Longhand?

Previously on Betsy’s Blog…

To sum things up as quickly as possible:  there’s a Quest, there’s a Guide, he’s a gerbil (yeah, a gerbil), his name is Harry.  The Quest is to indie publish, Betsy’s supposed to be writing and finishing her first draft, and the Muse is cranky about schedules.  Betsy’s also managed to put together a “Quest” page collecting all of the related blog posts in one place.  Although she never figured out how to put the first post first instead of last, she’s pretty impressed that she even figured out how to collect them together.

Anyway, Harry has called a meeting with Betsy and the Muse to discuss progress.  Let’s listen in, shall we?  

Yes, let’s.

 

*Betsy and the Muse walk into Harry’s office*  *see Harry lounging on top of his habitat tower watching television*

Hey, I’m glad you two could spare a minute. *Harry sips from a snifter of brandy* *turns off ESPN*

Sure. *Betsy sits on sofa*

Sure. *Muse perches uncertainly beside Betsy* *glances at Betsy for reassurance*

*Betsy pats Muse’s hand* So, what’s up?

*Harry puts down snifter*  *runs down the habitat tower, then jumps to perch on the coffee table in front of them* I wanted to touch base with you guys to see how we’re doing on our product.

Great! *Betsy smiles at Muse* We’re at the end of the first draft for Handing It.  I think we’re at the last scene, don’t you, Muse?

Oh, yes! *Muse sits forward* *Trembles with creative enthusiasm* We’re definitely at the climactic scene.  A little bit more work and it will be finished!

Hey, that’s great. *Harry settles down on the coffee table* *Crosses one hind leg over the other* *adjusts his fur to lay smoothly over knee* What’s next after that?

*Betsy looks at Muse* Well, we kinda figured we’d keep writing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Of course you’re going to keep writing.  *Harry flicks that away* But I need to plan.  So after you finish this first draft, what’s the next step?

Oh.  *Betsy frowns in thought* I guess the first thing we’ll have to do is to type the first draft into Scrivener and–

Whoa! *Harry holds up forepaws, pads out* Whoa, whoa, whoa!  What do you mean, “type it into Scrivener”? How the heck did you write this first draft anyway?  Telepathy?

*Betsy looks uncomfortable*  I, um, wrote it, um, longhand.

Longhand! *Harry jumps to his feet* Longhand!  You mean like on PAPER?  With a PEN? Are you freaking kidding me?

No. *Betsy tries to soothe him* See with longhand, it all just flowed–

Flowed! Flowed! *Harry begins to pace, paws clasped behind his back*

Yeah! It was so cool. *Muse leans forward eagerly* See, she was all blocked up and I was talking and talking, but I could never get her to buckle down and listen but then we figured out it was because she was sitting at a computer, see?  And sitting at the desk was restrictive kinda, and reminded her of her day job.  So we thought she should just write it down and it really worked! It was like I was there, like, molded to her hand or something.

Yes! *Betsy beams at Muse* That’s exactly what it’s like. She talks and it just comes out and I don’t even know how long I’ve been writing because it’s like it’s me and her and the writing and it’s wonderful until my tendinitis flares up!

Yeah, well that’s freaking great but…but LONGHAND! *Harry snorts in disgust* What century do you live in? Do you think you’re Jane Austen?  Did you use a freaking quill?

*Betsy straightens* I thought you were all about the writing? Why are you getting upset?

Because I thought YOU wanted to be an indie author.  That means you need to get books out there sometime within the next freaking century.  Writing in longhand is about as efficient as chipping the thing in a rock.

No, no, listen! *Muse clasps her hands* See, it’s great. We’ll have kind of a second draft when we type in the stuff Betsy wrote in her  notebooks because we’ll be reviewing it all.  And we’ll also see things that need to be added and deleted as we go.  It’s actually going to save time.

*Harry crosses his arms* Oh, come on. Save time?

Yeah, you know why? *Muse looks rebellious* It’s going to freaking save time because this way she’s freaking writing the thing, okay?

Hmmmm.  *Harry considers* Good point. *settles back onto coffee table*  Sorry. Okay, so the first draft is finished. You’ll type it in and clean it up. Will the book be finished then?

I think it will be pretty much there. *Betsy looks to Muse for confirmation*

I see a couple of scenes we might need to add.  *Muse muses* And things will need to be smoothed out and pulled together, especially since the first half of the book has been finished for a while.  *Muse taps chin*  So at least one more draft after it gets typed in and smoothed out.  Maybe two.  But they won’t take nearly this long.

Okay.  *Harry nods*  Let’s talk about plans for the next steps after the book is finished.

 

To be continued…