A first draft out of the way: next steps

I wrapped up Through All Four Seasons at 44,000 words. Yay! But I'm hardly done:

Yes, even though I've got a complete draft, I'm going to attempt a structural outline. This is a first for me: I'm very much an organic writer, and a non-sequential one while I'm at it, which is a problem here because the romance isn't predicated upon instant first-look attraction. It creeps and grows and then pounces. But it's difficult to keep track of the creeping and growing if I'm writing the key scenes out of order. Feelings may plausibly ebb and flow, but there needs to be some sort of overall crescendo, and I want to make sure I include such an escalation.


I also need to fill in areas I glossed over. This means coming up with minor characters' names or better word choices, going back to plant Chekhov's gun in earlier scenes, and smoothing out inconsistencies. Sometimes it's a bigger issue, like ensuring strong motivation for a character throughout or adding grittiness to the overall setting. I'm guilty of throwing in the towel for some past stories and decreeing, "It's good enough," and in fact did get those works accepted–only to have the editor point out the same issues I waved off, and ask me to fix them.  So I might as well hash out the problems I'm aware of beforehand. (Theresa Stevens also has a handy checklist.)


Off to my poor brother for a trusted reader review. I appreciate his eye because it isn't acclimated to romance, so he focuses on world-building and whether the external plot makes sense; and he'll be absolutely honest if the sex scenes occur too often or at stupid intervals instead of sighing over how wonderful it is that the characters are finally experiencing ultimate intimacy. I try not to abuse him as a reader too much, since I don't want him getting used to romance tropes through my works, either.


Finally, a read-through aloud using TextAloud, my text-to-speech software. The artificial voice I use makes all dialogue sound somewhat stilted, so it's not too helpful in that regard.  But this step does let me catch awkward sentence constructions that made complete sense when I wrote them–and typos, too. I follow along in the manuscript as it's read aloud, and the slow pace forced by the software often lets me notice errors that might otherwise slip past me.


I've actually already written the cover letter and synopsis–these are usually procrastinatory tools during the drafting stage–so after I'm happy with revisions and have double-checked the formatting, off it can go as an official submission. Log it in Duotrope, pop an entry into my calendar that reminds me when it's time to query, then forget about it.


Take a deep breath.


Then start the next story.

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