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!

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*

Glacier Crawl

Things are not the best in the writing world at the moment. We had a snow day on Friday thanks to a storm and due to Son having meltdowns and crying on and off all day, I had a headache and didn't get a darn thing done in Ten at all.

However, this past Wednesday I managed to get a little added to the main file after I finished cleaning it up. It was the bulk of a scene and although it's rough, what's there is solid and plausible for this area. I didn't get a lot of time to edit it though, so I'm hoping to do that later this week. 

I also did some research on various amusement park/fair rides. All I'm saying is that I'm NEVER going to watch a video taken from the inside of the Zipper while it's going again! My reaction wasn't pretty.... 

I've also come up with another idea for a new story. I'm trying to set it aside so I can work on Ten, but it's invading my mind more than Ten is right now. *SIGH* I'd run with it but it's one of the ones with a more complicated story and may turn out as long as No Regrets stands currently if I go with it. I can't learn to write a shorter, simpler story if another one sucks me in, so it's in the "waiting to be written file" at the moment. There is a way to make it less complicated but I'd rather keep it as is because it'll make a much more interesting story if I keep the original idea. I just hope I don't work on that while trying to get moving in Ten, else I'm going to be in deep trouble... *SIGH*

The cleanup of the Legacies series has also been at the back of my mind constantly and it's driving me nuts. I'm not happy with it "as is" and I want to get it done NOW so it's ready in a few years. It's a long, detailed and complicated project so it's going to take me a while to do. I have talked to a couple of my most trusted friends (including Peapod and Sandra) about this, and I've come to a decision. I will work on the first stage of cleaning up No Regrets while I'm working on Ten.

It's something I feel as if I have to do to learn and grow as a writer and to hone both my raw writing talent and the editing skills. I feel as if I don't start it now, it won't get finished, and I hate that feeling. I also feel as if I failed the series by letting them gather dust on the external, and my friends, fans and supporters if I don't get on with it. 

Stage one of it consists of going through the main file, noting what seems passive, repetitive and what is too wordy, etc. Everything will be color coded in highlighter so I know which areas need what kind of work, and things that are okay will be left alone. I'm only partway through part one now and there's a lot of highlights in various colors. Yeah, there's a lot that I wasn't seeing until now. I'm hoping that the constructive criticism I've received about the manuscript is going to help me a lot. If not, I have others on my beta team to point things out that I missed. Now that I have a better idea of what to look for, I'm seeing so much that needs to be done.

To be blunt, No Regrets was a mess and I shouldn't have sent it out when I did. It needed a lot more work before I should have even thought of doing that. 

It was a rough lesson to learn but I got it now and am doing my best to make it right, both in the Legacies series AND future works, including Ten itself. Yeah, I got it Uni.

As for Family Portraits, I already knew that one wasn't ready for publication by a long shot. It's still in its third draft and is even messier than No Regrets, so it's not bothering me as much. That one won't get cleaned up until after its predecessor is finished. 

I'm thinking Stage One of No Regrets' clean up is going to take me at least six months. I'll only be working on it once every week or so, and mostly on the days that were supposed to be writing days that turned into snow days, like this past Friday. If I do things that way, I will feel like I'm actually doing something with the writing even if I'm not able to work on Ten at all.

I hope all that have been affected by this weekend's storms are safe and warm. We're lucky to have power right now. Outside, everything is covered in ice and the wind is picking up. It's very gusty out there and I'm expecting us to lose power even for an hour at this rate. If you have to drive on the roads please - BE CAREFUL. Although the DOT crews are out, the roads are still very slippery and ours is still covered in snow, even though it was just plowed. 

I'll check in when and if I make progress on Ten or even Stage One of the Legacies series revamp/cleanup. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Cleaning House...

Once again, I find myself fighting to get a new WIP to start off interesting and smoothly.

Friday was spent writing up a scene that happens later on in the story, yet another one that is in a separate file and waiting to be spliced in when the time is right. It's choppy and I have a lot of work to do on it, but its foundation is pretty solid and has basically everything I wanted to happen in that particular key scene.

I had tried working on the main file that day, but couldn't get more than a sentence or two added in before the brain refused to cooperate.

Over the weekend, I started trying to figure out why I couldn't move in the main file again and today, it hit me why things were not running very well. I had a lot of passive scenes in the first two chapters and the scene that was "dead in the water" needed a lot of changes as well. 

Hubby ran errands today and between the time he left and the afternoon bus arrived, I dove into it and started cleaning things up. I removed a lot of the junk that was in Chapter One and Two and started editing things so things line up a lot better. It's not done because I'm still trying to figure out how to insert a couple of facts that were in the passive areas back into the story. I haven't found the "right" spots for them yet!

The scene that went "dead in the water" is going to have a few changes and notes are made on *what* to do with it. I want that fully cleaned up before my next writing day, but will have to do it when things are a lot quieter. I wasn't able to finish everything I wanted to do so I'm going to take an hour or so of my writing time to clean the scene up to my first draft standards, etc and then continue on with it. Certain things will not be done in it and where I've already started along that line, that means I have about an hour or so worth of cleanup ahead of me. I think what I may do is just keep the scene up to a certain point, remove what comes after it and start fresh with things. 

