Quick Update

It's hard to believe the 2014 - 2015 school year has started. Our summer went by in two blinks, and the leaves are already starting to turn in my end of Nova Scotia. Son is happy to be back with his friends and teachers, and gets up with eagerness each morning.

Day 54 of my quit smoking journey is here, and although I've been craving a lot, I'm still smoke free and determined to beat the nicotine addiction for good this time. 

So this is what's going on in my writing world...........

Last week, I had two full writing days and utilized them to do some polishing and rewrites in "Away to Me". I made a few POV changes, put something more in line with what my breed expert says would be right for that particular breed of dog, and made some other editing changes like compressions and other fun things we authors need to do during the editing phase of getting a manuscript ready for publishers.

I'm now in the "waiting period" for more edit suggestions from the readers again, so the current draft of the manuscript is set aside until they tell me where it needs work.

It's official: Ten has been shelved. It's too much like the "Legacies" duology in style and storyline to be "mine" at the moment. I'm not sure if I'll ever finish that one or if I do, it'll be completely revamped.

I don't have any other ideas grabbing me by the throat right now either, and it feels odd not to be working on something writing wise.

Please... Before anyone starts messaging me with ideas, don't bother. I do appreciate the sentiments, and y'all thinking of me, but I have enough ideas of my own. I'm trying to figure out which one is the best idea to run with, and which one will hit me like "Away to Me" did when I started working on it.

Besides, the last time I wrote a story that was someone else's idea, it turned into a huge disaster, known as "Family Portraits"... Or, if you prefer, "The Worst of VJ's Finished Manuscript Drafts".

The idea I run with has to be mine, in concept and everything else from the start, else we'll see a repeat of that mess.

The one bright spot of not having anything hitting me right now is that even with that, I'm still getting vague images and ideas for scenes in anonymous stories, and a title for one.

Have a great week everyone. I hope to be posting that I am deep into another story soon.... I just have to find it first! :)

Pray for Moncton and an Update

Before I bore my readers with one of my writing updates, I'd like to say something regarding the events of this week.

I ask that no one mentions the name of the Moncton NB suspect/perpetrator anywhere on my areas, out of respect for the RCMP and their families. This is for my Facebook page, my author's profile, my Twitter posts and shares/retweets, my real name profile, and in the comments section here on my blog.

I have a lot of respect for the men and women in every tier of the RCMP, and I do not tolerate any disrespect for the Mounties. Mentioning his name at all is disrespecting them in my opinion. He's had his 15 seconds, and didn't deserve any of it, nor does he deserve to be remembered.

Remember those who serve to protect our nation and its citizens, not those who coldly and deliberately hurt or kill others. Simple as that.

My thoughts and prayers are with all RCMP officers across Canada, no matter where they are stationed, and their families. I'd also like to thank ALL of our Mounties, still commissioned or retired, in every detachment across the country, for making sure the civilians in our beautiful and vast nation are safe, and for putting their lives on the line daily.

Thanks to all Mounties, from an aspiring author in southwest Nova Scotia. 

My author's page will continue to have the #PrayForMoncton banner for the rest of the month, to show my support for the city of Moncton New Brunswick, and respect for all RCMP officers and their families. 

#PrayforMoncton #RCMP #RCMPNB

*********************

Writing Update:

Some progress has been made in my writing world.

"Away to Me" went into stasis for the summer on Monday, June 2, 2014 at 6:28 p.m. ADT. It will remain there until September 5th or 6th, depending on when my first writing day of the 2014-2015 school year is. It will be coming out for another read-through and round of massive editing before my alpha reader and beta team get it. Due date to send it off to them is October 13, which is the Canadian Thanksgiving and Columbus Day in the US. My best friend is on the beta team, and won't be ready to sit down and enjoy it while she's covering it with red marks until then, hence the long stasis period and four month wait.

The "squirrel on speed" feeling I normally get was bad on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I had to do something to stop it. I know what I did was bad, but it was either do it or lose it!

I know I'm supposed to be recharging my writing batteries over the summer, and was going to set things aside until September so I wouldn't have a story driving me nuts during July and August, but I am writing again. I know, it's been just over a week since the first draft of "Away to Me" was finished and I should take a short break, but I'm still fired up writing wise, and hate leaving an unfinished work on my desktop.

So, I'm back to working on Ten for the time being. I had two full days this week, and although it was slow going, managed to get Chapter 2 finished and Chapter 3 almost there in the rough draft. I've made a few modifications to the timeline and storyline to make it more plausible and to get things moving faster. I'm slowly getting into the habit of having a story happen over the course of three to nine months, tops, instead of over the course of years or decades.

I don't know if I'll finish this one before another one comes to me. We'll just have to see how it goes. I'd love to finish it sometime, preferably before 2015 rings in, but if I don't and another story gets written in the meantime, fine with me. I'll just plug away at it when I can, and as long as the story is there in my brain somewhere, it will get done somehow.

I know I no longer feel like a squirrel on speed, so that's good. I'm not driving myself and so many others crazy with me bouncing off the walls because I don't know what to work on next!

In other writing news... My local beta reader, D, the one with the dog leashes, now has Family Portraits waiting for her to read, along with a bunch of frying pans to hit me with. It's filled with mistakes, passive areas and so much JUNK. I'm going to be lucky if I'm still able to write when she's done clocking me for sending her such a horribly edited manuscript!

I have a couple of writing days ahead of me this coming week, and I hope to make more progress in Ten. I'm now starting to build up a relationship between the two main characters, and a key event will be happening sometime soon. I just have to find the right balance between not boring the reader and not making things move too fast. I'm still learning how to do that, and wind up going to one extreme to the other. Hopefully I can get it right in this story without a million rewrites.

Have a great weekend everyone. Namaste.

The "Fun" Has Begun...

Editing is not my favorite thing to do, especially when it comes to my own stuff. I like perfection in my work, and previous experiences tell me I'm not perfect at picking out the inconsistencies, passive and wordy areas and everything else an editor at a publishing house doesn't want to see in a submitted manuscript for their consideration. I really have to get out of that mindset and don't expect much when it comes to me editing my own stories, even though I've learned a lot in the last five months, since I've joined two writing forums and am getting advice from some of the best - authors right over to the editors, etc - in the entire writing business.

The "necessary evil" of the editing and proofing have started on "Away to Me" and it's worse than I imagined. Passive areas, repetitive stuff and glaring inconsistencies everywhere. It's going to take another week or so working on it full time to get it up to snuff before it goes into stasis for the summer. I was hoping even with keeping it bare bones that it would be a lot better than this, and I'm really ticked off at myself for not doing a better job at it. Then I remember I'm still learning and I'm not as ticked. I'm still kicking myself, but not so badly, and I start prepping the frying pans I'll be giving to my betas with their copies of "Away To Me" this coming autumn. I'm expecting a LOT of cracks on the head for all of the mistakes, and other things in the second draft, even after I get the worst ones out of it.

I'm slowly getting things cleaned up though. Friday would have been another writing day for me if I was into another story, so I used the entire day to work on getting the first edit/reread of "Away to Me" in its entirety. 

Here's what I did:

• Took out a few passive areas.
• Compressing of timeline started.
• Started putting chapter breaks at the beginning of a new page.
• Began removing repetitive stuff.
• Compressions of wordier areas started.
• Started smoothing out choppier areas.

My local beta and longtime friend D asked me how long of a time period "ATM" took place... It was originally about 15 months. She suggested I compress it to six months. 

That was "fun". I went back, checked things over and managed to squeeze it into a bare nine months over all. Not bad, could be better though. I don't think I can get it more squashed than that. I'll have to see.

Yes, I got a lot done but still have a long way to go before it's ready for stasis, round one. I have a couple of hours here and there and a day or two to get back to the editing this week, and I'll be deep into things when I have the chance. It's slow going but it's getting there, one step at a time. I'm learning as I go too. And boy have I learned a lot in the last six months, more than I could have imagined!

