Today I finished up the basic writing for my second Cracked pitch. One thing I learned from the first one was that they are absolute demons for you getting your sources and citations right, so I still have to get that utterly nailed down before I submit it. (I’ll also wait to see what happens with the first one, so I can apply the lessons to this one.) Huge fun writing this stuff though, so regardless I’ll be finishing it off and doing something with it.

Today I started on my second pitch for Cracked. I was working most of the day so I started it late, but I’ve got the intro paragraph and the six summaries written up. Need to add sources and write one of them out as a sample, then it’s good to go.

Today was going back over the other chapter I’d totally rewritten and checking it. A few tweaks and fixes, but nothing major. Next up is a run through to add bumpers and some consistency work, then back into the second half!

Went back and checked over the whole of chapter 10 this evening – I’d rewritten it almost from the ground up a couple of weeks ago, so I decided it needed another look over. I need to do that with Chapter 11 as well, then I dig out some nice bumper quotes for the chapters, then I get stuck into the second half. Which is probably going to be more work than the first half, since that’s where the plot needs tweaking. Still, should be good fun.

Well – 50% of the way through the final draft of this. End is in sight! Although I am now circling back to sort out chapters 10 and 11 a bit further, and to add some bumper quotes to the start of each of the chapters. Still, at this rate I might be done by the end of March – scary thought!

Still slogging through chapter 15. Nearly done. Also starting to think of other ways to generally update the novel. Gimmickiness ahoy!

Back into the novel, and straight into some of the hardest rewriting in the book. Sadly I’ve had to accept that most of chapter 15 was me struggling to find something to write. Thank goodness I had one person left to kill at the end of it to kick the novel back into gear. Giant scalpel of trimming crap is deployed…

Today I rewrote the pitch for Cracked, based off the feedback I got from their writing workshop. (It boiled down to “don’t be so obvious” and “get better sources”.) I’m much happier with the pitch now.

If you have any interest in writing humorous material, I would strongly recommend that you try pitching to them a few times – they are fair, honest and uncompromising, which is what you want in feedback.

Today’s scribbling is another set of summaries of books destined for the charity shop. Only five this time, but you do get SCIENCE, plus a brief insight into the radical revolution of my childhood when the microwave brought SCIENCE into the kitchen. Future cooking!

Today was most of the last two-thirds of chapter 14 – not difficult, it was already pretty solid. I didn’t finish it though, as the end of it leads into the start of chapter 15, which I do need to rewrite extensively because it is boring. But that is Monday’s worry, as the weekend will be original stuff – probably another Books I Am Giving To Charity, and a rewrite of my Cracked pitch based on their feedback.