NaNoWriSe Day 11 (Little progress in writing, but the editing keeps coming)

I've been doing lots of editing today in order to prep my chapters for my editing group. I find that straight up writing has been eluding me for the past few days. Its a shame, since I have lots of time on my hands.
Its always when you're busy that you have the most inspiration.
Still, editing continues to be a rewarding experience. It feels as if my work is rising in quality with ever little error I correct. Not to mention those who have given me edits have great suggestions that have helped me improve upon my novels.
I'm beginning to think NaNoWriSe won't be as fruitful as I might have hoped in the writing category but I think it will be in the editing end of things. Even if I don't write six books, I should get a few rough drafts done at least. That's enough for me.
Writing is such a long, seemingly endless process. You have to wonder sometime why so many of us enjoy it so much. Are we masochists or do we genuinely love each moment we spend hovered over our keyboards, typing away.
I'd like to believe the latter is true. If I didn't enjoy this with every fiber of my being, I wouldn't be doing it. There is no love hate relationship with writing. There is only love.
The love-hate relationship is reserved for querying, but you can't adore EVERYTHING you do.
Keep following my journey, all you who are out there (That is of course, assuming anyone reads this blog). I imagine I'll have some success by the end of it.

NaNoWriSe Day 9 (Predicaments galore)

Funny enough, only a day after posting my break through post, it turned out that a lot of people liked my prologue and first chapter. I don't know how much I like it but they liked it.
However, I want to continue to see what my editing group thinks of my book as is before changing everything.
The main issue that comes with my book, Children of Ink, is POV. I hate confining POV to one character but I like the intamacy that a first person POV provides. The result is me choosing one character for first person and everyone else's POV being in third person. This is a bit unorthodox but that is how Children of Ink is written. it really can't be confined to one POV to tell the story it needs to. If all else fails I'll have to make it straight third person or straight first person. Both will be difficult for me.
For now, let's see how my editing group takes the odd POV mash up. Maybe they'll like it. Who knows?
Now off to editing! (This really is turning into a month of more editing than writing. Ah well... as long as something is getting done.)

NaNoWriSe Day 8 (Break through!)

So I'm back after a two day absence. Sorry about that.
I was feeling relatively dry of words but I participated in an editing group with two of my complete projects. I figured if I couldn't write, I could edit. With one of my projects, a Young Adult Urban Fantasy, I've had problems with the beginning and the POV for awhile. I love the project and the characters but the beginning is just tough.
But finally, I found light at the end of the tunnel. Somehow, one of the edits someone gave me caused an explosion in my mind. A break through! I knew exactly how to fix my problems with the beginning AND the POV to make it easier to swallow. This should end up tightening the novel as a whole. It will require rewriting half of the book but I don't care! If it makes it better, I'm all for it.
Thanks editing group. You have opened new doors. And now: Off to writing!

NaNoWriSe Day 5 (World building)

Oh, editing. You are such an untamable monster that hides behind corners and waits to gobble me up. You snicker in the shadows saying "Authoress, you forgot to think about this. Authoress, your world building needs work!"
The latter item was the issue today as I discovered I don't have a clear timeline for past events that happened before my book is set. The years are kind of important because they have to coincide with the ages of characters and their jobs and education and all of that good stuff.
Fortunately I nailed down my timeline today. The problem will be implementing it and making sure all of my dates are consistent.
That will be for tomorrow though. On the plus side I've joined a writing group for Speculative Fiction so I hope to get some editing done on some of my first chapters of my books. I'm excited about that. That will help me through the editing process a bit and allow me to focus on the writing part of NaNoWriSe.
Another only semi productive day down. And now, it's time for sleep. Happy NaNoWriSe everyone!

NaNoWriSe Day 4 (The wonders of Editing)

I was so busy yesterday I forgot to post last night. Oops.
No matter. Busy is a good thing. I got a descent amount of writing done on my YA Fantasy and I've gotten my query for my speculative fiction novel mostly edited. Now I just have to finish editing the actual novel. Still, having the query done kind of makes me feel good.
Let's talk about query letters shall we? One of my first posts was on query letters and how hard they are. I've actually come to terms with query letters now. They are no longer as hard for me to work out and they come a bit more naturally. That way when I post them on forums for critques, people are more nitpicking than rewriting my whole query.
It's nice because I can offer everything I've learned from writing queries to help other writers who are in the same place I was a year or so ago. I actually enjoy giving people feedback and helping them rearrange their work.
Editing is actually kind of fun, at least when it comes to other people's work. This is a strange revelation for me because I HATE editing my work. But helping other people can be very entertaining. I wonder why that is.
Speaking of editing, that's what I'm doing today... Sigh... wish me luck!