I thought I knew a lot but didn't know squat about the REAL writing world, even with two finished first drafts under my belt. I'm shocked at how far I've come in only a couple of years, since I first sat down, dug out "No Regrets" initial idea and its few components at the end of 2011 and tried to see what wasn't working with that manuscript, once that I had the time to do something with it.

"No Regrets" was "hell" to write by times, and if it hadn't been for me talking with various people, thinking about it CONSTANTLY, rereading everything I had written, brainstorming, countless hours researching and all of the other stuff entailed with writing a unique and interesting story, I would have tossed it aside, given up on it and tried to find something else to amuse me, while making excuses why I wasn't trying to get past the speed bumps and other nasty things I encountered while working on it. Rewrites - UGH! So many... *Shudders!* Passive areas: galore! *GAG* Repetitive stuff.... I think I lost about 2000 words just with taking THAT stuff out, and I think there's more to be removed! *THUD!* Sent it out, got rejections for it. My own stupidity and overconfidence, in my writing skills and editing. Lesson learned, big time! Will be revamped before it's published, probably via a self publisher in a few years.

"Family Portraits" presented its own unique set of problems, and other nasty things, despite it being the follow up to "No Regrets". Even though I flew through that one too, I still had problems and had to do a zillion rewrites. More rewrites. Passive areas. Wordy areas. Choppy scenes. The list is LONG in that one, and it needs more work than even "Away to Me" in its current condition. Will be published via self publishing in a few years, after it's cleaned up and if "No Regrets" sells at all. (DOUBTFUL!)

"Away to Me": the first completed manuscript that is NOT related to the Legacies series and well under 100K word wise. I still had a lot of problems getting over speed bumps and other things in it, despite it being bare boned. It needs a lot of work, but not as much as "Family Portraits". Will have five people reading it and whapping me over the head with frying pans after they see the errors in it this time.

What I'm trying to say is that I DID NOT GIVE UP. At all. I've hit more speedbumps writing and editing than I can keep track of, and I have a great memory! If I gave up each time I hit a roadblock, a problem I can't figure out right away, a bout of writer's block or anything else we writers/authors wind up running into on a daily basis with our work, I would have NEVER finished one manuscript's first draft, let alone THREE! 

If you run into a roadblock and are SERIOUS about writing, you won't give up on it. You'll find a way around it, over it or through it and KEEP GOING. NO EXCUSES. If there's a will, there is a way.

Keep in mind that I write only PART TIME, I have two neurological conditions that hinder me sometimes (occipital neuralgia and carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects the HANDS), and I have a special needs child that needs constant attention when he's home.

If *I* can write without any excuses, anyone who is serious about it can do it too. If you can't, you're not serious about it at all, and will keep making excuses not to continue while you put down us really serious writers, which is really nasty and petty.

Simple as that.

On a side note, congrats to WHOM GODS DESTROY for finally getting onto the radio! They're being played on CKDU, which is Dalhousie University in Halifax own radio station. They have a live stream on their site and if you live in Halifax-Dartmouth, you can catch them at 88.1 on the FM dial. Great job, Tim, Eli and Adam... I knew you could do it, and it's the first step toward getting on stations across our beautiful nation!

Have a great week everyone! I'll post another update when more progress is made, either editing "Away to Me" or anything else in my writing world!

Breaking the Tape...

Today I am like a phoenix rising out of the ashes of a raging blaze, and I refused to let unrealities mess up my writing vibe despite everything that happened!

To quote Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, "VICTORY IS MINE!".

It's official:

I have completed my THIRD manuscript in less than three years!

Y'all read that right.

Eleven's first draft was finished at 1:44 p.m. ADT today!

And it's my son's 10th birthday, so that makes today a doubly special day for me!

Wow. Was it only just over 3 months ago that the initial idea for this one was conceived and the main file started? I can't believe it took less than six months to get into it and really get moving!

I'm in shock. It took me longer to get into writing "Family Portraits" than it took me to write Eleven in its entirety! *THUD!*

Other than that, I'm not sure how I feel. I'm still in the writing fog, and where it's still open on the desktop in Draft One, the wackiness hasn't started yet, and I haven't crashed back to earth yet.

That may not happen until sometime next week though... I'm taking what would have been my normal writing day to go over the manuscript with a fine toothed comb - adding a few things I forgot to slap in during the first part of it, and taking out any passive/repetitive stuff I can see.

After that, it's going into stasis for the summer and won't be touched until school starts in September.

That's when I'll start going loopy-doopy and bounce around like a squirrel on speed. It's the post finishing a first draft let down, and I hope I don't completely lose it this time like I did in 2012 after No Regrets was finished.

Speaking of No Regrets, it's going to be my saving grace - again.

Yes, the revamp will start once Eleven goes into stasis, just so I have something productive to do while I'm waiting for Eleven to fade from my mind and a new story to suck me in. It will be put aside when Ten or a new idea gets going, or if school starts before it's done. Eleven is my priority now, and it will be worked on until it's as perfect as it will be for editors and publishers.

Writing this simpler, shorter story has taught me a lot. Each time I put in a passive area and reread it, I took it out and put something else in that would move the story forward a little faster. I've done my best not to be so repetitive this time, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of stories like this one. I don't know if Eleven is the one that will see me get published or not, but that's okay. I wrote it, learned so much from it and will keep going until I hit gold.

To me, success isn't if you're published or not. It's starting a project and finishing it, even if it takes years.

I have three finished first drafts. That's gold threefold. Not bad for a girl who writes only part time, not at all for two months of the year, AND with a special needs child to boot.

No excuses for me. As difficult as it is for me to work a lot of the time, not writing is NOT an option. It's as vital to me as my son, my husband and breathing!

I'd like to thank everyone who was behind me during this journey... My wonderful husband and son, my writing pals in Facebook and Sanctuary, the Water Cooler gang, my alpha and beta teams (Bestie, D, S, and A), my local friend D who taught me a lot about a special breed of dog and who is one of my betas, my brother and his wife, my longtime pal Sandra Durham, other pals who were behind me, my best friend H/Tabby, and my husband's family members. Finally, the gang in Romance Divas, who seemed to light a fire under my chair... I learned a lot from the wonderful people in that forum, and I'm grateful for everything they've done to help me and motivate me to go, go, GO and finish this manuscript!

And if I forgot anyone, my apologies. Namaste!

Happy 10th birthday and lots of love to my beloved son!

ELEVEN'S FIRST DRAFT STATS:

Name: "Away to Me"
Length: 135 pages
Word Count: 77 477
Chapters: 17
Started: February 20, 2014.
Finished: May 29, 2014.
Length of time from starting main file to finishing: 3 months, 9 days, writing part time.

Noted date and time of finishing "Away To Me"
May 29, 2014 screenshot

Have a great weekend everyone, and I hope all of you enjoyed this particular writing journey!

On to the next one with happy hearts, a dance in our step and tons of optimism!

An ending is only a beginning of something just as good or better... 

A Look Ahead to Summer 2014...

Even though it doesn't feel like it in my area, summer vacation will soon be upon us, and that means the writing will be put on the back burner until school starts again in September.

For the first time in two years, since 2011, I will not have a manuscript waiting to be finished over summer vacation.

It's official: Eleven's first draft will be done before June 20, just as I had hoped.

I'm not sure if it will be finished this week or next week though. It all depends on various factors - like if I can get my brain to concentrate on just writing instead of editing while writing, and real life stuff - and if I can get Chapters 16 and 17 to go the way I want them to. I'm at the most intense part of the story at the moment and sometimes those take me a little longer to write and get up to par for a rough draft or first draft.

When Eleven's first draft is finished, I will be taking at least one or two days that would have been "writing days" to go over it with a fine toothed comb, to check for errors, compress a few things and to add in anything I may have missed.

