Tolkien and the Circular Final Draft Revision Rewrite Stage

ee! I forgot to toast J. R. R. Tolkien's birthday yesterday! 118 years ago, Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. On that day each year, fans are invited to stand, raise a glass of their favourite drink (single malt whisky for me), and toast his birthday at 9 pm their local time. The toast is, "The Professor".


I do have a valid excuse, though - I'm on an editing vacation from work. I'm also on the internet less (and far behind on many forum discussions). As of this evening, though... 7,000 words in final draft form and only two major questions left to resolve from the first five chapters:

Is Arcturus really a Cistercian?
and
What's the oldest Catholic church in Palos de la Frontera, Spain?

In keeping with this theme, Claire wonders how to revise final/late stage drafts. (Look for Zan Marie's Serenity Prayer for Authors coming soon on All The World's Our Page.) I'm not sure if we're at exactly the same level of revision yet. So far my process has been to read the entire novel from the start, addressing every square bracket - and many minor inconsistencies - as I go. Next round will be to tweak tone, imagery, metaphor, dialect and so on.

And then I might be ready for beta readers! Or, at least, ready to set the novel aside for a month or so.

How's everyone else doing?

Meanwhile, some giveaways:

Steve Fuller is hosting a contest to win a Kindle and Helene Boudreau has links for six different contests in which you can win copies of Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings. Go forth and enter!