Draft Through Winter

Once again, I've joined a fabulous group of writers, assembled by Kelly Sgroi, to Draft Through Winter. This completes the grand slam of writing events curated by Kelly - Write Till Christmas (WTC), Edit Till Easter (ETE) and Draft Through Winter (DTW).

We're a lovely cross-section of writers at different stages of our writing journeys. Some are familiar faces and some are new. We might be writing in different genres, but we all have one thing in common - we want to chat about writing, be motivated to hit our writing goals, write together and soak in that sense of community.

Faced with addressing my first ever developmental edit, joining this group was perfect timing for me.

So how is the editing going?

It's tough! I vacillate between 'I love this' (and I do, because I can see how much better my manuscript will be) and OMG it's so much work - can I do this?

We all set goals at the beginning of DTW, and while I'd like to smash this edit and complete it, I still don't have enough of a grasp of the length and breadth of the work ahead to make that call. I definitely know I want to be over halfway through by the end of winter, so I set my goal accordingly.

Complete 60% of the edits.

Even 60% feels a little too wobbly and vague for this accountant but if I can get through at least half the edits and see a clear path to the finish line by the end of DTW, I'll be happy. That will be success for me. Then, I know I'll be on track with my 2026 goals for this manuscript.

What I've learnt about my process:

✏️ Despite being a Scrivener writer, so far, I'm preferring to edit in the marked-up Word document.

✏️Act 1 and Act 3 need a rethink based on work I'm doing on GMC and simplifying sub-plots, so I'm tackling the middle first.

✏️My accountant brain's need for structure, completion (quick 'tick off' wins) is struggling with this open-ended task. To resolve this, I've set up a spreadsheet to track what (if anything) I work on each day. It motivates me to not have any blank cells!

So, you can see why I'm so excited to be part of the DTW writing group. The weekly zooms to write, discuss progress, and raise issues, motivates us all to keep reaching for our goals.

And talking of goals...

2026 Goals Check-in

Manuscript 1

✓ Complete current edit

✓ Developmental edit

Address edit (WIP)

Manuscript 2

✓ Complete high-level scene summary

X Draft synopsis

X Work though GMC and wounds

Manuscript 3

✓ 11,000 handwritten words dictated

X approximately 9,000 handwritten words to go

It's reassuring to see that I'm still on track, and I'm curious to see what my manuscript will look like by the end of Winter.