After that's done, it will go into the first round of stasis, and will stay there all summer. I will reopen it on my first "writing day" after school starts in September and do another round of edits before it goes into stasis, round two. When round two is over, Sandra and my betas get their paws on it.

So, I need a few projects to keep me busy over the summer, once Eleven is in stasis and the full blown "I have finished my latest manuscript and have nothing to work on/write! squirrel on speed mode" settles in.

One project that's been driving me nuts is Ten. It was started before I even had Eleven's idea, and I would like to try to finish it. I'm probably going to go over all of its parts, try to see what's wrong with it and correct it, if I have to because I can't get back into it. I wasn't really "in" to that story anyway, so that could be why Eleven happened to take over once I got its initial idea. If I have to, I will do a complete revamp on how the two mains meet and get to know each other. It's something I'd rather not do, but it could be necessary for me to finish its first draft. Not sure if this one will be published sometime even if it is finished, but we'll see.

Another thing I'm planning on doing is more photography. I suck at it, but practice makes better, right? I want some new, original photographs for my sites, and for a friend of mine, if she wants me to do some more for her.

I've also been thinking about looking through my "dead manuscripts" and seeing if any of them may be salvageable. If they're not at this time (that can change as I hone the writing skills), I may "steal" ideas from their ideas files for another project, like Ten for example. I've already stolen one from one in that folder for Eleven, and it works pretty darn good in that manuscript. I was going to use the idea for Ten, but went in another direction instead with those characters and their personalities. This idea fits Eleven a lot better.

I have an idea for a new story waiting in the wings... It's one I thought of two weeks ago, and although I haven't done anything other than jot down the initial idea for it, I may start mapping it out over the summer... Searching for character names, figuring out their ages, their personalities, where the bulk of the story is going to take place, and all of the "fun stuff" one has to do in order to prepare to write a story. I can do that easily with both guys home. All I have to do is plug in the earbuds and crank up the music, and I will be set. It's not like actual writing so it doesn't need my full concentration or complete silence, thank the stars!

The question is, will I get into that one or not? I honestly don't know. I never know if a story is going to consume my mind like "No Regrets", "Family Portraits" and Eleven had when I was writing them. It's hit or miss with me, and I guess I just got lucky with those three particular manuscripts. What story I'll finish next is anyone's guess, and it could be another year or more before I find the right one, or the right one finds me. I hope I have at least one more in me, because I want to continue writing, even if I never get published.

And if any of those projects do not keep me busy, there's always going over "No Regrets" and getting that story's revamp going full tilt. That is going to take me a long time to do, because I will be working on it only until I get into a new story, whenever that will be, and when Eleven isn't in stasis or being looked at by the betas.

I also have to consult with my best friend on that one about certain things, and hopefully we'll be able to start talking about it sometime this coming fall or winter. She knows my style, knows what I want to keep in that manuscript, and is one heck of a tough taskmaster when it comes to getting everything perfect. She and I will probably clean up Eleven first so that's ready for publishers' eyes (read: to reject!) sometime early next year, then get cracking on "No Regrets" and eventually, "Family Portraits" in between me writing other stories and the pair of us along with the rest of my betas cleaning up anything else I write.

It looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy and AWAY from Eleven's file this summer once it goes into stasis for the first time. I just hope that when this story's first draft is finished and finally put away for those two months, that I don't completely lose it like I did when No Regrets was in its first stasis cycle. Oh, I was sooooooooooooooo bad............ Maybe the fact that Eleven took only a few months between its conception date and putting "THE END" into its first draft file will help. I had the characters from No Regrets living in my brain for over 2 years after its idea came to me, and for another full year after that, while I was writing its sequel (Family Portraits)... That could be a factor to why I went so loopy-doopy after the duology was finished, after all.

I just hope I don't chomp on the monitor TOO much this summer... Of course, not having a manuscript waiting to be finished may turn out to be a good thing in that respect!

Have a great week everyone!

Scam Warning for Windows Users and A Writing Update

WARNING TO ALL WINDOWS USERS:

There's a new scam happening, and boy does it sound legit.

It's so good I was almost taken in by it.

What happened was I got a phone call from this gentleman with a Middle Eastern accent. He asked for me, and said he was from Microsoft Tech Support.

Now I've had calls like this in the past... But without being asked for by name, so I thought I may as well see how legit this guy really is. I let him ramble on about how hackers had gotten into my computer and email, and my computer could crash at any second. He even mentioned the date that my computer sent in a "report" about it, which was about right... I had a Trojan Horse on the computer which has since been removed, thanks to some help from a few of my tech buddies. (Love ya L!)

I interrupted him (rude, I know, but better safe than sorry!) and asked him what version of Windows I was using, and warned him I'm a tech person. I admit I kind of let him think I have certification for it, just to see what he'd say next. Bad... Yes. Safety over sorry? Definitely.

He said the correct version of Windows and I started thinking maybe this guy is legit. So, I let him ramble on a little more, asked him a few tech questions, and he gave me the right replies for everything...

Until I asked him WHICH email address sent the "report". He said "Your gmail account sent it to us."

That sent up a few red flags... I asked him WHICH gmail address and he sputtered a bit.

You see, I don't have just this one, I have another one for backup in case this account ever gets hacked.

He finally came up with "I can't confirm that, it's not in my records" and more red flags went up.

I don't use either of my gmails as a contact email address for Windows. I use another free email provider.

I listened to him go on and on again for a while and finally asked him exactly "what" exactly I had to do to "clean" the computer. He said to minimize everything on my desktop, look by the Ctrl key and hit the four paned Windows key on the keyboard while holding down the Ctrl and R keys.

I didn't do it. That sounded pretty darn odd. You would think if Microsoft itself was really calling you, they'd tell you to go to their legit site instead of doing that.

I finally had enough of his crap and said, "I don't trust this, it smells too damn much like a scam, sorry!" and hung up on him.

I did a reverse number check and it said the number was "Unavailable".

You'd think if it really was Microsoft calling, they'd show the number from which they were calling.

I did download a security/malware checker from Microsoft's legit site and contacted their digital crimes unit. Nothing appeared on the scan. My computer is clean.

The digital crimes unit replied to me without delays and told me I did the right thing.

Yup, it was definitely a scammer, and one hell of a convincing one. Rotten jerk. *SIGH*

I'm so glad I listened to my gut instead of believing that. If I hadn't, hackers would have had the rest of my personal information and I would have lost a lot of money or other stuff.

So, to all of you Windows users, BE CAREFUL. Windows does NOT call you for anything other than reasons specified on their site. Only scammers call for things like "your computer was hacked" for example.

For more information, and to help you understand the difference between a scam and the real thing, visit the Microsoft Safety and Security Center.

WRITING UPDATE, ELEVEN'S PROGRESS:

This week was productive writing wise. I had two hours to work on each Monday and Wednesday, and things are moving fast in Eleven, faster than I could have dreamed...

Monday wasn't an overly great day writing wise, only 1200 words. I had a few problems and wound up coming up with the right way to get things rolling. I spent most of the writing time jotting down ideas instead.

Wednesday was a huge day for me... Only 2080 words of new stuff was added, BUT I finally spliced in a scene that had been waiting in the wings since the end of February! That was over 3000 words, even with compressions (some stuff had already been mentioned earlier in the manuscript, didn't want to repeat it!).

Today, however, was the biggest day of all... I was in the middle of Chapter 15, and an intense scene was on the way... So I was at it pretty much as soon as the bus went around the corner this morning!

The next thing I knew, it was 2 p.m. and time to stop. I had just gotten into a very intense part of the story and it was either stop or keep going, even though Son was getting off the bus in a few minutes and I have plans for the evening.

Today's word count was over 5600 words... Chapter 15 was finished and I'm now in the middle of Chapter 16.

If I had another four or five hours to write... Well... Y'all know I would have kept going!

Maybe later tonight... I know exactly how things are going to play out, so I may get moving again once things settle down here.

