Nocturne line. Good luck with it! I e-mailed them to get details on rights and pay scale . . . we’ll see what they have to say (before I start writing!).
Thanks, Erin. You have a valid point about the market, and about Nocturne Bites. I’m just curious to see if I could pull it off. 😉
Could you share the info you get back with me? I’m curious to know.
Thanks,
EK