By the numbers

1: is the loneliest number. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it.)

2: Points of view in my story.

3: Number of the draft I start tonight.

4: Number of historical tie-ins to Waco I added to my manuscript this week.

1,604: The number of times the word "was" appears in my manuscript, according to Word. Do I have my work cut out for me or what? I can't get rid of every single one, but that's maybe a little over the top. (EDIT! Make that 1,382 after only a few hours of combing and replacing through about a third of the MS. Some of those was's are stubborn little suckers, though. They insist on staying. Unfortunately, there are also many instances of other "to be" verbs. Sigh.)

Still and all, it was a very good week for writing, in quality as well as quantity. I sent a new draft to my first reader, and though I know there's much to do, especially after my beta readers give me feedback, it just looked so purdy today I was all beaming and floating around.

I think if I were an already published writer, this is the point at which I'd whisk the thing off to my agent for a "Look! What do you think?" kind of read. As a "pre-published" writer, it needs to be well beyond that before I dream of sending even a query to an agent. Darn near perfect.

But, cripey, look how far my baby's come!