Endless Editing, Hiking in the Heat and the Quest for MG Fantasy Fiction Titles

I've spent most of the last 12 months revising and editing what was my first draft and think I'm almost there! As I'm writing middle grade fiction, one of the biggest challenges has been the wordcount. So far I've cut several thousand words but am concerned it might still be too long! MG fantasy fiction is generally longer than regular MG fiction but I still think I may be pushing it. P and K at my writers' group think I should stop worrying about the wordcount and they are probably right. So, I've promised myself this WILL be the final draft before I resubmit it to that agent who has agreed to read it again. Otherwise I will go mad!
Also it would be nice to work on something else and have something new to share with my writers' group, who I'm sure are bored senseless by me moaning on about the latest draft of the same story!
*Takes short break to eat dinner*
Right I'm back and feeling better for some food. We had a work day out in the Dales today - a 6 mile walk in 31 degrees celsius - far too hot to be doing anything, least of all hiking, but it was good to get out of the office. It was a bit like a school trip except no one got told off and a few people went (temporarily) missing! One of my colleagues has an 11-year-old daughter who likes fantasy/adventure fiction and wanted some recommendations. I suggested the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan, The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver and His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman.
This got me thinking - what ARE the best / most popular middle grade fantasy fiction books right now? Whenever I try to google a list of top MG fantasy fiction I end up with a mixture of genres / ages with loads of YA titles.
I would love to compile a list for reference, reading and recommendation and so, please tell me what you / your children's favourite middle grade fantasy reads are. (Middle grade is generally classed as 8-12 years but I'm particularly focused on 9-11).
Hope you can help!

The Final Draft

On Thursday last week I finished what I thought would be the final draft of my book. Except that it wasn't. I thought I was all done and the story would just need proofing for typos, grammar etc but when I totted up the word count I found it had increased by at least 20%. All feelings of satisfaction ebbed away as it dawned on me that I would have to cut, cut and cut some more to get the wordcount down again. I'm now trying to decide which scenes will stay and which will go, trying to comfort myself with the thought I could use some of the cut scenes in a future book instead. But even with my most trusted readers trying to help me it's still so hard to decide! I'm currently itching to print it out so I can do a proper edit but there's no paper and not much ink left. I've just placed an order on the site that sounds like a very long river and I'm waiting for their delivery. My plan is to print out the whole darn thing and lay it out scene by scene. Maybe then I'll see what needs to go and what should stay? Maybe...

Slow Progress

I'm still working on what I hope to be the 'final draft' (until someone tells me otherwise!) However it's been slow progress this last week as R has been extremely poorly and I've been snowed under at work. So it's been a week of sleepless nights and overtime. I've always been a bit of a night owl but lately I've been in bed by 8pm every night. This has, unsurprisingly, somewhat diminished my 'writing time'. I've still managed to write every day (bar Thursday) but the going's been painfully slow. And, as I abandoned the fourth draft and went back to the start again, I'm only about 20% of the way through the latest draft. I think it's unlikely that I will get the whole book finished by Easter but I'm pleased with what I've done so far (a rarity for me!) Here's hoping I can get the rest completed to the same standard and that someone loves it enough to one day publish it.

Reviving my Darlings

I'm about 10% of the way through my fourth draft and I think it's working. I've rewritten most of the dialogue and I think it sounds more 'real'. And now that I'm using close third I can use two POVs. This should make the narrative more interesting/varied but it also means I can restore some scenes I really liked but had to cut when it was in the first person. It also means the MS will be longer, but you can't have everything. All being well, I'm hoping to get it finished by Easter.

One Step at a Time

One of the agents I sent my MS to came back straight away, which was great. But she wants some major revisions. So, guess what I've been doing this past week? I've completely rewritten the prologue and revised the first three chapters. Thankfully I haven't been short of inspiration so far. And I think it's a lot better than it was. But, just like the heroine in my story, I still have a long way to go. Oh well, I've always enjoyed a challenge :)

The Impossible Deadline - I forgot to say...

