Milestone

I finished the latest revision of my book just now. Now all I have to do is go through and make the changes I marked. That may take a week or so, then I'll write a new query and start sending it out.

I'm pretty happy with this draft. Some things that weren't too important to the main plot got cut, while Cosette's (my main character) romantic options were expanded. I thought it important to expand that line a little to make the character a little more real. At least one character was cut, and one that I really liked was added. At the end, there may still be parts that could have been improved, but that's true of any book. If I fail to sell the book this time, I'll just move on. There's a few short stories I'd like to write, then I can go back to my ghost story and start revising it. The extremely rough draft shows promise, but it needs more story, and the characters need developing.

But writing is like building a house. You lay the foundation and put up the studs. Then you nail on drywall and paint it last. Editing is like painting and decorating. You can't do that until the main part of the house is up. Right now I'd say the ghost story has the studs up. The main stuff is there. Now it just needs detail and heart.