Words About Writing

I achieved my Nanowrimo goal. I have not finished the full edit, but my goal was to spend a certain amount of time each day editing. I did that! I finally finished the scene edit on April 29th. I've been doing the line edit in reverse. Starting with the final scene, I am reading from the bottom up, correcting from my notes, and then reading through each full scene afterward. It's a slow process, but I'm enjoying it. Unfortunately, two things have dropped on my plate that take up a lot of time at the moment. For a few days, I did no editing at all. First, there's a major project I'm in charge of for work. It will last about two months, I think. Second, I have joined a friend to start a new community group, and beginning something new is always chaos at the start. Hopefully in a week or two that will smooth out. I guess, for now, I will focus on doing a little bit of editing every day, but not stress about how long I take at it. The work thing MUST be done on time. Th...

("Progress" coordinates with the AtoZ challenge, if I was actually doing it.) I finally finished the Story Level edit.  It felt like it took a lot longer than it needed to, but actually, I had marked in my planner my goal dates and I was right on target! According to my Camp Nanowrimo goal, though, I am way behind. Some good days, some bad days, but the productive and underproductive days haven't balanced out yet. At this rate, according to Nanowrimo I'll meet my goal on May 8. Yikes! Today begins the Scene/Chapter Level edit. I had allotted just six days for this, but I now know for a fact I'll have 2 busy (underproductive) days in there, and might completely lose a day of editing due to LIFE. So I'm granting myself until the 25th. I've never NOT met a Nanowrimo goal yet. It seems silly. If you set a goal that's just you against a calendar, rearrange your time! It was in my power to set a goal that fit my schedule and I did so. The goal is achievable....

Well, so much for doing A-to-Z. I forgot about it for two days. But, in the spirit of it: EDITING CHALLENGES The way I'm doing this edit follows a "top-down" system I learned about, actually through a Nanowrimo virtual write-in. Four steps - 1. Read the manuscript and MAKE NOTES. Notes should be coded for whether the suggested change will effect a) the whole story (or at least multiple chapters), b) just the current scene/chapter, or c) just that sentence/line. 2. Tackle the notes that will effect the whole story. These could be big cuts, added scenes, or themes that stretch throughout the story. 3. Now, tackle the notes that will effect a scene or chapter. After the big cuts from step 2, there may be fewer of them left. 4. Finally, go through all those nit-picky line notes. Clean up the language. Make it flow. Theoretically, step one should only take a couple days, but this vomit draft needs a lot of work. I hope to get step one up to the mid-point of this WIP today. Tha...

So much for "short, simple" writing projects. March is at its end, and the most writing I've done for the last two months has been tiny edits in an earlier work; one that needs better atmosphere, so I'm going in randomly and trying to tweak it. Half-heartedly, so there's minimal progress. I've really lost my mojo for writing lately. I thought that having extra work for a month (-ish) was doable. "I can do anything for a month!" ... but getting back into regular life has been a struggle. I feel like I'm walking in a brain-fog all day. I read. A lot. I study. Not a lot. I drink coffee. Something is lacking and I need a boost to get whatever that something is. Therefore, now that the time has come to pick back up my latest Nano creation for editing, I have decided to join Camp Nanowrimo. This is a Nanowrimo event where writers set their own goals. So my measurable goal for the month of April will be to edit for two hours a day. It doesn't sound ...

Of course, I'm doing Nanowrimo again. I decided which of my various story options appealed the most, and it's going pretty well so far (one week in). That is to say, I'm staying on top of the word count. At my writing group the other day, I read out the bit I'd written for their prompt, and got some good feedback: great atmosphere, "I could really see it"... with one negative, "I wish I could sense what she's feeling." Now, as I'm writing a new book, I realize that I'm still writing without feeling. I'm generally pretty proud of my dialog, and some of my descriptions are pretty good. (I do get hung up on the layout of my interiors, but that can be fixed in editing.)  I think I see what's happening as I write it, but I don't feel it. I might need to kick up my process a bit. One thing I'm SO happy about this time around is my support network. Namely, my spouse. Always supportive - a writer, also, but not participating this ...

Well, another creative activity took over a lot of my time, but I have been writing. I've been editing, and now that it's October, I'm considering whether or not to do Nanowrimo again this year. I enjoy it. I enjoy the rhythm of writing that it creates. Also, I've done it several years consecutively, so it feels like a November tradition.  The problem is I don't have a story burning to be written. So I've done some of the Nanowrimo Prep 101 ideas, attended some write-ins, and have some ideas going. I'm still unsure of them. I'll probably do it. There is one story that sparks my imagination over the others. More like, a character and an obstacle. I still don't really have a plot yet.  I may need to sit with my three top ideas and do a bigger brainstorm for plot before committing. It's almost November, so I should get on that! 

