More haste less waste

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As we all know it was a bit of a journey to get to this point *cue emotional mood music*. A journey that involved, apart from the well documented tears and tantrums, multiple rewrites.
Multiple.
Which as processes go is a little wasteful. Sure, I'm not fined per word, per scene, per character, per chapter unused but there are at least two books worth of spare words culled from Minty alone. And when you are as time challenged as I am it seems silly to write 150,000 words when only 50,000 are required.
So *rolls up sleeves* I needed to figure out a process that is a little more user friendly.
And Book 3 seemed like a good place to start.
First step was writing out a full proposal including my H & h's backgrounds, deceptively easy as as this story was my Minty alternate back in 2011 so I have had just a little bit of time to figure out things like conflict and motivation.
Second step was fast drafting the first 30,000 words (it was supposed to be the whole 50,000 but I ran out of time. I suspect running out of time will be a key part of this process).
And then I had to send the first three chapters to my editor *refreshes email again*.
This part is new. Not since the terrible historicals have I submitted three chapters of an unfinished manuscript, submitted chapters just one edit away from a first draft. It's a scary thing to do, they still feel pretty raw to me. I am imagining poor editor, head in hands, weeping gently over her keyboard wondering why she ever gave me a second contract.
But *shakes self* by getting her input so early on I can make sure my second draft is as tight as can be and on the right lines which may mean less revisions later on.
Well that's the hope anyway!