I'm so close to the "finishing line" of this one I can smell it. WOOT!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Catching Up...

Ever have one of those weeks when you did something and don't really remember how you got from Point A to Point B?

*waves* I had one this past week, and I'm shaking my head at how fast things progressed, yet I don't remember doing all of it!

My husband worked a couple of evening shifts this week, so while he was upstairs napping each morning, I dove into the writing. Although it wasn't easy, I managed to get Chapter 12 on the go, clean up bits of Chapter 1 that were bugging me, and keep going.

Friday was the best day this week, it was a full day and I just wrote.

4800 words later, I came out of the fog long enough to get my son off the bus and went back to it. Chapter 13 was done in completion that day and I still can't believe how easy it was once I got into it... And the content of it. I know some of you out there are not going to believe I wrote this stuff when you finally get to read it, but I did... Yes, this seemingly sweet and innocent, vertically challenged rocker chick with a hidden geeky side knows how to write "that" kind of thing.

Y'all will find out what I mean when it finally comes out, whenever that happens.

I also did a word count on Eleven this past week, the first one since March. I was blown away by the progress in the last two months... I knew I was progressing quickly, but not this quickly with it!

As you can see in the photo (screenshot of MS Excel XP Pro, which is what I use to keep track of things like this), I had almost 53K on Thursday, before Friday's big addition. Combine that with Friday's work and it's almost 58K.

I'm over halfway to the maximum of 100K that most publishers in my genre prefer.

The thing is, I may not come close to hitting that. Eleven is over halfway finished, plot wise, and depending on how things go in Chapter 14, I may be splicing in a huge key event that takes place not long before the lead-in to the final scenes of the story.

Yes, I am that close everyone.

It feels weird to be seeing the light at the end of the writing tunnel with a WIP barely three months after the initial idea was conceived... I'm sure my longtime readers and friends remember the four month drought I had between the initial idea of Family Portraits and when I finally got into writing that story... It was over three months. No Regrets (both books/parts) took well over a year for me to really get moving in it (close to two years in reality).

I don't know... Maybe the simpler, shorter and lighter stories aren't that hard for me to write, now that I know how to do it. I am still learning though, and Eleven has been quite a learning experience for me so far.

I'm not going to say that Eleven is "the one" that will see me finally published somehow, but even if only me and my beta team are the only ones who ever read it, at least I tried and will keep trying with different stories and projects until I hit the jackpot.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Moving Along--Wait! Was That a Speed Bump or a Bloody Mountain?

It's been one of those weeks where real life, the writing life and everything else just seemed to throw whatever it wanted at a lot of people I know.

I am keeping all who lost loved ones this week in my thoughts and prayers.

Canada's literary world lost one of its greats this past week also. Mr. Farley Mowat, author of "Never Cry Wolf" and "Lost in the Barrens", among so many other great books, passed away this week, only days before his 93rd birthday. I remember reading "Lost in the Barrens" and its sequel, "Curse of the Viking Grave", in elementary school, and loved both books.

My thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Mowat's family and loved ones. He is going to be missed.

My Writing World...

I managed to get in a little writing time earlier this week, but after that, not much was going on until today. I'm not saying why publicly either.

Hubby didn't work a full daytime shift this week, not even today. His schedule got changed around, which meant I had only a couple of hours to work, with an hour break in between things today.

That said, between 2 two-hour writing sprees, I managed to get 2400 words added to Eleven, even with a rewrite of the last part of the scene I was working on last week and on Monday. (The scene was going down the exact road that a scene from another manuscript some publishers saw prematurely and I do NOT want to get stuck in a rut writing wise, so I changed it!) Things look better now and I'm "finally" into the full blown over 18 stuff.

It's a relief to finally get there. I wasn't sure on how things in this one would progress in that particular arena other than there would be at least one or two graphic ones in the story. Not knowing kind of annoyed me too, because I like to have the majority of a story "mapped out" in regards to scene ideas by the time I'm halfway through it.

I'm about halfway through Eleven now, if not more than that with the scenes that need to be spliced in. Not bad for less than three months of writing part time.

I still wish I was one of the lucky ones that can write more than one book a year. Maybe someday....

Chapter 11's first draft is finished, and so far it looks okay for a first draft. I know it needs to be edited by someone other than me, and boy am I expecting a lot of creative/constructive criticism from my betas once they get it!

That's okay with me. My editing STINKS to high heaven!

I'm not sure what's happening next week, but I hope to have at least one full day... Or if that doesn't happen, Hubby being a sweetie pie and leaving the house for a couple of hours one or two days this week so I can work. I tend to get ultra grumpy if I don't work on things here and there after all... *whistling innocently!*

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Setting Fire to the Keyboard and Word Processor....

I look at my most recent blog entry before this one and I'm amazed at my progress since I posted that (April 25th).

Was it only a bare week ago that I was in the middle of Chapter 8? It feels like more time has gone by since then... I must have had a bigger writing fog encompass my brain than I thought. Sheesh.

Well, things have been ultra nuts here this week. Hubby worked Monday, Wednesday and Friday daytimes, and was gone most of the day on Tuesday... So y'all know what I was doing. Ha.

I can't remember my word counts from Monday through Wednesday without checking my writing thread in one of my forums and I'm too out of it to go back in there now, but I know before today, I had a 6400 word week, which isn't that bad.

General synopsis for the week:

Monday: 2200 words added.

Tuesday: Finished Chapter 8, started Chapter 9.

Wednesday: Chapter 9 done, started Chapter 10.

Thursday: Rest and regroup day. Didn't do much other than chat with the local beta reader, play a few games in Facebook and mulled over the latest speed bump in the writing.

Friday: Figured out how to get past it, but thanks to some technical difficulties with my computer, got thrown off the curve and had only an 1800 word day before afternoon bus time. Wrote a short scene in main file and started a scene that would be spliced into the main file pretty soon. Wanted to get the basics of the start of it down before I forgot it!!!

After school total: 8K for the week.

Friday evening: Son had an activity evening and Hubby went with him. I stayed home and wrote. Chapter 10 finished and started Chapter 11. Now heavily into the "over 18" stuff finally. Word count total for the entire day: over 4800 words.

Those extra hours put me up to an 11K word week. Pretty darn good considering all of the problems I've been having hitting speed bumps and the stupid computer going ballistic on me by times!

I'm so foggy right now that a bomb could go off in my face and I probably wouldn't notice it. I've been going faster than the speed of light with this one, much faster than I was writing Family Portraits last year.

This is nuts. When the writing bug bites and a story gets you in its grip, you're a goner.

It's a great feeling, knowing you're creating something, and the high I get from a great writing day or week has no comparison. If the side effects didn't include walking into walls or the brain getting confused at everything, I'd love it even more...

It's worth it though. :)

Backups were done at 10 p.m. ADT on external drive for the record. After this week's amount of words added, I'm NOT going to risk losing all of it!

Next on the agenda: Finish that scene I started and spliced in today and figure out how to get from the end of that one to another one I started a while back!

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm relaxing tomorrow, and we'll be watching Doctor Who reruns tomorrow afternoon. Gotta get my man in the blue box fix! Hehehehehehee!

It's Only Been Two Months... "I'm THAT Far Along Already???"

This week has been another wild ride, writing wise.

Monday was a school holiday, so I spent most of it relaxing in between housework and helping my son with different things.

Tuesday was spent researching, talking with a beta reader and planning what to write next in Eleven.

Wednesday was a writing day, and that didn't go as I had hoped. I kept hitting speed bumps along the way and wasn't impressed with my overall progress. It was only a 1500 word day, which is one of the worst ones yet for having the entire day to myself.

Today was different. I had a little problem getting into it, because although I knew what was going to happen after where I left off on Wednesday, I wasn't sure "how" to lead into it yet. I played around with different ways and finally got going.

After that, it was like my fingers were flying across the keyboard. The words were coming faster than I could get them down and I had to go back and fill in a few missing words here and there once in a while.

