Tuesday, September 13, 2011

THE Manuscript

First, if you'd like to hop on over, the lovely Chantele Sedgwick interviewed me. And don't forget that the auction is still on!

So, this came in the mail yesterday. When I pulled it out, I thought something like, "I don't remember it being this...huge." I mean, look at all those pages! And all the purple comments! TRANSPARENT isn't even that long—about 72k. I can't imagine how massive it would have been if I wrote, like, 100k or something. I have A LOT of work ahead of me. Good work—possibly even fun work—just a whole lot of it. (Note to self: Write shorter books.)

But that's not all that came...

Books! Pretty books! I've been wanting to read Ten Things We Did, and the second I pulled out Wildwood I drooled. SUCH a pretty looking book. It looks like a classic already.

Both of these things were so surreal. I mean, I'd heard of people getting books from their editors, but for some reason it didn't process that I would get books from my editor! It was totally unexpected and fun. When I got the package I was so confused as to why it was much bigger than a manuscript, and then I opened it and was all, "Sweeeeet."

Then there's all that writing on my manuscript—and it's not MY writing. I've printed out my books before. I've written all over them. I know what a marked up manuscript looks like. But I can't tell you how weird and cool it is to see my editor's comments on there. My. Editor. It really didn't hit until now that I HAVE ONE OF THOSE. And she read my book and thought a lot about it and has all these amazing ideas on how to make it better. Not only does she have ideas, but she can TELL me her ideas. In querying, I remember how badly I wanted an agent to just TELL ME what the problem was. Well, I got what I asked for, and it's amazing, plus a little bit scary. But mostly amazing.

So I bet you're wondering what you do with a 10-page editorial letter and 274 pages of in-maniscript comments. You aren't? Well, I'll tell you anyway.

First, I freak out a little bit. Or a lot. Have you ever seen the movie Matilda (or read the book, of course)? If you have, you'll remember that scene where a boy is accused of eating the evil principal's chocolate cake. For his punishment, he's forced to eat a gigantic cake and no one can leave the school until he does. It's a little bit like that. I've just had this amazing, rich cake set in front of me, and as yummy as it looks it's hard to see any possible way to eat it all.

I am easily overwhelmed like that. So I have to stop and strategize. The first order of business is to boil down the editorial letter:

It's much easier for me to look at a page and a half of bullet points than the entire letter at once. It's the same amount of work, and yet it doesn't feel like it. I can see that I have 31 points to address, and I can check them off, which helps me see that I am making progress. I like progress.

After that comes breaking down the book into manageable chunks:

Looking at the whole thing at once puts me on edge, so I buy pretty folders and divide the manuscript into sections of about 3 chapters. When I begin edits, I will take out one folder and that's all I will see. It makes it much easier for me to work without getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things to do. I will go through each chapter and outline the changes that need to be made, then I'll make them. Then I get to check off more stuff! It's a party.

Okay, there's my "process" post for you. Better get to, like, actually working now.

39 comments:

  1. You have the prettiest process I have ever seen!

    *note to self - buy pretty notebook and folders*

    Have fun editing

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  2. I'm still amazed that this involved paper and ink. I always assumed an editorial letter would be email and track changes. 0_0

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  3. Josin, I think it depends on the editor! Some do track changes, I believe. Must admit it's pretty cool to have it in tangible form, though:)

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  4. So, so very exciting! I dream of the day I get a package like this. I'm sure I would cope in exactly the same way you did - take deep breaths, cope by surrounding myself with pretty paper goods, dig in.

    It's going to be amazing. Can't wait to read.

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  5. You can do it! This is awesome. So happy for you. Totally living vicariously through you.

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  6. I've been following your blog for quite a while, but have to admit that I read this entry with a special amount of interest because Erica is my editor too, and I am expecting my editorial letter from her sometime next month. It is very cool to have this little "sneak preview" of what to expect!

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  7. Love the pretty folders. What a methodical approach!

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  8. I love how you have this all planned out.... it looks like it would be so easy to get done now. I just organization, you nailed it! Good Job! :)

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  9. Ooo, you have such beautiful organization tools! Isn't it funny how exciting that can make a project? Not that this wasn't exciting enough... :P

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  10. Surprise books in the mail? How cool is that? And I definitely need to prettify my editing process. So pretty!

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  11. Breaking it down into chunks is a great idea but those cute folders are just inspired :-)

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  12. I love it. The folders, the bullet points... I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I'd WANT to do it. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have the nice folders, so I'd try putting it in piles until I got them, then I'd dive in just to realize I'd made a huge mess and mixed up chapter 17 with chapter 4. Note to self: get folders NOW.

