Editing HIDDEN: Step 4 - Pacing

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." - W. Somerset Maugham

After assuring myself that every chapter has a reason to be there (and if it didn't, deciding whether to scrap it or combine it with another), my next step is to check the pacing of my novel.

There are a lot of theories on pacing and more books and websites on the topic than you can ever read.

Some people swear by Save the Cat by Snyder. Others love Screenwriting Tricks for Authors by Sokoloff. Or you could go with a simple beat sheet calculator.

Me? I'm a HUGE fan of Martha Alderson. Her book, The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master, was one of the game changers in my writing life. I first began watching her videos on You Tube, which you should totally check out later. I bought her book on Kindle when it came out and I've referred to it a zillion times. While I love paper books as much as the next person, my Kindle app is far better because I would have destroyed a paper copy by now.

Because I have so much respect for Ms. Alderson and her methods, I'm not going to go into great detail. You should read her book or watch her videos. But, I will show you what I've done with my note cards for this pacing step...and you can find similar graphs on the web (but nothing quite as spectacular as hers) here.

By laying out my note cards in this way, I can easily segment Acts One through Three. I know where my midpoint and crisis fall. I can tell if I have too much in the middle or too much at the end. Basically, this one task tells me everything I need to know about the pacing of my book.

Next step? I'm diving into my first major line edit. Wish me luck!!!!

XoXo,

Megg

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Cover Reveal ... Kinda ;)

If you're Facebook friend of mine, or a fan (I hate that word), or you just follow my public updates there, you may have seen something a little out of the ordinary.

I'm currently writing my next novel, Hidden. I did something I haven't done in three years - I actually sat down and plotted the book using the techniques of The Plot Whisperer. I have a notebook filled with notes, background story, character sketches, etc. I've got this one DOWN, baby. All I have to do is write (easy and fun) and edit (not easy, but still fun). It's like all cake from here.

I've already got a cover. I've had it for about a month. The incredible Steven Novak made it for me. I've been dying to share it, but it seems silly to share it when the novel isn't even fully written yet!

So I had this idea...this evil idea...to share my cover in pieces. lol. Cruel, I know. Only 5 friends have seen it in full and here's what they have to say:

"Oooooooohhhhhhhhhh! I LOVE it."

and

"I LOVE it!!! Very mysterious and dark and enticing."

and (my favorite)

"holy <bleeping> <bleep>

you're going to sell a <BLEEP>LOAD of books"

Here's how the cover reveal is going to work. Every time I hit a new word count goal, you get to see another part of the cover. I showed the upper left corner yesterday, just to kick the whole thing off. When I hit 10,000, you'll get the lower right corner, 20,000 is the upper right corner, 30,000 is the lower left corner, 40,000 is the right and left sides, 50,000 is the entire cover. Sounds like fun, right?

If you want to keep track, and help encourage me to keep writing, there's a word count meter on the top of the right sidebar of my blog. You'll know exactly where I'm at because I update it several times a day.

Here's the first reveal:

 

XoXo, Megg