Landmarks, Goals, Progress & 100 Pages

So, I hit kind of a big landmark last night and I’m pretty excited about it.

Despite the urging from my Nintendo Wii to go out and play Super Mario Galaxy for an extra hour, I pushed through and hit the 100 page point on my editing/red-penning of GOODHALO. While that might seem like nothing to most (or all) of y’all, this is a big deal for yours truly.

Here’s why (bulleted for ease of digestion)

• I write my 1st drafts in single-spaced 10 pt font. Why? Well, when I’m writing, I don’t let myself feel like a couple of pages is that big of a deal. Think about it. If I kick out 5 pages, formatted the way I do it, it’s really like 7.5 pages or more.
• I only have 58 pages left to edit. Thomas, you’ve written a 158 page fantasy-type story with zombies in it? That’s like a pamphlet, dog! Haven’t you been paying attention? When I reformat it for agents/publishers/people who want to read it, it’ll clock in well over 340 pages. Not bad for Book One (of three).
• I’m REALLY looking forward to tossing the red pen aside and getting into what I call the ‘punching up’ portion of writing. If you were to poll me, I’d say the part about writing I like least is the red-lining (what I’m doing now). What do I like best? Writing the book, hands down. ‘Punching it up’ is a close second.
• Being at page 100 (and you should SEE how much I mark the pages up!) means I’m that much closer to drafting out GOODHALO II: FLIGHT OF THE FAMILIAR (working title) and eventually GOODHALO III: NAME OF THE FATHER (working, etc…)
• I hate to say it, but I sort of miss querying agents. Once GOODHALO is ready (and it’ll be soon) it’s time to set my baby free and see what will come from all this craziness.

Say…remember that book I wrote over the course of October? The novel I kicked out in 31 days during what I affectionately called SHOCKTOBER? If you need a refresher, it’s on the sidebar under the title ANNA 2.0.

Yeah. That one.

Well, I haven’t forgotten about that little beast and I had some spare time a Sunday ago and I pulled it out of my man-purse/satchel/Indiana Jones-looking bag and flipped it open to a random chapter. I was fully prepared to re-taste my breakfast at how bad it would be, but…

I was pleasantly surprised. Lest you forget, it’s the story of a 16 year old girl who, despite her better judgement, helps her mom beta-test a suit of battle armor designed for police/SWAT team raids. She’s a gymnast, sister, and boyfriend…three things I know absolutely nothing about.

Well, I’ll be garsh-darned if the story isn’t actually…pretty good. I talked about it with my fabulous new critique partner and I gave (what I thought was) a totally crappy pitch. I essentially said:

“It’s like Iron Man, but with a kick-ass high school chick in the story. I never liked superheroes who were just BORN with powers, but really gravitated toward vulnerable characters who had to overcome something to become…great.”

So, that’s another bout of editing I’ve got lined up for sometime this year, which gave me the idea (and subsequent challenge I’m going to try):

I plan to draft out GOODHALO II while I red-pen the heck out of ANNA 2.0. I sort of want to be in the position by the end of this year to have:

• 2 Books ready to submit (GOODHALO & ANNA 2.o)
• At least 2 new books drafted (GOODHALO II & CALL ME CARP & ???)
• The time to finish my long-forgotten pet project (TRAVIS & THE MAGIC SANDBOX 3)

It could happen.