The next thing I knew it was just after 4 p.m. and time to stop. The guys were on their way home (Son had after school fun time today and Hubby picked him up on his way home from work) and I had only another ten minutes, tops, before they arrived. I had just started a scene when they arrived home, but that's okay. I know exactly how it's going to play out so I will be able to get right back into it the instant I get my duff offline and dive into it on my next writing day.

Chapter 7 has been finished and Chapter 8 is about halfway done at the moment.

I just fell short of adding 5K words today. *BLINK!*

I haven't written up any love scenes for this one yet - normally I have at least the first one done long before I hit chapter 3 in the main file! - but that's okay. I'm closing in on the over 18 stuff starting pretty soon anyway... So I may as well leave things alone until I get to those points in the main file. I already know how the teaser is going to go and the lead in to it. Now getting between there and love scene #1 may take a lot of thinking... I have NO CLUE what's going to happen in it, the only thing I know right now is the circumstances that allow for it to happen. That's it.

I've done a word count on the main file ONLY today, and I'm shocked at my progress. Eleven's original idea came to me just under 3 months ago, and I've only been working on it for two months part time, and it's over 30K already! *THUD!*

Yeah, progress has been THAT good, folks.. And that number does NOT include all of the other scenes/files that I've written up and need to splice in!

I'm amazed at the progress so far. This one has taken over my mind even more than the Legacies series did when I was writing it, and all of my long time readers know how crazy I was going with writing both of them, notably "Family Portraits"!

Remember how I said a local friend (who is also one of my beta team) suggested a title for Eleven a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't sure if it was going to be the "final" title or not?

I've come to a decision on that too... And the title my longtime friend suggested is IT, folks! (Thank you D!) It's perfect for the story for various reasons I don't want to get into publicly right now.

I'm not ready to make the official announcement, that's coming sometime later this year, and I'm not sure if I'll do it before or after Eleven's first draft is finished. I may be one third of the way finished its first draft, but I still have a long, long way to go before I see the light at the end of Eleven's first draft tunnel.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Moving Along...

It's only Thursday and my writing goals have been met and surpassed for the week already. I'm glad I was able to do something, because I wasn't sure if I would get any writing time this week. Friday is a statutory holiday here in Canada, and although my husband is working, schools are closed so Son is going to be home. That means if I tried to get anything done writing wise, it would take me an hour to do one short paragraph, because Son would be asking for help with different things and I wouldn't be able to think because of that dratted TV being on anyway.

Monday afternoon, Hubby took Son shopping with him after school, so I sneaked in a little addition to Chapter 6, finished it, and started Chapter 7, all in just over 2 hours. 

Tuesday was my only full writing day this week, and even though it was slow going, I managed to get a short scene that happens later on in the book written up and moved on a little in Chapter 7. I'm in the middle of a scene in the main file right now, and I hope to finish it sometime between now and the 23rd if I can do it. 

Next week is another short school week, but I think I have a writing day during one of the three days Son will be in school... And I plan on making the most of it. I have only a few writing days left in the 8 weeks between now and the end of the school year, and I want as much added to Eleven's rough draft that I can before I wind up writing late at night again... And my longtime readers and friends know what happens a lot of the time I write late at night - I write something that seems like a brilliant idea at the time, and wind up taking it out after seeing it in the light of day. For example: Summer of 2012, I write up what used to be Chapter 31 of the manuscripts that were "No Regrets" during a late night run, and after rereading it, decided it wouldn't work right - and it was also a situation that had been used a zillion times in my genre. So I chucked it and rewrote almost the entire chapter.

That was NOT fun, and I'd prefer to keep rewrites to a minimum in Eleven if I can. Compressing things, fleshing out scenes a little more and keeping things on track is one thing, rewriting something because of my "bright ideas" late at night is another. It frustrates me, and makes me wonder what I was thinking.

I guess the lack of caffeinated coffee on those late nights made the brain go off in silly directions....

The weekend is going to consist of me going over Eleven's main file with a fine toothed comb to see where the biggest problem areas are, and using color coded highlights to show which areas are passive, repetitive, wordy, etc, so I don't have to do that later... And so my Alpha reader (Sandra) doesn't have to point things like that out to me when she finally gets her copy of Draft One of it. A few typos were caught too, which means less for her and my Betas to catch. 

I'm learning so much this time around... And I can't stress it enough: Have someone else check your work BEFORE you send it out... Don't make the same mistake I did with the first manuscript!

Have a great long weekend everyone!

A Great End to a Crazy Week....

This week has been one of the craziest I've had in ages... Both in real life and my writing world. 

Writing wise, it wasn't my best week yet. Wednesday saw me get another 3100 words added to Eleven, and progress a little more in Chapter 6. I'm almost done that chapter, once I get over a speed bump. It's normal, they happen and I will find a way over it... Somehow! Some spots are too wordy, others need to be added to, and I'm seeing mistakes all over the place. I have orders to just WRITE and worry about that later, like after its first draft is finished!

I started prepping for Friday's run, by thinking if I couldn't progress in the main file, I'd work on something else... Like start a new scene to splice in later or continue on in another scene idea I've already started.

Life does love to throw curve balls once in a while...

Friday was a dud writing wise. I guess Uni decided I needed a break and made me take one by making me sick on Thursday. I spent all of Friday recovering from it... I slept most of the day, and although I tried to work, I could not get my brain to work right.

All of my readers know that when I say I'm "too sick" to work, I'm knocked flat. Yeah, Thursday and yesterday were not good days. I'm glad my husband was around on Thursday so I could spend the rest of the day in bed with the cat, in between bouts of sipping ginger ale (gross!) and praying I'd be fine for Saturday morning's adventure at this year's Knowledge Festival, held at my old high school.

I'm now back to my old self, things went beyond my imagination and expectations for my son today (update on that is HERE on my Autism Blog - ALL students who represented their schools are winners in my opinion!) and I'm a little ticked off at myself for not getting more than 3100 words added to Eleven. I know, I should be easier on myself, but with the way things have been really smoking in the writing department, I can't help but be a little tee'd off for not getting more done in it. I want its first draft done as soon as I can do it, that way I can get it into draft 2 and off to my alpha and beta teams... And so I'm not going so crazy not being able to write a lot during the summer months!

It seems I'm going to get one writing day this week after all, and I plan on burning up Word to make up for missing out on writing time on Friday... Blasted germs. *SIGH* If I can't get over that speed bump in Chapter 6 this coming week, I'll work on another scene to splice in later on.

Hey, it's still progress even if it's not in the main file, right? *wink!*

I hope all of you have a great weekend!

A Wild Writing Day, and "Spring Into Metal"....

I look at the clock and see Friday has turned into Saturday without me realizing it...

Writing wise, things are progressing in Eleven faster than I could have hoped for this early on in the writing process. It's been only six weeks since the full idea for the story came to me, and already I'm seeing myself getting deeper and deeper into this new WIP.

This is the first time I've gone from zero to ninety in less than two months and it's a weird feeling... It took me almost 2 years to get really deep into writing what used to be "No Regrets" (Now Vols. 1 and 2 of the Legacies series) and almost 4 months between the initial idea for Family Portraits and getting into writing that one.

I look at Eleven's main file and am shocked at my progress to date. Even with the craziness of a snow day, my son having the flu and being home two additional days, being so tired and other things, I still managed to get another 3100 words added to it today.. Sorry, I mean yesterday... It's past midnight in Atlantic Canada now... Anyway, I met all of my writing goals for the week and then some, so I'm happy. I got over 1000 words, managed to get a few scene ideas for it added to the Ideas file, marked a few ideas off as "DONE" and wrapped up Chapter 5, and started Chapter 6.. Rough draft, of course.

Eleven's main file now is now close to 20K word wise - without me being overly wordy! *BLINK* It needs a lot of editing, but I'm doing my best to wait until after Draft One is finished before I attack it full force. I know, the more I do now, the less I'll have to do later on, but I've been having problems just writing and not going into "edit mode" while I have my writing time.

