The Finishing Touches
I wrote "The End" for the manuscript "The Majik of Spark" on January 12th, 2015. The manuscript in my hands now tells a much different story than when I first began writing it. The story began as an extension of the online game World of Warcraft. The characters were based on my pixilated characters from the game. That was in November 2013 and I was participating in the annual National Novel Writer's Month (NaNoWriMo). That process helped me to write a second draft that removed all references to the game. The third draft was completed based on the great advice and information from my first writer's conference. From start to finish, from first draft to third, it took fourteen months of work to complete.
The manuscript is one hundred and thirty-two thousand words long (132k) and is composed of thirty-four chapters. The grueling process of editing the manuscript now begins in earnest. Frankly, I haven't done a very good job of preparing the groundwork needed to get the manuscript to an agent, so that will be my focus in the time I have. The editing work will also continue.
The Southern California Writer's Conference begins on 13 February, 2015. I am attending the entire conference. With a loving nod to my wife, who paid for the hotel reservations as a Christmas present, I will also be staying at the hotel for the duration of the conference. For three days I can focus 100% of my time into my writing and the conference.
I have four weeks to be ready.
