MayNoWriMo: Das Plan

So the plan for MayNo is to complete An Actual Revision and in order to do that -- and because I know myself all too well -- I know I have to break that overarching goal down into small, quantifiable steps, things I can formulate into a Grand To Do list and tick off one by one. Without that, I will get sidetracked and bogged down and Go. Nowhere.

Which will piss me off.

And will piss Dorothy off. And will make Inge very, very freakin' happy, because she hates mucking around with MY writing. That's very uncomfortable for her and she would really rather tear to shreds somebody else's writing.

Thank goodness dear Inge isn't in charge and I am.... heh...

Anyway, below is The Grand and Wonderful Plan that I came up with this evening to achieve my MayNoWriMo Goal. I even put time limits on each major step so that I have mini-deadlines in the midst of the Grand Deadline of May 31st.

We'll see how it works. I'm a little worried about not setting an upper limit on the number of items in Step Two -- Inge could subversively suggest change after change after change and thus ensure I never finish the damn thing -- so somewhere in the back of my mind there's really a range: 3-5 plot-related changes, 3-5 character-related changes, etc. The range is fairly small, because the original manuscript is only 20 pages long and this thing is NOT going to turn into a full-on novel (ya hearin' that, Dorothy dear??).

Right, well: Das Plan:

Overall Goal: Complete a revision of the fairy ring story

Step One: Read Through Manuscript and Make Notes [DONE]
a) Read through manuscript hard copies (full first draft and started-but-abandoned second draft). [DONE]
b) Make notes on the h/c and in a separate notebook on changes that need to be made. [DONE]

Step Two: Evaluate and Plan Changes [5 DAYS MAX]
a) Identify at least 3 specific plot-related changes
b) Identify at least 3 specific character-related changes
c) Identify at least 3 specific world/setting-related changes
d) Identify at least 3 new scenes that need to be written (~7,500 words)
e) Identify at least 3 existing scenes that need to be entirely re-written (~7,500 words)
f) Identify at least 3 scenes that need a minor amount of work
g) Identify at least 3 items to research

Step Three: Research [3 DAYS MAX]
a) Research the 3 most important items identified in Step Two g)
b) Spend NO MORE than 2 hours on each of the 3 items

Step Four: Make Changes Identified in Step Two [15 DAYS]

Step Five: Make ONE pass of the full manuscript to line-edit/polish [5 DAYS]
a) Read through a HARD COPY marking changes
b) Type in the changes

Step Six: Send the Manuscript to Beta-Readers.

One final side-note: Step Six, though it may seem sort of trivial, is really important. The whole point of writing for me personally is to get shit out of my head. All well and good, that. The point of revising, however, is to create something other people can read -- so that has to be the ultimate goal and the final step and measure of success or failure here. That is to say, on May 31, 2010, I have to be at the point where I can send out an email or post a facebook status that says, "Hey, I wrote something. You want to read it?"

Yoiks. I think I just scared the piss outta myself.

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