...that I did hit my 'impossible deadline' - in fact I even got my compo entry in early! :) I'm now half-way through the third (and final?) draft. The next part of the plan is to get the book out to some agents in the new year :)

How to Finish a Novel

To get my novel finished I've decided to enter this competition. The prize is amazing - £10K and a publishing deal. The deadline is a month away. It's good to have a deadline and I like a challenge, but it means I must not only finish my second draft (rewriting at least one chapter per day for the next three weeks), but I also need to pick and polish the best 5,000 words and write a brilliant synopsis - simples!
I've been rewriting the entire first draft from multiple third person POVs into one first person POV as well as tweaking the plot, shaping the structure and tightening the prose. It's not been easy but it's definitely improved the first draft.
Because of family responsibilities I can only write very early in the morning or late at night, creating a steady cycle of sleep deprivation. Add in a few restless nights with R and my poorly tooth and it's quite possibly a recipe for disaster. So I have one month in which to achieve a miracle - let's hope it's worth it! :)

Moving Forward

So, we've finally moved - by this I mean no more interim moves, no more storing things in people's garages and attics - we have moved lock, stock and barrel into a proper family home! It's been a long time coming, and yet, now we're here, I think it will be a while before I feel settled. Over the past 20 years, I've moved house far too many times (I've lost count but reckon it might be around 30) and so have got used to feeling almost rootless (thank goodness my parents never moved or I really would be lost!). So, it feels alien to have reached this point. But I'm looking forward to being 'normal'. The first step was getting R's name down for a good pre-school earlier today.
And, although we still have far too many boxes to unpack and we have to get our 'old' house ready for rental, I'm looking forward to making some headway with the second draft of my children's novel. I've summarised the plot chapter-by-chapter, examined the story arc and begun looking at the character arc. After much deliberation, and a bit of experimentation, I've come to the conclusion that the story should probably be changed from the third person to the first person, or it should be at least mostly in the first person with some in the the third (if I can make it work?!). But it's going to be one heck of a job, especially as the first draft's around 80,000 words. My alpha readers mostly agree with me, but B thinks it's a totally mad thing to do - maybe he's right, but if that's what it takes to write a good book...
Last night I saw John Connolly the crime author at our local town hall. He was highly entertaining and insightful and when I'm less tired I'll try and summarise the evening properly in a blog post. K and N, two of my writing friends, met him aftwerwards and told me later what a genuine and honest bloke he was, which I found refreshing for such an established author.
October is going to be a cracking month for writing/literature festivals with events at Morley, Ilkley, Wakefield and Hebden Bridge. Although why they have to be at the same time of year as each other is a mystery, as surely they would have more attendees if they were spread throughout the year? Just a thought. Anyway I've booked myself onto various workshops at Morley and HB, which will (hopefully) spur me on to finish my second draft during the autumn and winter. Now that really would be moving forward.

Editing the First Draft

It's been about six weeks since I finished the beloved monster that is my first draft. And, for no reason I can explain, it feels like the right time to go back for 'round two'. But where do I start? I'm part-way through reading a good book about editing your work before publication and I've read countless tips on the internet, Twitter and other blogs. And now I'm close to information overload!

It seems the best place to start is to make a chapter-by-chapter outline of what the first draft looks like, with a paragraph of what happens in each chapter. Then I need to work out the theme/message. Next I ought to look at the protagonist (but what if there's more than one?) and how he/she changes over the course of the story. Then I have to write summaries of the subplots. Once I have my story and character arcs outlined, the novel needs to be split into three parts: beginning, middle and end. And then, only then, am I allowed to begin at the beginning and tackle Part One!

It all sounded quite manageable until I read one piece of advice which said: "Expect this process to take at least as long as it took you to write the first draft, and likely a lot longer." What??? Surely there is no way it could possibly take that long? I refuse to believe the second draft will take me longer than the first (which took over two and a half years for reasons which I won't even go into), but then surely there's no way that Life could drop that much dung on me this time - is there?

Anyway, onwards and...editingwards (or should that be 'editing words' - sorry!)