NaNoWriSe (A New Adventure in Writing)

Hello everyone,
It has been quite awhile since I've posted and you can chalk all that up to life. However, with the Summer finally here I find myself reinvigorated and ready to embark on a rather lengthy and difficult writing quest that may or may not rid me of my remaining sanity.
I experienced an untold of amount of productivity during National Novel Writing Month and instead of 1,667 words a day I wrote 5,000 words a day and had hit my deadline 10 days into the month. I wondered how this could have happened, especially since I was very busy at the time with other pursuits, including tech week for a musical. Anyone who has ever experienced tech week, knows how difficult and long rehearsals can be. I decided that this is because I work well under pressure. Specifically, I work well under deadlines.
So since I'm not doing much this summer outside of a lot of reading and anime watching, I decided to invent my own, "National Novel Writing" event which I am probably the only one insane enough to participate in. I call it "National Novel Writing Season" or "NaNoWriSe". The perimeters are as follows:
- I will write two novel rough drafts each month in the months of June, July and August
- I will edit one previously completed rough draft each month
- I will not completely lose my mind.
Best case scenario, I leave the summer armed with six new rough drafts and three polished novels so that I can pick and choose based on the market which I should try to query. Worst case I will only have three new rough drafts and one polished novel. I will not allow myself to leave the summer with less than that.
Am I crazy? Absolutely. But, I am determined to be held accountable so I turn to you, my loyal readers (If I have any that is) for help. I shall be reporting on my progress throughout the summer and I will blog every day, if possible.
Wish me luck... and let NaNoWriSe begin!

That special moment (When you almost die of joy)

So, I don't know if you've been keeping up, but since going on submission, I haven't been getting a lot of positive feedback. Just form rejections. I was starting to feel a little discouraged, as everyone gets, and even starting consider all the reasons my project wouldn't get represented. I was thinking about moving on and trying again later with this manuscript. This afternoon I half heartidly sent out a few more queries.

Then one agent (Who apparently has an 8 week response time) asked for the first 100 pages within two hours. And I. Just. Died.

First came the shock. The "Am I really seeing this" moment. It lasted for about two blinks. Then I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. I was such a ball of energy in that moment that I could have won the Olympics in track. So I ran about my house, shouting my news to the world. Then I collapsed on the floor of my bed room, muttering incoherently.

Familiar with this feeling? If you're not, I hope you will be soon.

The funny thing is, even if this isn't the agent I end up signing with, it doesn't matter. This was just the right sign I needed to know my idea is worth pursuing. Maybe my writing still needs work or the actual book needs fixing but I have hope.

And hope is a great thing.

But it would be nice to sign with this agent too.

-Authoress Anonymous

Wow... I haven't blogged in awhile (What to talk about...)

It is beyond me how a blog continues to get hits despite the fact that it has not been updated in several weeks. But hey, apparently people are interested. (Accidentally stumbled across someone quoting me... that was an interesting experience)
I suppose I should do a report on how the publishing journey is going. I'm still on submission for agents and haven't gotten requests yet, but I'm not discouraged. I decided to revise my query letter completely so maybe that will turn in different results.
I've also decided to do a complete overhaul edit of book 3 in the series. Just for a little back ground info, the history of my book 3 has been an interesting one. I ended up making a huge plot change last spring which was going to make the book much longer. I decided to break up book 3 into two books because I didn't want the third book to be too much longer than the other two (I'm a consistency person, what can I say? I'm the same way with the lengths of my chapters)
But dividing the book into two was spreading the plot too thin. It seemed like I was needlessly dragging out scenes, taking too long with the plot, and writing too many scenes that weren't required for the plot to move forward. So I decided to combine two books into one again. With that I will have to delete several scenes, condense others and get the book moving more quickly. It's certainly not easy but it will be worth it in the end. I think it's better for a book to be packed with drama and turmoil than stretched too thin and moving at a boringly slow pace.
I've planned out my edit but have yet to enact it. So, (Wipes brow and takes a deep breath) wish me luck!

-Authoress Anonymous

Your First Reader (And the Feedback you Need)

Ah, yes: Feed back. That dreaded monster that lurks at the end of every draft completion. I find a lot of writers are afraid of feedback, and its not surprising. After all, you've spent months carefully selecting each and every word in your manuscript. You've poured your heart and soul into it. The last thing you want to hear is criticism no matter how constructive it is.

I'm not afraid of feed back per say but I am very reluctant to hand over my manuscript to other viewers. Particularly in the first few drafts. It's not that I'm afraid that someone will criticize my work. It's that I'm afraid I'm handing over something that isn't the best it could be. Surely I could make it better in some way before I send it into the open jaws of my friends and family.

But there will always be more that you can do and sometimes your inner circle can really help you see those things. That's why I am talking about the all important "first reader".

The first reader should be someone you are closest to. Someone who will be encouraging and help you through the process but isn't afraid to say, "This sucks. Change it."

For me, that reader is my older brother. It's not surprising since he is responsible for fostering many of my interests (Fantasy, anime, sci fi, reading, villains, jazz... the list could go on.) Just about anything he likes, I like. We have similar tastes and I respect his opinions. If he thinks a scene in my manuscript needs work, I know he's probably right and I can bounce ideas off of him to make it better.

But feedback can also help you gain confidence. If my brother (Or anyone) gives a stamp of approval to a chapter, scene or character, that makes me feel better about what I'm putting forward. And since writers are often hard on themselves, the encouragement is welcome.

Of course my brother only just finished reading the manuscript and critiquing it today and by now he practically has an entirely different book (I edit a lot, what can I say?) but I feel much better going on the publishing journey with his feedback behind me.

Don't be afraid of critique, especially from those closest to you. They are your biggest fans in the end, but they are honest. And if they think something is wrong, the agent might think the same thing :)

-Authoress Anonymous

PS: Woo hoo! I have one follower! Auspicious day!