Monday, January 17, 2011

How Long Does It Take?

I get this question a lot.  How long did it take you to write your first ms?  How long and how many times did you revise? How long did it take to find and agent?  I usually laugh and toss out me standard, non-committal answer: It Depends.

I am currently in the thick of revisions for my YA contemporary Inside Out and now it is my turn to throw that question back at you.  I have given myself 2 months to do a complete overhaul of the book.  (Mind you I have specific guidelines and suggestions to employ, so the task is a tad-bit easier). That is roughly 3-4 chapters a week.  That gives my amazing critique partners time to read and catch any glaring inconsistencies before I start tearing up the next chuck of chapters.

Are any of you in neck-deep in the revision process?  If so, do you have specific target dates you set for yourself and is there a process you follow?

8 comments:

  1. I've started out the New Year cleaning up a list of smaller writing tasks before settling in with a manuscript revision. No time line for it, but it helps me to have the smaller things done first so as not to distract. I clicked over from Lindsay's today, enjoyed my visit!

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  2. Yes! I would like to start querying by Valentine's Day. Saw It Coming is undergoing its fifth revision. WAHOOO!!!

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  3. Oh yes, I've been in revisions for like ever. I really need to move along but I keep laboring over the first five chapters. I go back all the time. I wonder if I'll ever be totally happy with it. I'm glad you posted this because this has given me the push to just move on and I'll let a beta reader tell me whats wrong. I think we get to a point where we're just blind after spending too much time on our story. At least that's how I feel right now.

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  4. I'm learning not to set deadlines but my goal is to revise one full chapter (line editing and such) every two days.

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  5. I'm still hammering out my new WIP but I've already thought about the editing process because I really love editing! (I know, I'm weird...)

    I plan to give myself a month and a half to do edits, but I may need to bump up my timeline depending on how things are going. Plus, I'm such a tinkerer! I have a propensity for tweaking and tweaking my books until it drives me batty. Haha.

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  6. I just decided my MS needs a major rewrite. I haven't plotted out a working time frame, but I've been working on this MS for well over a year now.

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  7. Well, as you know, you're pretty much doing my revisions for me on my latest WIP. LOL As far as Inside Out, I know for a fact it'll be stellar. Writing my first MS, I pumped it out in about four months. Then revisions took me another year! My latest is taking me longer to pump out, but I'm hoping revisions will be a lot smoother. So here's to drinkin' wine, editing and great beta partners!

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  8. It's so hard for me to ever feel done. My answer would have to be even more non-commital than yours because of my "tinkering" problem. Hey, the first step to getting better is admitting the proble, right?

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