Words About Writing

What? It's been a month? I'm settling into a new routine, and have been making steady editing progress, but I had hoped to finish this revision this month. So yesterday I sat down and set some hard goals. Don't get me wrong, I have a fairly relaxed life right now and have no intention of adding stress. I realized that if I commit myself to editing two scenes a day - JUST TWO - I would be done with this revision just a day or two into July. That's acceptable. So my plan is "two scenes or three hours" a day. Some days I have more time or less. In fact, Sundays are probably out. Hence "or three hours" as I see how the pace flows. It's good. In July I'll hunt down beta-readers - I have two ready and waiting. Then comes the bigger daunting task: query letter, find an agent, all that personal interaction stuff that, I imagine, leads a lot of very good writing to languish in computers the world over. I know a lot of people who "have writt...

We all have distractions. The trick is finding a way to move forward around or through the distractions. Lately, life has taken a turn and dropped an extra plate in my lap. Not a problem in the long run, but the last week or two has been rather chaotic trying to keep all the plates spinning on the pole and ending up dropping one or two. The good news is, I actually made some good progress in my WIP, I think. At least it's getting organized so that I can , at some point, make "good progress". The slow news is in the editing work. I sorted out my editing work in Scrivener as I needed, but then stalled. I had made a list of things that need to be done to the manuscript, and struggled with the next step. So today, I'm moving beyond that. It's very freeing to release yourself from your own rules. Who says things need to be done in a certain order? So I sat down with the printed manuscript to start putting my hand-written changes into the document, prior to diss...

Life happened this past week/weekend, so my progress slowed, but it's okay. Still plugging away at the edit almost every day. Scene by scene. I'm optimistic to finish this draft by the end of the month. Then I'll do a full proof-read and probably start looking for readers. Alpha readers? Beta readers? I'm not even sure which would be the right terminology. I'll figure it out. In addition to the recent life concerns, a friend is in town this week. She's not staying with us, and knows I'm working, but having that "I'll give you a buzz sometime" ringing in my ears always leaves me with a feeling that I don't want to get too deeply involved in any project. It feels like a personal flaw and I'm trying to overcome it. I should just do what I need to do and feel unapologetic if she calls me and I'm busy. I'll get there. The new book I started working on, slowly, as the muse strikes me, is getting to a point where I feel I need...

Those several runs through the manuscript I talked about last week? Yeah, no. First off, as I started reading I realized I was BORED within three pages, so I stalled for a day, until I remembered another bit of writerly advice: "Delete the first scene." I went back in, starting at the second scene as if it was the beginning of the entire book, and it worked! I made some notes of places to drop in information provided in the previous "first" scene, and was much more interested in the story. Second, I'm a multi-tasker. They say that's not always a good thing, but it works for me in this case. I'm an editor. I see the details and the word-changes and the "needs to be expanded" all at once. I simply CAN'T with the "go through it once with a focus on X, then again to focus on Y..." I can't. It's too slow. That's probably very good advice for people who aren't trained to notice errors in writing, but in my previous...

...Like Hamlet says, "whether to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..." Fortune here meaning that fickle demon that offers both good and bad. A new month, new determination. I finished the re-write over a week ago and as planned, I printed the new draft. Then I stalled out. I made a list of things I want to check for. A couple things are kind of big - like seeking places to expand one of the relationships between characters, or expanding the subplot. Otherwise, I want to read for excessive adverbs, unnecessary dialog tags, find my pet words that I use too much. You know, clean house a bit, verbiage-wise. I have read - and this being my first book, everything I'm doing is based on things I've read - that it's not a good use of time to edit for nit-picky details before you are totally satisfied with the story. Because what if you make big changes, and then you have to go back and pick for nits again? But I can't. I tried sitting down wi...

I found the noise that actually disrupts my flow: Loud Construction. There is construction nearby, and I lost about a week of work during the loudest part. I was in the "rewrite the entire book" phase, which has been a wonderful exercise and very helpful. I'm still in that phase. The construction isn't as noisy right now, but I'm sure there will be loud days yet to come. No, April has its own distractions for me, as I focus on two different online writing challenges. These are going well, helping improve my general writing style, and stretch my abilities cross-genres. I'm also testing new voices. But I'm not doing a lot of editing. The rest of this month I'll be more diligent in getting some editing in every week, maybe every other day or something. I don't think I'll fit it in every day. After I finish this editing phase, I'll print out the manuscript again, re-read for technical errors like adverbs and grammatical garbage. Then I thin...

Not my "style" in terms of voice, but style in terms of process. Does that make sense? I figured out months ago that I don't need to create a vacuum for myself. Setting a timer is fine, but if I do that, I set it long enough to include distractions. I am an interruptible writer.  If someone comes to talk to me while I'm writing, maybe I need to hold up a finger and finish a sentence or paragraph, but the short - or even lengthy - distraction doesn't pull me totally out of my fiction. Need a refill on my beverage? Not a problem, even if I spend a few minutes absorbed in whatever's on the TV. When I get back to my writing, my groove is waiting for me. I think I'm blessed that way. I can write with noise, with activity, with the TV blasting in the next room. Well, so far, anyway. Perhaps not completely unrelated is the fact that music matters when I write. I have spotify on my laptop ( not my favorite music app, but they have long playlists and it wor...