Gearing Up to Tackle Revisions

I'm plugging away on my draft (whenever I can!), and now I'm starting to think about the major revisions looming in my future. I have "to fix" and "to add" documents that I've been keeping up as I draft, but the sheer number of items on each is daunting.

What I need is a revision plan. Luckily for me, there are lots of great resources to help me get organized. One of the absolute best I've ever seen is Susan Dennard's Tackling Revisions post on the Pub(lishing) Crawl blog. She suggests isolating the big-picture issues first, then breaking each one into a series of manageable chunks. One of my favorite pieces of advice from this post is to do an outline of your story after you finish the first draft, and before you revise. This will show you pretty quickly which scenes add to the story and which need to be cut.

(Side note: that Susan Dennard's pretty smart. She's also the author of the How to Write a 1-Page Synopsis worksheet, the only one I've found that actually makes short synopsis writing bearable.)

Marissa Meyer (author of the Lunar Chronicles series) explains her revision process here. She's also a fan of writing out all of your scenes to see which ones are working and which ones aren't. She adds the advice to color-code all of the main plots and subplots. I love this advice! It seems like an excellent way to see at a glance which plots need more airtime and which are taking up too much space.

And finally, former agent-turned-author Nathan Bransford has some encouraging words for the inevitable revision fatigue--you know, that moment when you're so sick of the book that you never want to see it again. Having gotten to this point with all four manuscripts I've finished, I'm keeping that one in my back pocket. The comments are definitely worth a read, too.

How do you tackle revisions?

Triona's Top Ten Book Picks of 2014

I'm stealing Stacy's idea this week and sharing my favorite reads of 2014. My favorites are pretty evenly split between YA, adult, and MG. I tend to favor sci-fi and fantasy, but a few contemporary books snuck onto the list too.

Without further ado and in no particular order, here are my ten favorite books I read this year:

1. THE THOUSAND-DOLLAR TAN LINE by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
I'm a big fan of the sadly short-lived TV show Veronica Mars, so I was really excited when I spotted this book in an airport bookstore. This is the first book in a new series featuring Veronica and the other characters from the show. It read just like an episode of the show. I couldn't put it down for the whole flight, finishing just as we touched down on the tarmac. The second one in this series comes out in just a few days. I can't wait!

2. SEARCHING FOR DRAGONS by Patricia C. Wrede
An oldie, but a goodie! I received a box set of all four of Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles for my birthday and read them all in about a week. I'm listing this one, the second in the series, because it narrowly edges out the first as my favorite. I first read these books when I was a preteen and so identified with spunky Princess Cimorene, who melted wizards with soapy water and bossed dragons around. These books were just as good almost two decades later.

3. RUIN AND RISING by Leigh Bardugo
The final book in the Grisha trilogy didn't disappoint. This book was just as compulsively readable as the first two. Although some people didn't like the ending, I thought it was perfect. Everyone got what they deserved in a very satisfying way. (Side note: I will forever remember this book as the one I was attempting to read while in labor! I didn't get more than a page or two done, but I figure I should get some props for trying.)

4. THE EIGHTH DAY by Dianne K. Salerni
I went on a big middle-grade sci-fi/fantasy reading spree near the end of the year, since that's the genre of my current WIP. This was my favorite of them all--an action-packed novel with an intriguing premise and fascinating characters. The second book in this series is coming out any day now, and it's definitely on my to-read list.

5. CINDER by Marissa Meyer
Several teenage friends were swooning over this book, so I had to check it out. I thought the Cinderella-as-cyborg premise was very well thought out, and the pacing of the story was great. I also read the second one in the series, which was also very good.

6. BEHIND THE SCENES by Dahlia Adler
When I was eight months pregnant, my husband had to go out of town. I was feeling sorry for myself, so I wanted a fun, light book. This one definitely delivered. I liked the characters and premise a lot, and the feel-good ending cheered me right up.

7. CHAMPION by Marie Lu
Like Ruin and Rising, this was the third book in a trilogy I really enjoyed. It was my YA Book Pick for May, so you can read all about it here.

8. ATTACHMENTS by Rainbow Rowell
I read this author's FANGIRL and ELEANOR & PARK and absolutely loved them, so when I spotted this adult romance, I snapped it up. It was full of Rainbow's great dialogue and achingly relatable characters. I couldn't put it down.

9. SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinette Kowal
I usually gravitate toward sci-fi and fantasy, but I have to admit to a soft spot for Jane Austen. This book, the first in the Glamourist Histories series, blends Austen-style prose and settings with a fantasy twist. I loved having both elements in one book and thought it was really well done. The next two books in the series were great too, and I can't wait to see where the author goes with it.

10. HOOK'S REVENGE by Heidi Schulz
I heard a lot about this book when Heidi sold it, and it totally lives up to the hype. Captain Hook's daughter is fearless and likable, and the narrator's witticisms alone were worth the read. This was another one I had trouble putting down.

Here's to more great reading in 2015!

YA Book Pick: CINDER by Marissa Meyer

Once a month, we choose an outstanding YA book to review. We want to spotlight books of interest to aspiring writers, as well as highlight some of our favorite books and authors!

This month's Book Pick is CINDER by Marissa Meyer.

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

First Line: "The screw through Cinder's ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle."

This first line gives you an immediate impression of the main character. She obviously has something physically different about her, or she wouldn't have a screw through her ankle. The author also plants the idea that Cinder is poor by mentioning that the screw is rusted. It makes me want to read on and find out why!

Highlights: Although "cyborg Cinderella" is a good enough hook for just about anyone, this book is also a good example of the dystopian genre. It's set in the future, after a world war has devastated much of the world and completely changed political boundaries. The author did a good job of avoiding the dreaded infodump, instead doling out bits of information throughout the book that kept me hooked and interested.

The main character is mechanically inclined and very competent, which I liked a lot. No damsel in distress here. The romantic plotline is also well-crafted. The protagonists' attraction to each other is believable, and so are the reasons they are kept apart.

The book ends on a dramatic cliffhanger, which made me want to pick up the next book immediately. From the synopses, it looks like the other books in Meyer's series each follow different fairy-tale characters who end up interacting with Cinder and each other. This seems like an intriguing way to do a series that might be more interesting than just following the same character throughout multiple novels.

A Good Read For: Writers of fairy-tale retellings, this would be a great read for you. The author loosely follows the Cinderella story, but she adds so much of her own spin that I honestly forgot about it after a while. She did an excellent job of blending just enough of the familiar with interesting new concepts to keep the reader hooked.