So, the reason I haven't posted here in the past week is because I've been spending all of my writing time working on The Do Over. I've begun the process of developing the draft (ie, converting all of my individual scenes into a narrative). At one point, I finally crossed the 80,000 word mark, and then the pruning began.

And, the re-writing.

In an effort to enter a prestigious literary contest, I have been working on a synopsis of the novel and the "first chapter". This has entailed writing a new 5-page synopsis (which has been through one round of critiques; I'll be revising it tomorrow before I send it in with the rest of my app.), and completely rewriting the first five scenes (three of which are completely new action).

Why completely rewrite the first five scenes? Two reasons. First: the original versions were terrible. I wrote most of them about a year ago, when I was still shaking some rust off of my pen. Second: after much hemming and hawing, I have finally acknowledged that the action cannot begin at Location B, since Location B is never a part of the story after the opening. So, I had to relocate to Location A, which is a very central setting throughout the novel. Alas, it's not enough to Find and Replace location names. Everything changes by changing the setting.

So, I've spent the last few days writing about 5,000 words of new material, plus the new synopsis. Yee-ha. The application needs to be postmarked by Friday, so I'll be a busy beaver Thursday after work, trying to put the finishing polish on my efforts. Will it pay off? I may have a fighting chance at getting some notice in this literary contest (Winners are announced this summer). But at the very least, I've gone through phase one of preparing a book proposal. So, I've taken a necessary step toward getting this beast published.

...and, as I've said above, I'm now on the road to turning my random scenes into a novel.