Again with the long hiatus from blogging! First, it was because all was going according to plan. I followed a three-step edit process, making notes that change the overall story, then per chapter or scene, and finally noting lines that needed to be fixed. Then I traveled for a while and struggled to get back into the routine of writing and editing. Now I'm back, with a new focus. Still in the WIP from Nanowrimo 2022, but I realized that regardless of all the notes I had made, the overall "feel" of the book was wrong. It was too straightforward. This book should make the reader cringe. I want it to be spooky as hell. It's not my strong suit. A few days ago I saved the whole thing under a new title, so I can do a massive overhaul of it without obliterating the original in case this version turns out worse. Then I deleted a bunch of scenes that seem superfluous or too light. There are a few changes that will need to be made to the story line, so I've begun working th...

I'm excited about this step, so must document it. I don't seem to have written about the Nanowrimo Youtube series I watched on streamlining the editing process. It was in 4 parts (or three?), and really helped me focus each step. I started while mid-edit for that last editing project, so it was hard to fit the steps they provided into my Scrivener drafts. (The presenters used a program called Fictionary.) With my recent Nanowrimo draft, I have decided to set it up now in such a way to make the 3 step editing process easier later. And I love it. I did a quick review of the Scrivener tutorial to figure out the best way to set this up. I'm in there, using the Meta-data options to highlight the path of each scene, so I'll be able to see at a glance what needs to be done. Next step (starting today), I'm going to add key words and reference tabs to make it easier to link up different scenes. Part of the hassle of editing, I've found, is when a change in one scene affe...

Draft One of my latest novel is in the bag! I ended Nanowrimo with over 70,000 words! Not all of them will stay, obviously, and I had some issues in the middle with bits that I was working on disappearing, but I'm proud of myself. Today, I went into Scrivener's outline format and checked out the scenes I'd written. I updated summaries for some of them. (Pre-Nano I'd written summary cards for the scenes I wanted to write, but sometimes they ran away from the plan.) I will add this step to all of my first drafts. It will be very helpful later in finding what needs fixing, I'm sure! So that's it for now. Well, that's it for this draft of this book. Now I need to decide what happens next. I need to get back into my last editing work. Hmm... How much time until I pick that up? One day? Three? A week? Or do I fill in some of the blanks that are in this current one? Keep going every day? Next week? Not a week. I need to keep going. 

This year I set myself a daily goal of 2,000 words. If I can do that, at least for a while, then I'll have a cushion when I get to the muddy middle and stall out. I hope I don't stall out. I love watching that graph of my word count on the Nanowrimo website.  It's going extremely well. In fact, today the words are flowing so well that I'm willing to skip all other activities for as long as it keeps up. I've already exceeded 2k words (it's noon), but I'm in the middle of a scene and anxious to see where it goes. I still have the problem of having nothing set up for the ending. I know the ending I want, so maybe I should take a day to focus on that. Write the ending, and that way there's a goal to shoot for when the words won't come. We shall see. Today I'm just celebrating this feeling of success!

(And apparently I'm only blogging once a month these days. Oh well.) Yes! Nanowrimo is just days away. The last week or so I haven't done any real editing on the WIP. Just a little, in preparation to share with my writing group. I got good feedback, but it's harder to integrate than I expected. Most of my time is spent preparing for Nanowrimo. By preparing, I mean, hitting certain word-count targets each day. I'm only doing background stuff, though. To get into the characters and flesh out the relationships, I started with dialog and phone calls and chats. Show the interaction. It's taken off in unexpected directions, I must say. Now I need to have another look at the conflicts and plot points lined up, and rework them. As I've been prepping, most of this dialog seems to be setting up the big issue. I'll need a lot to come after that. I need to double check story arcs, because maybe this is not the standard plot that I expected it to be. It would be nice, fo...

I'm trying to break up my time more specifically between editing the WIP and prepping the next one. The line edit is still very slow, sometimes three days on a scene or chapter, but it is still rewarding when it comes out right. Breaking it up by doing some work on another thing helps boost that "serotonin" that hits after I accomplish something. I've noticed that my books don't have a ton of conflict. An initial conflict of course, and struggles - internal or external - on the way to resolving the main conflict, but I don't tend to "up the ante" as the book progresses. The next work I'm planning will have more of that. I'm lining up what conflict will happen at what point in the book, and trying to do a better job of outlining. A lot of the conflict points are now set. I'm moving on in recent prep-work to focus on the characters. I know who they are, but I haven't yet gotten into their heads. Characters usually come more easily to me...

Slower than ever.  I am still working through the Nanowrimo editing series, but that new business venture is taking more of my time than I expected. So much for being a silent partner! Still. Forward progress is forward progress. I'll take what I can get. Bonus: I've joined a writing group! This is better than the last group I tried out. A short time of writing, then a lot of discussion, feedback, and editorial suggestions. To the point that I tried out some of the editorial suggestions this afternoon, in my WIP.  Very helpful.  I think my writing will only improve now that I have a group of conscientious fellow-writers to consult on methods.

