Rosetta Update

So... odds are good that I won't be finishing Rosetta this month. Last night I sat down and, in a fit of writer's block about chapter 22, wrote a scene from the final battle. It really was just a small scene, but it lasted 1000 words. At the 1000-word per day rate I'm going, I have just over 10,000 words to go until I hit my target for the month. That's ten of those small scenes. I think I have more to say than that.

I'm okay with this though. I've set a new goal (end of January), a new writing challenge (1000 words/day for the month of January), and I'll keep trudging along. I don't think it'll take me all of January to finish, because I do think I'm starting to circle in for a landing.

Sort of.

This story has taken some seriously weird twists in the last month. Peppered throughout my chapters now are notes for me to go back and fix. Some of them are specific notes, like, "The Author will think of something clever for me to say here." But some are incredibly vague, like, "Make Alec a more likable character," or, "There will be more unrest in the Pack." Which means my editing process is going to rock.

I'm actually really looking forward to starting my edits. I like the direction the story's gone, and I like the things I've come up with to explain the anomalies I created in the beginning. I know there are several chapters that will need to be completely rewritten, as well as many things that will need to be cut or added, but it actually sounds nice not to have to create anything new. I just get to play in the world I've already created.

I've never edited any of my novels before. This is usually where the wheels fall off the wagon. I made some half-hearted attempts with my first novel, but none of them could wipe the undercurrent of, "I wrote this when I was in elementary school," from it, so I ultimately stuck it in a metaphorical drawer.

I've also never written a query letter for a novel or a synopsis, but those are both included in my new year's writing resolutions (I'll put up the list later). I'd like to have Rosetta edited by the beginning of summer, maybe May or June, of 2012, and I want to begin sending letters to agents soon after that. Ideally, I'd love to have an agent by the end of next year, but I'm going to attempt to dream somewhere in reality's neighborhood. I can't control whether someone picks up my book, but I can control whether I have feelers out, so I'll do as much as I can and hope the rest falls into place.