Rewriting and Beta Readers

As much as I wish this post was on my (almost ready) Wordpress blog, I'm putting together the finally touches on that blog this week. This month has flown by, and a lot of that probably is because I worked almost every night to ensure I finished this book. Last night I stayed up later than usual to finish with rewrites. As promised, I wanted to fill you in on the details and give you an idea of what's next for Clara and Claire.

The rewriting process was long and numerous times challenging. I used an app I've mentioned before called "Wordly" to track my progress with word counts and time. I also used Ommwriter on my Macbook Pro to stay focused while I typed. A lot changed in the book, all for which was hopefully for the better. Some scenes were deleted entirely, other scenes became something new, and characters developed over the months I worked on this. I'm definitely not the fastest at rewriting a novel, but I really wanted to finish with a product I could feel confident sending to my beta readers.

At the end of the entire process, Clara and Claire totals in almost 98k words. It's probably my longest book yet --I can't remember how much Cursed With Power is, but I'll do some searching later this week to check and see if it's true. The word count surprised me. I started with approximately 82k and ended with 98k. It's a lot to read --it was a lot to edit-- and I'm eager for feedback because so much has changed. 

A lot of people have asked me during this whole process, "what's rewriting consist of?" For me it consisted of adding in my edits into the manuscript, but also typing it all up in a new document so if I wanted to add something in or delete something I could do it as I wrote. The main story did not change. The ending mostly stayed the same, but everything from characters to minor details improved with this process. I finished the first draft of this book in four months, so I knew when it came to editing and rewriting I had a lot of work ahead of me. And who knows how much I'll have to do once beta readers give me their feedback. But in the meantime I'm celebrating another progression and another step closer to publication.

As for my beta readers, first of all shoutout to them. Four wonderful readers/writers have offered their time to read my book and give their feedback. I'm ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly. This will be my first time having beta readers since Cursed With Power (back in the days when it was on Inkpop and Wattpad.) So even though it makes me excited/nervous, I'm overall ecstatic that I will have someone else's opinion besides my own.

The goal with the beta readers is to have read the entire book by the end of August. This way I can fix whatever I feel is appropriate, and then once it's ready I can send the manuscript out to my editor. So who knows what I will do for the entire month of August while I wait, but maybe I'll start drafting up ideas for my next book or just write for fun. Despite some of the setbacks I've faced, I still intend to participate in NaNoWriMo. 

As of right now the order of events for the book goes as followed:

1. manuscript is in hands of beta readers
2. review feedback/ make revisions as necessary
3. send manuscript to editor for final read over
4. make revisions as necessary
5. begin process for publication

Step five is a big one. It's one that just can't be summed up in a few words. There's so much I have to do before publication. This year I'm aiming to go big with this novel. I want to hire someone to do the interior formatting to look stunning (instead of doing it myself with the limited tools I have). I'll also need to set up a cover reveal, blog tour, and release party and giveaway once it gets closer to my planned publication date. The publication date is still up in the air at this point, but I will keep you posted on what seems to be in the realm of possibilities.

I'm excited to be done with rewriting and eager to hear back from my beta readers. I also want to hear back from you. If you have any questions or thoughts you want to share about what's upcoming for Clara and Claire, ask away. I'll be sure to answer your questions in the comments and also shout them out in another blog post. Hopefully the next time I'm posting I'll be live on Wordpress. I will finish up the final steps with the new blog this weekend when I come back from a short vacation. I'll be returning on Saturday, so Sunday afternoon I might be able to unveil the new blog if I have the chance.

Thank you for all the support!!

Lindsey Richardson