I really hate rewrites and taking pages and pages worth of stuff out of the main file or any other bit I've written up. To me, that shows that I'm not always writing good stuff and it frustrates me. Y'all know how I like to get it right the first time and it ticks me off when I do not. However it is a necessary part of writing and even the greats probably didn't get it right in their first drafts either. I have to remember that, else I'm going to wind up getting too ticked off to write. *SIGH*

I've also made a few changes, to help me keep the writing vibe. I have discovered that there are a lot more unrealities out there and am doing my best to avoid anything that will not allow the writing juices to flow freely. Certain friends will get what I'm talking about and fully understand why I'm doing this. I'm not becoming anti-social, I'm doing this to preserve my sanity and to keep me out of the dark place I was a few years back. I learned the lesson on stirring the crap pot long ago and if anyone doesn't get that, they don't deserve to be acknowledged at all in my opinion. Hence the changes and improvements in my online and real lives and that's all I'm going to say about it. Those closest to me know what's been going on, and that's the main thing.

I have at least one writing day this week if the blasted weather cooperates... I am really hoping to see that stupid "wall" in Ten's main file gone and me moving on in it so I can get closer to doing a few scene splices! I'm going nuts with not working on the main file or getting over 5,000 words added each writing day... *babbling incoherently*

I'll update things later this week or early next week if there's progress. Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Nasty Weather and a Very Naughty V.J. ....

We had one heck of a rain storm here yesterday. Winds hit over 100 kph (62 mph for those of you who don't speak Canadian) and lots of rain. I really thought the power was going out at some point, same with the satellite TV, but somehow we got lucky and the only thing that wasn't working right was our cordless phone. The battery in that died while I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone, and I called her back on the regular desktop phone so we could continue our conversation, which was very enjoyable for me. She lives a couple of thousands of miles away from me, in a time zone four hours behind mine, and it's so good to hear her voice and talk outside of Facebook and our other common sites once in a while, even if it's not cheap to do it that way. 

It's not raining now, but the wind is still pretty strong. I can see the trees in our neighbor's yard waving like crazy and can feel the house shake from the occasional huge gust. It feels almost like a hurricane, but this storm wasn't organized like a tropical cyclone would be, it was just a regular storm with a lot of wind and rain. I'm just glad it wasn't snow, because we'd be buried if it had been! 

Why was I naughty? 

Well....I did something the other day I said I wouldn't be doing for a bit yet... I kind of opened Book 2 and started revisions on it.

I know, I said I was going to leave it until the new year, but the latter parts of it and all of the editing, compressions, and everything else I knew needed to be done to that particular manuscript was nagging me constantly, at the back of my mind, and I just started to feel like I couldn't move on with a new story and a new idea until things in the most recent manuscript were cleaned up. 

The first few chapters were not so bad. I had edited the first four to death and except for missing commas and needing a few words changed around here and there, I managed to get through that part pretty quickly. Chapter Five needed some compressions, but after thinking it over for a few minutes, I knew what to do and those were dispatched within moments. After that it's pretty much general things again, like the missing commas, and changing a couple of things here and there, and stuff I can easily do when my son and husband are around.

What was really bothering me more than anything was the clean up of the last ten or so chapters and the epilogues. I didn't just write them, I zoomed through them faster than the speed of light it seems, and there is a lot there that needs to be cleaned up, rewritten/revised, 86'ed, added to, and compressed. I didn't edit that area as much as I had the first 2/3 of the story and the perfectionist for my own work in me was really rearing its head the last week, notably on Monday. I finally gave into the urge to open it and start the long process of getting it up to "my" draft two standards on Tuesday and although it's a slow process, it's going okay so far. I'm in Chapter 34 of this particular edit at the moment, and I'll be working on it today, into the weekend and next week. I'm really going over it with a fine toothed comb to be sure everything is kosher and closer to a "final draft", so I have less to do in later drafts.

It's hard to believe I finished its first draft barely four weeks ago, it feels like it's been a lot longer than that. I don't know why, but I'm guessing it's because I have had a new idea pop into my head (Thanks to two good friends who are also fellow authors!) and I've been able to "lay the characters" to rest a little easier this time around, probably because I don't have the idea of a sequel nagging at the back of my head! 

I hope Sandra will be ready to read this one in the new year, because when I deem it's ready for someone else's eyes, she'll be getting a copy for her enjoyment... She read "No Regrets" and liked it, so I hope this one is just as enjoyable for her, and she likes the wild ride the reader will go on with the characters. 

Anyway, I hope all of my fellow Nova Scotians are fine after that nasty weather last night and this morning, and that all of my American family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'll be back with another update as things progress, notably when Untitled 9 becomes clearer to me and I'm able to work on it more... Which I hope will be very soon!