If I keep going like this, I'm going to be finished draft one of this one long before my self imposed deadline of February 17, 2015... The "full" conception date of this one. I'd like to have it perking before that IF I can do it....

And today was another milestone. For the last week or so, I've been trying to come up with the right title for this one, and it's been driving me nuts... I finally asked some trusted friends, along with my Alpha and Beta readers for suggestions and we may have struck gold, thanks to one of my longtime best pals who is also one of my Beta Readers. I'm not posting it publicly right now, because I'm not sure if it's the working title or will become the permanent one. It's great and fits the story, but if something else comes to mind, I may change it.

Once I know for sure what the final/permanent title of Eleven is, I'll say it on my real name profile... Sometime.

"SPRING INTO METAL"

Last night was Troubled Waters' second event of the year in Bridgewater, NS. I went and had a lot of fun. They had a fantastic lineup of bands - again! - and although there wasn't a lot of people there for the first two sets, the place filled up a little more for the last two.

Flesh Cauldron started off the night. Ovie and Chris rocked the house with their awesome sound and got everyone wanting more.

Whom Gods Destroy played their set second... Eli, Adam and Tim showed off their original classic metal tunes starting off with a medley of "Signs of Life", "Tears of My Immortal Soul" and "The Traveller" and rounded up their set with "Beyond Redemption".

I had threatened to "clock" them if they took "Sea of Tears" out of their set list and well... They did, the goofy buggers. *Rolling eyes* However, I did not do a darn thing to them other than threaten them with retaliation if they didn't play at least one of my other favorite songs by them instead.

They did, they played two... "The Traveller" and "Beyond Redemption", both of which are on their 2011 album, "Signs of Life".

I'm going to let the guys live... For now! *Cackling!*

Try Dying was up third. They were a band I had never seen before and I was pleased with their performance. Normally I don't care for any Rolling Stones songs (sorry to all of their fans but I can't tolerate them at all!), but they did a cover of "Paint it Black" that even I liked! They were good, their sound is more death metal.

Finally, Doom Machine wrapped up the evening with a kick ass performance. I had met the guitarist earlier that night and he is a down to earth and friendly guy... All of the guys in Doom Machine are really nice, as well as great musicians.

I had a lot of fun... Between getting out of the house and listening to a lineup of great metal bands with some wonderful family and friends, it was a great way to wrap up a productive day and to relax.

I'd like to thank Troubled Waters for putting on another great show at the Bridgewater MSAC. They always seem to get the creme de la creme of local metal talent in their lineups. Their Facebook page is in my links area, to the left of my blog entries.

Flesh Cauldron's Facebook Fan Page...

Whom Gods Destroy Facebook Fan Page...

Try Dying Facebook Fan Page...

Doom Machine Facebook Fan Page...

Have a great weekend everyone! I leave you with photos from Spring Into Metal.

Flesh Cauldron:

Whom Gods Destroy:

Try Dying:

Doom Machine:

Chalkboard with the night's lineup... That's Eli from Whom Gods Destroy... His hand anyway...

Looking Ahead...

Another spring is here and for the third year in a row, I'm getting into a story just as we see the end of the school year less than three months away. In the spring of 2012, the first installments of the Legacies series was well underway, 2013 saw me going nuts with getting as much of the final installment of the series out of the way before summer vacation, and this year, I'm starting to get deep into Eleven just as the third term of the school year is starting.

Just my luck, but that's the way things have been rolling for me writing wise since I've actually had the time to sit down, write and keep a story in my head.

Last week was phenomenal writing wise, despite not being able to get settled into it right away on the one writing day I had. As I mentioned in this past Wednesday's entry, Tuesday was a 1000 word day and I was pleased to add that much to Eleven's main file.

Friday, schools were finally open again - the local DOT did a fantastic job clearing the roads of snow and ice - and after a settling in period, I dove into getting more added to the main file.

It was a 3000 word day even with the initial problems of getting into it. Once I figured out how to get moving again, I was lost in my own little world and didn't emerge until about half an hour before afternoon bus time and then I continued for a few extra minutes. I had written a small scene a few weeks ago and finally reached the point in the main file where it would go, so I spliced it in.

With the splice, I'm now up to the middle of Chapter 5 and the main file has almost 17,000 words. That number is subject to change over time, as I flesh out, compress or remove some areas.

I've also started a possible dedication, acknowledgements and excerpts file just for this story, if it ever gets published somehow. Since I've had a lot of input and support from so many people for Eleven, notably one special local friend on a subject I wasn't overly familiar with, I thought it was a good idea to have a rough draft of that done as well, that way I won't be scrambling if a publisher wants it. I give credit where it is due, and I want to make sure I acknowledge and thank everyone who has helped me with this story, from the research end of it, to the people who critique excerpts, my supporters and of course, my Alpha and Beta Readers.

Once again, it's only one full writing day for me this week if the weather cooperates, so I have a lot planned in my writing world for that day. I'd like to wrap up Chapter 5 if I can do it and toss in one more "teaser" before the leading couple actually gets around to acknowledging a few things.

This coming Friday (April 4th) is Troubled Waters' next event at the MSAC in Bridgewater, NS, called "Spring Into Metal". The lineup is going to be a fantastic one again - Try Dying, Doom Machine, Flesh Cauldron and of course, my favorite local band, Whom Gods Destroy, will be there. There's a $5 cover charge for non members of the MSAC, but it's worth it. The bands playing are so talented, and there is always a great group of people there to watch the bands and enjoy the music. I've met a few wonderful people at these events, ones who are there to listen to our local talent, support our musicians and keep in touch with like minded people and friends. I always have a great time, even if there are a few rotten apples in the room.

The link to Troubled Waters' Facebook fan page is in my links area to the left of my blog entries if anyone wants to check their page for updates, upcoming events and other news related to the Nova Scotia music scene.

Have a great week everyone! Hopefully I'll have a photo or two from "Spring Into Metal" to share with all of you sometime this weekend.

Eleven, Revamps and "Head Desk!"...

Eleven is progressing - sometimes slower than a glacier, others faster than the speed of light. Friday was my most recent writing day, and although I wasn't sure how to proceed, I "pantsed" my way through it and came up with another lighter scene. It's one that fits the overall story itself.

And after talking with two of my betas - my local friend and Sandra - I figured out how things are going to go in Chapter 4.

It was a 3800 word day, almost 8 times my goal for the week. I'm happy with it... I just sat here and WROTE, I didn't try to edit anything at all, and it turned out pretty darn good for a rough draft. I was more concerned about getting the story moving than getting it perfect the first time, so that was a huge help.

As for what used to be "No Regrets", I see a lot of changes coming for that particular story. I guess there were more passive scenes near the end of Vol. 2 than I had imagined.... By the time I'm done taking it all out, I may be able to squash the entire story back together into one volume. Yes, there IS that much "passive" stuff in it, so much that the one beta felt like she hit a brick wall after seeing the rest of it flow a lot easier. What she recommends removing is over 13,000 words worth of stuff.

*HEAD DESK!*

That said, I guess I can spin a good tale, and it'll be a lot better once I do the full revamp.

I will be taking a lot of the "stuff" out after "Crash and Burn", but not sure if all of it's going to go or not. There's one part I really have to think about, and talk to the last two members of my beta team before I remove it. (Sandra voted to keep it, but compress it a lot) So I'm unsure on how much of the "aftermath" will be kept at this point in time.

It's going back to the "shelved" area for now, until the other two betas finally read it in its entirety. After they're done, I'll probably dig it out and start the revisions - over the summer months if the last two are finished. If not, it'll stay there and I will just focus on getting Eleven up to snuff for their viewing pleasure, or if its first draft isn't finished, keep plugging away at it in summer writing time, and do other things. I want some new banners made for myself and my author page, and I'd love to get some new banners made for other people and sites. If Sandra needs me to make updated covers for all three of her currently published books, I'm game to do them, and anything else she would like me to do for her.

