For most of the summer, I have been placing each chapter of
my forever-ongoing-to-no-end-in-sight World War II story into a running
manuscript. Running manuscript, because
it’s always ‘opened’ on my desktop on my laptop; forever-ongoing-to-no-end-in-sight because I am adding each chapter
at a time and editing as I go, and I’m
second-guessing decisions as if I have all the time in the universe to run this
race.
I’m pretty sure this is not the normal way of putting a
manuscript together. I’m willing to bet that most of us writers have the novel
ready in its final draft and ready to copy/paste into a manuscript template for
sendoff to an editor. Not this writer. Nope! I still need a couple of revisions
to go because I write my chapters in separate documents (always do), and I have yet to
piece them together into one document. Typical me.
Thankfully, I have outlined the novel! I have the chapters
in order and even some fine summaries. Yet, honestly, some days I’d like to
just publish the outline instead of the actual book. Why? Because it’s DONE.
Sure, I have rearranged a chapter or two. And regarding the
summaries, I haven’t even clarified the new changes that I’ve made. Regardless,
it’s certainly more complete than the actual novel by the simple fact that it’s
COMPLETE. It has a beginning, some meddling middles, and an end. My WWII
outline is now ready for Kindle!
I might be the first to do this, so I’d be a trendsetter.
And after you buy the bones and ask me for the meat, then I’ll send you my
manuscript, as is, and maybe some notes at the bottom of each chapter that
describes what I had in mind for the scenes and the characters. Don’t worry. I
won’t charge you for the actual manuscript. I might even attach a questionnaire
asking you what I can add per chapter so I can update the original outline.
Trendsetter!
In the meantime, I can start writing out an outline for my
next works in progress. I’ve got an interesting Western story hiding somewhere in
this laptop, and I’m currently writing a gay humor piece (as mentioned in my last
post). I can outline those and sell them along with that questionnaire. I have
a neat Irish story, too, for Gay Lit readers that I can dust off (mentioned in
one of my earliest posts) and type out an outline with the most beautiful,
picturesque, and riveting summaries. Or, I suppose I can include all three
outlines in the most eclectic set ever sold!
Or, I can get back to piecing together my WWII manuscript
for the next series of workshopping.
Manuscript. Running. Second-guessing. Time.
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