#ROW80 Round 2 Wrap Up

I only had two goals for this round:

  1. Write 20 days out of every 30.
  2. Finish To Get Me To You.  

I easily met my first goal.  I’m nothing if not consistent there.  But I definitely didn’t finish the book.   I had an OMG THE MIDDLE spaz at the tail end of April that led to a total overhaul of my outline and necessitated significant cuts and rewrites.  And this weekend I had another, less spastic realization that I needed a second outline revision before I could continue.   In total, I probably cut near to 50k of the 73k I wrote this Round (and probably a good 12-15k of what remained were plotty notes).

And you know what?  I’m okay with that.

Unlike almost every OTHER time I’ve ended up cutting stuff from a manuscript, a lot of this actually COULD be reused in a future WIP in this series.  And all the time exploring different avenues with these characters has helped me really learn their voice and personalities in a way I probably wouldn’t have before.  And I’m pretty sure that by stopping and doing this now, I’m saving myself the need for a total rewrite second draft later.  I take it as a great sign that I’m as in love with these characters as ever, and they still talk to me all the time.  This book is the anchor for the entirety of the Wishful series, and there is a very specific series arc for the town that I’m setting up, so I have a lot of details to juggle and get “right”.   That’s worth taking the time for.

We’ve got 11 days left until the start of Round 2, so I’m hoping to continue to make strides between now and then such that I’m up to PP1 by the time we get started.  Then it’ll be fast and furious (I hope) until the end.

In other news, I’ve pretty much got a handle on the dairy allergy.  There’s still some suck involved, but thanks to finding a source for Daiya (dairy free cheese), life goes on more or less as normal.  See y’all next round!

4 thoughts on “#ROW80 Round 2 Wrap Up

  1. I had a similar experience this round. I didn’t meet my goal of finishing a second draft of my novella, but the story is so much stronger and I feel more in touch with my characters than I did when this round began. I now feel that I’m definitely heading in the right direction with this WIP.

    Congrats on your progress this round, Kait!

  2. Ruthless editing! A+ The fact that some/most of what you cut can be used = another A+. Those character conversations = exactly what keeps the story ‘alive.’ May the next round go as well.

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