Yes, I see a lot of photography in my future. I'm not as good as one of my betas at it, but I do love it and hope to improve with practice. I wish I could afford a better camera.... Maybe in the future.

Before I close, there's been a change of date for Troubled Waters' next event - Spring Into Metal. It was supposed to take place on Saturday, April 5th, but the date has been changed to Friday, April 4th due to a scheduling conflict. It's still going to be held at the MSAC in Bridgewater, NS, and there is a $5 cover charge for anyone who isn't a MSAC member. I plan on being there, to watch Whom Gods Destroy, Flesh Cauldron, Try Dying and Doom Machine rock the place!

For more information, please check Troubled Waters' Facebook Page.

Bye, Bye Brain!

It's now official:

What used to be "Book 1: No Regrets" has been divided into TWO books, dubbed "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" of the Legacies Series. "Volume 3" is still called "Family Portraits" at this time, but that is subject to change, depending on if I decide to use a theme for the titles for the whole series.

Yes, it's now a trilogy instead of a two book series. This is at the suggestion of two of my betas, my best friend/Peapod and one of my local best friends. It's to make the series more appealing to my future audience and to make it easier for publishing, either through a publishing house or self publishing if I go that way in the future with it.

Today saw the removal of a lot of passive areas from what used to be "No Regrets" (the name of it has changed to something else to keep the full names down). Volume 1 saw ten pages of stuff removed and Volume 2 has lost eleven pages so far, and I'm not done yet. I have a lot more editing on the way for that part of the series, like compressing the wordier areas, taking out repetitive stuff, removing any other parts my betas suggest, and even rewrites - like taking one area out and putting a shorter, more plausible scene in its place, like my local beta reader suggested in a couple of spots in Volume 1.

I've skimmed over Vol. 3 (Family Portraits), highlighted what was glaringly obvious for passive areas and wordy spots, and I'll be going over that one again sometime soon - in between getting the first two parts of the series cleaned up and working on Eleven's first draft.

Another thing that I had a lot of in the first two installments were quotes from various songs by a certain local band. Those have been removed, and I've inserted half of a song at the start of Volume 1, and the rest of it at the start of Volume 2. I was told that the quotes were too distracting and that putting some or all of the lyrics from one or two of their songs at the start of each installment was much better. I do have permission to use the lyrics from the band members (I've known all three of them for over 20 years!), and I'm trying to decide which song to use at the start of Volume 3. I have an idea on which one will be used - well, part of it at least - and will be inserting that quote into the start of that story after it hits "Revamp Stage 2 mode", when I start removing all of the extras from that manuscript.

I'm looking at both and wondering if I've lost my cotton picking mind....

On another note, I was alone for a couple of hours this past Saturday and once again, I managed to get another 1400 words added to Eleven's main file. I'm at the start of Chapter 3 and it went a little better than previous writing days. I had a very long talk with myself and just WROTE... And it seemed to work! Things are starting to come together a little better now that I know where I'm going and staying out of editing mode while I'm writing. I hope this continues...

I have a full writing day coming up later this week and I hope to get more added to Eleven, along with getting more out of the way in the Legacies series cleanup.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Revisiting and Losing What Little Mind I Have Left...

It's March break here, but there's been a lot happening in my writing world.

First of all, I wasn't expecting to get a lot of writing done, but thanks to my wonderful husband, I had a couple of hours alone on Tuesday and today. Between those two short alone times, I managed to get over 2600 words added to Eleven, in various parts. I managed to get over the latest speed bump in the main file and continue on with it a little, as well as added to the part I've dubbed "BUSTED!". 

I have been talking to Sandra on and off, and her writing hasn't been going the best either... We've come to the conclusion that we're sort of in "editing mode" while we're trying to write, so we're not as wordy in our newer projects.

Um, that's not good. It slows us down a lot and well, it's pretty darn annoying to be sitting here trying to move forward in the story if we're constantly going back and editing the last three paragraphs. I was doing it today and was pushing myself *not* to go there. It's rough, because thanks to me setting a word limit on myself I'm always checking to see how far along I am, and to make sure I don't go nuts again, like I did in the Legacies series. *headdesk!*

I'm now trying to just "pants" along and remind myself I'll do the revisions LATER, like after I'm done writing for the day but that doesn't always work. (I know my fellow writers can get that!) No matter what I do, I'm going back and editing while trying to write. Ugh!!!

Anyway....

The full overhaul of the Legacies series has begun in earnest. Stage One saw me skimming over the manuscript and highlighting a lot of the problem areas, like where it's too wordy, stuff that was passive and other things. Stage Two was started yesterday, with me converting the file into a PDF and sending it out to one of my local best pals, who has now been officially made a member of my beta reading team. She's seeing a lot of the stuff I've missed and agreeing with what I've deemed "problem areas" - areas where I'm too wordy or I've deemed passive and can be removed without hurting the story at all.

I've also decided that the story can be made into TWO books and will probably be doing that at some point, after adding a "happy for now" bit at the end of Part One. It'll be easy to do. No Regrets covers a long time span, with a multi year gap between the end of part one and the start of Part Two. I already have a title for Part Two and am thinking about what to call Part One. It'll come to me when the time is right. No Regrets is far from being ready to send out again, so I have plenty of time.

I'm still kicking myself for being stupid and sending it out when I did... Yet, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have realized it wasn't ready by a long shot and wouldn't have learned a valuable lesson... Do NOT be overconfident in your editing skills for stuff you've written. Get a couple of trusted people to help you so you don't make the same mistake I did for crying out loud!

You write you learn, as Sandra says... She is so right!

Hopefully as the overhaul progresses, I'll get deeper into writing Eleven and won't be in editing mode so much as I'm actually writing. I'm pretty darn fed up with myself and I want to be able to WRITE without any hang ups or my brain going in circles! ARGH!

Have a great weekend everyone, and I hope all of my fellow writers are more productive than I've been lately. *laughs*

Trial By Fire, Eleven Style...

This last week was bizarre to say the least. 

Son was home sick with a cold on Tuesday and Wednesday, and of course, my stupid immune system decided *I* "had" to catch it too. Both of us have been sneezing and coughing like there's no tomorrow, and my head feels like it's full of cement. I'm feeling a bit better today, but my ribs and back are so sore from sneezing and coughing, and I think I've taken more aspirin this last week than I had in the month previous. Yeah, I'm that sore! *wincing*

Anyway, despite being so sick, I still managed to surpass my writing goals this week... I had three: 1) Get 750 words of new material added to either Ten or Eleven - I added 1600 words to various parts of Eleven. 2) Get at least one scene idea jotted down for Eleven - I managed to get two, one "general" scene idea, and one "over 18" one. 3) Last but not least, I wanted to do a reread/edit on Eleven's main file and various parts - which I did on Tuesday, before I was feeling too rotten to think.

I also did a word count on what I have for Eleven so far... It's up close to 9000 words at this point, almost a tenth of my preset "maximum" for a new story. I am giving myself some leeway, 125 grand tops, just in case I am wordy by times and have a lot of compressions/rewrites, etc ahead of me. Playing it safe here!

I'm not even really "into" writing this new one yet by a long shot. What's it going to turn into when I finally get really rolling with it? Another 200,000+ word epic? I hope not, because I'd really like to learn to write shorter, less complicated stories instead of the ones with a zillion plot twists like the "Legacies" series. *SIGH*

I'm looking at it and wondering if I'm being too darn wordy again even with it being choppy in a few spots, and how parts of it need to be a little more fleshed out with a couple of power packed sentences. 

I don't know... I'm just going to have to wing it, do my best to find the right balance between getting the descriptions etc in and not being overly wordy in the meantime. Eleven's plot isn't as simple as Ten's, and it's a lot less complicated than the Legacies series, but could turn into something huge if I'm not careful. I'll have to see what one of my betas have to say when they finally get a copy of it and go from there.

