Accountability Post 2021 Week 22

Introduction to the Accountability Post 2021 Week 22

This week saw me continue to move forward with the second draft. I also started a new phase of production for the trilogy, and it’s something I have never worked on before. I’ve read a lot about it, but this will be my first experience. So, let’s talk about how much progress I made on these two fronts.

Remember last week how I said I had to change my Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? Since I finished the first draft for A Ghast in the Machine, tracking the word could wouldn’t give me any incentive to keep going. So, I decided to monitor the chapters I rewrote. Last week, I reported I’d gotten through chapter five. This week, as of yesterday, I’ve finished chapter 50:

I’m not measuring how many chapters got their second rewrite.

Sunday saw some tricky work. In the first draft, I had made a stupid mistake. TransStell, the “good guy” company, has a research and manufacturing facility at the Earth/Moon L2 point. It also has a traffic management station near the Fissure leading to 61-Cygni. In the first draft, I had the CEO and VP of Security take a shuttle from Earth to the traffic management station in a day. Trouble is, it’s located near the asteroid belt. A day’s not enough time. I needed to fix that, or it would throw off the timing of several plot points.

That meant I had to rewrite the affected scenes so the two traveled to the L2 point instead. That means shuffling the dialogue that had been between the two passengers and the traffic management facility’s staff. That slowed my progress, because not only did I have to take care of minor grammar, I had to restructure several scenes. I’m happier with it now, but I think I likely missed some points.

Accountability Post 2021 Week 22: And Now for Something Completely Different!

I Went Editor Shopping!

This week, I did something I’d never done before: I went shopping for developmental editing services. I want to get a developmental edit for the manuscript before I ask for beta readers. Typically, writers don’t pay beta readers. That means I want the manuscript to be as clean as possible before I inflict it on them. Or ask them to read it — I guess only time will tell!

So yesterday (Sunday, May 30), I went to Reedsy and shopped for developmental editors. Reedsy lets you request quotes for up to 5 editors at once. Here’s the criteria I used — if you know of a better approach, I’d love to hear it in the comments!

1. The editors had to have not only high ratings, but a high number of high ratings.
2. Potential editors had to work in science fiction.
3. The editor’s blurb should suggest a sense of humor and/or a high level of professionalism (after all, I’m going to ask them to work with me — they’ll need one, the other, or both!)

The Process Seemed Straight-Forward

The form to request a quote asked me several questions. For example:

1. Quick description of myself and the book.
2. Date I needed the quote, which confused me. What’s a good timeframe? A day seemed irrationally short; six months seemed way too long. So, I picked June 18 at random.
3. The first chapters of the book, up to 3,000 words. I provided chapters 1 and 2, which came out to around 2,600 words.

I submitted that last night. By the evening of Monday, I already had three responses. One said that the editor could not meet my deadline, which made me feel like an idiot for choosing 3 weeks out. But then she explained that she had been booked until “late this year.” So I didn’t feel too bad.

The other two said they’d provide a quote and wanted some more information from me. I’ll try to turn those requests around tonight.

Accountability Post 2021 Week 22: Closing Thoughts

Man, I hope I didn’t set that response timeframe too short. Guess I’ll learn as I go. It’s been a little over a week since I started the rewrite, and I’ve finished 50 chapters. If I don’t need any more major rewrites, I should be close to finishing the second draft in my 2021 Week 23 accountability post.

Have you worked with Reedsy? Have you used another service? If you have, I’d love to hear your experience. Please drop me a note in the comments!

Thanks for reading!