HTRYN

Holly teaches us the method she uses. None of us walk in the same path. Your needs will most likely be very different than hers were. You already have a good handle on a lot of the issues that a newbie would face. You will be able to skip those. Not every thing Holly mentions will be needed by you. I would look inward and decide what feels right. If you think you would move quicker using a second story to revise then go for it. To be honest, I never go completely through HTRYN simply because my muse rebelled. I felt like her method was painstakingly boring.

I read through it because the one thing it did show me were the elements that I might be missing due to my lack of experience. Use what you can from her methods and morph them into what you need.

Most definitely. Your rough drafts will never be as rough as the first one. You will automatically start correcting yourself as you write. Your understanding of what the book will need grows with each book you write. One of the most exciting things for me is being able to hit my word count. My early works were always sketchy and unfocused. Now I can move from beginning to end and hit the length I want. when I think back to how unsure Marti and I were with our first books; how awkward it all felt; I had no idea what to do or how to do it. I just knew I had to move forward regardless of my insecurity. Now that you have product, your learning curve is going to amaze you. Because stuff you didn't have any way to compare to now has a model you can use to improve. My goal has always been to make each project better than the last. The only person I'm competing with is myself.

I'm excited. I started on my second story (which is the third in my Flipper series). I spent some time today going over the first eight lessons and organizing their content I wanted to use with the spreadsheets I use when I write. I've combined the eight lessons into three, which I think will help me go through them quicker.

This is what I needed to do - combine what I'm learning from the lessons into what I've already done, learned, and developed. I like spreadsheets and they help me keep my story straight. I know as I do this each time I'll refine it until most of it becomes natural. I do my best work when my mind is organized and this helps me do just that. Yay!!! Thank you for the nudge this direction.