March Break for our school district is March 10 to 14th, so I don't really have any "set" writing goals for this coming week, other than plugging away at the Legacies series revamp. That said, if I can even get 200 words added to Eleven somehow along the way, I'm darn well going to do it!

Don't forget that if you live in North America like I do, the clocks go ahead tonight. Daylight savings time. Blah. I don't know about my readers, but I'm always knocked off kilter for a couple of months after the time change, and don't really fully adjust to it until it's almost time to put the clocks back in the fall! *SIGH* We have only thirteen days left before the equinox... Can't wait to see warmer weather for a change, this past winter was nuts, one of the coldest my end of southeast Canada has seen in years!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Splicing and Extras, Eleven Style...

Last week was one of those weeks. Despite real life and "unrealities" flying at my head, I ducked all of it and got some work out of the way on Eleven.

I had two writing days this past week and I made the most of them. Wednesday, I finally got over that *censored* speed bump in Chapter 1, spliced in the part I had written up the Friday before, and continued on. Chapter 2 has been started.

However, something else for the story had been niggling at my mind the next day, and on Friday, I started a new file. It's a scene that will be spliced in later on in the story, it happens about halfway through or so. It's been in the mind for a while and I wanted to get it down before I forgot it, so I attacked it.

I managed to get all but one of my writing goals for the week accomplished... They included getting 500 words of new stuff added to one of the WIPs and a few other things. I got over 3000 words added in various spots in Eleven, so I more than surpassed that goal. 

Because I have been doing so well with this new one so far, I've upped this week's writing goal of new material to 750 words. Let's see if I can make it or even surpass it, shall we?

We also had a little "fun" here over the weekend. Son had a project that was due today for school and he and I spent most of the day working on it yesterday... I knew sponges could absorb glue, but not THAT much! *BLINK* The problem has been fixed and things seemed fine this morning before he left. I just hope it all goes well for him...

By the way, Troubled Waters' next event in Bridgewater happens next month... It's on Saturday, April 5th, and I hope to go. It all hinges on Hubby's schedule. If he works daytime that day, I'll be going and if he works the evening, I won't be able to attend. The members of Whom Gods Destroy understand and know if I'm not able to be "there", I will be with them in spirit! It's a great lineup... As of this date, it's Doom Machine, Inviting End, Try Dying, and of course, my brothers and Tim in Whom Gods Destroy (bands subject to change). 

Of course, a huge thank you to Troubled Waters for putting on the event, as always. 

I hope everyone has a fabulous week.. I'll be posting again if I get anything written up in either Ten or Eleven. Keep rocking everyone! 

"The Heart of the Metal" and More...

The Heart of the Metal, February 21, 2014...

Last night was the first Troubled Waters event of the year and they kicked off their 2014 round of shows with a bang.

Michelin Social Club, Bridgewater, NS... It's only a small venue that has less than a 100 person capacity, but it's large enough to host an awesome lineup of bands that rock the place! 

There were four bands in the lineup last night, two of which I had seen before, one that I have wanted to see live for a while, and one that I hadn't seen or heard of at all until Troubled Waters released last night's full lineup.

I've seen Dirt Stache before. This power duo may only be a guitar and drums, but they have the energy of a five member band, and they are very talented guys. The fact they are goofy in nature only adds to their appeal in my opinion. I laughed more at their descriptions of what each song was about than one would do at another live show, and really enjoyed watching them strut their stuff.

Flesh Cauldron is one I have wanted to see for a while but wasn't lucky enough to until last night. They are great! Their material borderlines on death metal and although they didn't have a live drummer last night, they did quite well with an "electronic" one that was programmed with all of the drums for their set.

My favorite local band, Whom Gods Destroy, was up third. As always, the guys KICKED IT and kept their promise of keeping "Sea of Tears" in their shorter set list. (I'm going to let them live - FOR NOW! Muwahahahahahaha....) I do have videos of their performance, but it's ultra dark and you can't see much... Plus I had a lot of interruptions, thanks to a couple of people that refused to listen to proper etiquette for any live show....I did get a couple of photos and I did share them on my personal profile and author's page, so if anyone wants to check them out, the link to my FB author's page is in the links area to the left of my blog posts.

Vicious was the one band in last night's lineup I wasn't familiar with. I had never met any of the guys, seen them live, or even heard any of their music before last night. That said, they now have another fan in this aspiring author! Their energy and showmanship are reminiscent of bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica and Def Leppard, to name only a few. I was blown away by their talent and performance, and I can see why they're popular in the Nova Scotian music circuit. I would not be surprised to see this group win a Juno, ECMA, or even a Grammy in the future, they are that good!

I would like to thank all of the bands in last night's lineup for their outstanding performances, and a special thank you to Troubled Waters for putting on events like The Heart of the Metal, and the Michelin Social Club for hosting the event.

For anyone who likes metal music, I highly recommend you check out all of the bands featured last night...

Dirt Stache Official Facebook Fan Page

Flesh Cauldron Official Facebook Fan Page

Whom Gods Destroy Official Fan Page

Vicious (band) Official Facebook Fan Page

And lastly...

Troubled Waters Official Facebook Page

Whom Gods Destroy at "The Heart of the Metal", February 21, 2014. 

And on a side note... 

If you're at a live show, whether it's a large venue like the Metro Centre or a tiny venue like the Bridgewater Michelin Social Club, PLEASE respect the bands and other patrons! Pushing your way onto the "stage" area to get into the bands' "personal" space, touching their equipment at all, taking the microphones and screaming into them even though you're not a member of any bands, and a lot of other things are just NOT COOL AT ALL.

If you can't behave at something like this, please do the rest of us a favor and STAY THE HELL HOME!

Sheesh. *SIGH*

I'm Out of My Cotton Picking Mind..... (Writing Update!)

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to get Ten off the ground when an idea for another story hit me. Of course, I wrote it down into my ideas for future stories file and thought I'd get to it sometime after I had finished Ten's first draft.

Wrong!

The darn idea would not leave me alone, no matter what I tried. I would try to think of ideas for Ten and something for the new idea kept popping into my brain! I'd be doing dishes, talking with Peapod about general stuff, and whammo, a scene for that new idea would pop into my head. This has been happening for a couple of weeks, ever since I got the new idea.

This past week, I finally gave in and set up a file for what is now nicknamed "Eleven".

Yes, you read that right. I have another WIP on the go. *SIGH*

The original idea for it was ultra complicated, and it had more than one possible ending, so I streamlined it to make it simpler. Yes, it was another one of the ultra complicated plots with a zillion twists and turns that I seem to love writing. That said, after I trimmed "the fat" into yet another possible future idea, it's still a complicated story, but less so than something like the Legacies series.

So far, an ideas file, character profiles, a rough timeline, and an "Over 18" scene ideas file has been started, as well as the main file itself... And I have a few scenes written up that will be spliced in shortly, after I get past that *censored!* speed bump I hit in the main file, it happens after the initial "blast" and everyone's reaction to it.

At the moment, that's two WIPs I have on the go and I do hope I can get into one of them soon. I haven't had a story that was in the brain 24/7 since I finished draft one of "Legacies: Family Portraits" (book 2) last October, and I'm really feeling it. I'm grumpy and it's really showing sometimes. My apologies to my family and friends, and thank you for putting up with me when I'm like this....

I hope either Ten or Eleven turn out to be my next completed manuscript. I'm going nuts here.....

And the cleanup of the Legacies series continues. No Regrets (Book 1) now has a lot of areas that are color coded highlights so I know where there are passive scenes, where I was too wordy and after a while, I'll be going through to see where I've been repetitive, etc. If I can do it, I'd like to send it off to a beta reader from one of my writing forums by the end of the year so I can get some extra help in finishing its revamp.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back with another update on the writing, hopefully soon!