Still editing, but in a slightly different manner. The Nanowrimo Youtube channel has been doing a series on editing with a couple pros - of course they are showing off their software and program, but it seems a good way to do top-down editing (big issues down to little things). I've been trying to adapt their tips for my Scrivener version. And then April happened, and on my other blog I did the A to Z Challenge. Edited, too, but didn't have as much time to spend on editing. Plus, I have a new business venture waiting in the wings of my life, and that took a lot of time in the past few weeks. So again, less time for other things like editing. I hate putting off editing, but realistically, until I have an agent and a publisher urging me to meet deadlines, my deadlines and timing goals are my own to keep or change. If I am going to keep balance in my life, I have to be flexible in all areas of my day-to-day plans.  Back on track, though.  I think. I hope.

Rejections are still slowly coming. I've had 5 official rejections, and one query that exceeded the "I'll respond to you by" date. Today I sent out another one, so that puts eight queries still in the rotation. My goal is to get out two more this week. I've been spending more time editing and writing a new story for Nanowrimo. Both. It's crazy. I'm crazy. I started the month mostly editing, but there aren't a lot of words there and my Nano was flailing. Now I'm writing more than editing, in a story that was started with a premise instead of with characters. Usually I have a character first, then work out a plot and start piecing it together. This is a little more random than that. I did have two initial characters, but in my initial writing I was thinking of one character for the lead, and now I've switched to another. It's all over the place. I'm not thrilled with the way the story is going, but I'm making decent word count progres...

I love editing! And this edit especially, is a breeze! I really am just touching up wording here and there, and I'm ahead of schedule. I should finish the edit in just two more days, and I'll have time to draft more query letters after that, maybe sending out my first batch BEFORE November! Wow. I've signed up for Nanowrimo again. I have a story idea, and writing will be a nice break between querying in November, but I might just edit one of my other drafts instead. I have three other novels sitting in first draft form. Overall, I'm happy with my progress. High hopes! 

Yesterday was exhilarating. After a day or two focused on tracking down readers (two noes, two yesses, one ghosting, and finally a third yes) I started looking into querying. I re-watched an old Nanowrimo video about the process, then started on my own process. So far I have: 1. Created a spreadsheet to track agents, letters sent, responses received. 2. Composed a draft of a generic query letter. This will be vastly changed: personalized to each agent, as well as updated after I receive reader feedback.  I've asked my readers for feedback "by October" so I have a little over a month to research agents and work on my elevator pitch to go in the query letter itself.   I'm also debating about a possible 4th reader. Three readers is my minimum, and I'd like to be over my minimum, but not if it's the wrong reader. So there's something to think about there. I honestly can't believe I'm here. And I'm actually doing it! Doing the legwork to get it don...

I was doing great.  As planned when I last posted, I was working on a timeline for my magnum opus - going through scenes to find the timing of everything and dropping the information into a gantt chart, making minor changes to the text. That's been my last ... four days. Then yesterday I set up and turned on my computer, went about my normal "getting ready for the day" routine, casually passing my computer and opening scrivener, then the file, and saw it open to where I had left off the day before. Fine. No problem. I was doing something in a different part of the house (no one else was around) and when I came back, my computer was asleep (of course). No problem. Tap it to wake it up. Scrivener is still open, but the document I was in was blank! No words! I clicked on the document above it in the manuscript folder. Blank. The next one - blank. So I panicked and closed Scrivener. I opened it again and thought, "Maybe it's a visual thing." The project still sh...

woof. 2 days into Camp Nanowrimo and ... It's actually going well. But not as I expected. I am working in the nightmare torture work I mentioned previously, and am diverted from pressuring my volunteer reader about the WIP they are reviewing for me. On day one, after writing, organizing, and filling in blanks about characters, I had what was either a startling revelation or a passing flicker of thought:  This might be better as a different genre altogether. It's not going to change my direction for now. I'm just passing time and keeping my creative juices going. Besides, this book will never see the light of day, so it's just for me. Still, later - today, in fact - it occurred to me that this novel could be my "play" novel. Play around with changing a book from one thing to another, just to see how well I can do that.  Maybe. Doubtful, because that seems like a lot of work for something no one will read, but maybe. 

Aha! Building on my idea from my last post, I have decided to try Camp Nanowrimo once more. I did it once and it wasn't great for me - seemed pointless - but this year seems a better set up. I've made my goal a timing one. Two hours per day. I can EITHER be adding to the old, troublesome, pantser-style, draft OR when my other wip comes back, I'll dive into editing. Two hours per day, and whatever it is, it is progress. The trick will be to beat the heat. It's very easy to just lay in air conditioning and read instead of sit out at my sweltering desk area and try to be functional. That will be my sisyphean boulder. A month ago, my goal was to be lining up beta-readers to start in July. Ah well. Life.