Down to the Wire - "Ailing Body Nourished Soul" progress/goals update

I really, truly CANNOT believe it is the first day of November (of course, I'm writing this on the 31st of October, but that's STILL no excuse!). This year is going by WAY too fast!

And on THAT note, it's time, once again, to share my progress on my preparation of my NF manuscript "Ailing Body Nourished Soul" for its professional edit.

My goal has been, and continues to be, getting this manuscript completely ready to be sent to the lovely Deb Porter at Finesse Writing and Editing Service by the end of...(gasp)....wait for it....THIS MONTH. So, while many of you are writing your hearts out feeding your screaming muse during November, trying to spit out those 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo, I'll be scouring my WIP with my friend Genghis Khan the editor, getting it polished into enough beauty that I'm not embarrassed to send it for its professional edit (hehe).

ANYhow - as far as October, I think I did pretty well. As usual, here are my goals from last month, straight from my last progress/goals post.

• Finish my flow/repetition/names read-through of Ailing Body, Nourished Soul.
• Start a third read-through.
• Work on my read-through daily a minimum of 15 minutes a day, with a weekly minimum of 2 hours.

Well, I did finish that second read-through, and am well into my third (a bit more than halfway, I think!). For this one, I'm reading the manuscript aloud - WOW, what a difference it's making! If you don't do this, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend it. HIGHLY. So many things I've caught that I haven't before!

As far as time, I'm not sure I've made two hours a week or not - but I can only think of one day the entire month I didn't spend AT LEAST 15 minutes on it. There were several days I went over that amount, so I'd say if I didn't make the two hours each week, it was pretty close. So, not bad :)

And how about November? Well, besides my overarching goal of getting this WIP off my desk, I have some more small, specific aims.

• Finish my "read-aloud" read-through of Ailing Body Nourished Soul
• Do one more "proofreading/whatever else I can find" read-through
• Spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day, two hours a week on my book until I'm done

So, that's it...for now, anyway. I DO have plans for once/while my book is in the editor's hands, but I'm trying to keep focused on the now. I promise to fill you in on those details later!

So, in the meantime - no matter what those folks at NaNo say - "slow and steady wins the race!" (and yes, I am DUCKING! hehe)