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  13. Oh man breaking the book into chucks is such a good idea, with those folders!!! WOW! I don't know I why I never thought of it before...thanks so much for posting and congrats on the manuscript!!!

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  14. What a great process! Thanks for sharing with us!

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  15. Totally random, but I love your nail polish.

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  16. Thanks for sharing the steps you are taking. Organization while writing is a big mystery to me so having a visual suggestion of what to do is great! Enjoy your purple notes :)

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  17. Such cute folders! I could definitely tackle revisions if they were contained in those. :)

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  18. That's a really cool process! I may take notes from you :) And eeee I'm so excited for you, that's so cool!

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  19. Thanks so much for sharing your process. I can definitely see how it would be overwhelming at first. Did you come up with the plan right away? I think I might stare at a wall for a day before I could organize my thoughts.

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  20. I loved that scene in Matilda. And awesome you got Wildwood. I won an ARC and can't wait to read it.

    Thanks for sharing the editorial process. Glad you're excited about it.

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  21. Maybe editors send out books in an attempt to distract writers from all the changes they're requesting. Editors don't want to get any angry messages back saying the book IS perfect.

    I know I could totally be bought that way.

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  22. When I'm doing my own edits, I color code them with pretty pens and matching folders. I print out five or six chapters and put them in the purple folder. When they're marked up in purple, they go into the pink folder, &etc. Making editing pretty and manageable takes a lot of the drudgery out of it.

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  23. I love your pretty folders, and your pretty nails. Great idea to divide the manuscript into chunks!

    Have fun working (and reading those new books).

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  24. I am so excited for you. This is a wonderful post! I love your organization. I love pretty folders. I love the movie and the book Matilda and quote it almost daily.

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  25. What an exciting time for you! I really like how you break down the manuscript in chunks to make it more manageable. I had never even thought of that but then I haven't even gotten to this step yet.

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  26. Look at you, being all organised! I should probably try that...

    I find edits really daunting. Each time I hear from my editor, I read over her e-mail then have a glass of wine and sleep on her advice. The next day I do a full review of her comments and the ms, taking notes as I go, before I even think of starting the actual work. I find it helps to let the "Wow, I made THOSE mistakes?" sink in for a while before trying to fix them. :-)

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  27. Omg that's so exciting! Thanks for sharing your process with us. It's soooo cool that you got books and comments from your editor! Hope that happens to me some day. :)

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  28. Good luck with your edits, Natalie! I'm always so amazed at your organized creativity.

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  29. you're so organized! Mine was an e-file so less paper. But my original mss fit into one of my boot boxes!

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  30. Natalie,
    I'm so stoked for you! Great tips, as always. And you have the prettiest folders I've ever seen. *memo to self: ditch boring manila ones--sorry y'all, you're no fun*

    I can't wait to read Transparent when it's out. :D Yay!!!

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  31. Congratulations and good luck!! I'm super happy for this post because I had no idea of any of it. Great idea with the folders!! I think I'd be hyperventilating with overwhelm about now, but someday when I am in your position (hopehopehope) I'll know how to manage it because you led the way so generously.

    I popped by to give you a bloggers award. I know you're busy and probably don't have much time for this stuff, but I love your blog and wanted to acknowledge you.

    So ... here. I present you with the Versatile Blogger Award. Please accept it with my deepest appreciation. You can find the details on my blog: http://clickerbug.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/youve-just-won-the-versatile-blogger-award-what-are-you-going-to-do/

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  32. haha I have the same pretty folders for my writing file!

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  33. This is so incredibly awesome! It looks like you're organizing a great approach to the task. I write picture books, so have never faced anything this daunting, but I sure hope to someday :) Good luck with it, and I can't wait to read Transparent!

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  34. With nail varnish like that, you can tackle anything...

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  35. I love that you posted this. It all sounds so fun and challenging and surreal. I would totally prefer hand-written notes, I think. I also prefer to edit on a hard copy. Good luck!

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  36. These are the kind of articles that make you so special. I've never seen anyone take pictures of their manuscripts straight from the editor or show people a to-do list for edits like this. As a hopeful author, it so wonderful (and so interesting) for me to see what's ahead. It's exciting to read about what's happening to you and dream of it happening to me someday. Thank you for the updates! And I know you've probably heard this a million times already, but once more can't hurt: Congratulations!

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  37. Natalie it’s such a nice sharing, really impressive work which you done, and surprised how you organize all the reviews of book, and specially love your folder printing which is so attractive and looks impressive. ..

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