I should really and truly start keeping track of how many edits I make to a document. I’m about to start editing the final chapter in the next book I hope to submit to my publisher, but I know I’m going to go right back to chapter 1 and start all over again. I need a beta reader or four to help point out the weak/confusing points.
Nearly all the leaves have fallen from the trees and a biting cold wind has started to blow, attempting to pierce my skin if I stand outside long enough. People all around me complain and ask friends who are about to leave on vacation to, “Please bring the warm weather back with you.” I love the cold and look forward to the snow. I want to settle into my house, cover up with cozy blankets, and hibernate. All I need now is a mug of piping hot coffee and a square of salted dark chocolate. I’m ready to write again.
I’m a fast writer. My brain goes so quickly that pen and paper doesn’t work well at all, so I’m eternally grateful for the computer. This natural tendency is a blessing while writing a new novel, especially for something like NaNoWriMo. While I have my story fairly well planned out ahead of time, I can’t get too detailed or I find I can’t write as well. The curse is that I end up with a lot of mistakes and occasionally forget to put in some details that I intended but ended up chasing another scene and am remiss about leaving myself a note. That eventually all needs to be cleaned…
I’ve been writing like a possessed woman this summer, nearing 190,000 words in a little over 2 months. Part of that is because I’ve had this story in my head for nearly two years and it was well fleshed out. Another part was that I discovered with Camp NaNoWriMo how much visuals helped motivate me to meet my goal. The other part is summer. I’m lucky enough to have summers off, and I’ve always attempted to write during the summertime. This is the first year I’ve actually accomplished that though. As I see the summer coming to a close, I’m starting to freak out a little, especially when I woke…
I’ve gotten nearly 90K words into my story and I had a change of heart. I had to change the name of a secondary character because it just wasn’t working. Part of it was that I hadn’t considered her last name. How dumb is that? Luckily, it’s going easier this time around. The last time I did this in a story, I struggled forever. In fact, I’m still struggling with that change, the character’s old name popping into my head when I tell people about my novel. It’s crazy how ingrained these names become. One tool that helped me a lot this time was the Baby Name Explorer on babycenter. I love the…
Last December I decided to download the trial version of Scrivener. Even before the 30 day trial was over I was buying the software. I love this program and for many reasons. Planning is a breeze in either corkboard or outliner mode. I prefer corkboard because I love to see things laid out in a more visual manner and outlines just take me back to high school composition classes and the nightmare of writing my masters thesis. My entire story is opened in one document with super simple navigation. No more opening large, cumbersome files in Word with my entire story or opening 25 separate files, one for each chapter.…
I have a publishing contract in hand. I’m flummoxed and excited and scared all wrapped up into a fireball of happy right now. Unfortunately, each and every loved one that I wanted to share this joy with is unavailable. Haha. So I’ll go crazy here. *streaks naked all over the internets* WHOO HOO!
I sit where it all began, in my bed. The place where I was pushed by a friend to write nearly a year ago when I was paralyzed by the loss of my step-dad. I started to write that night and every night after for well over a week, further inspired by the prednisone I took for my bronchitis. Then I left the story to blend and simmer for a bit. Every so often I’d come back to see how it was doing, tweaking, adding, and fixing. Then, after the push from a friend or two, I picked it up near Thanksgiving and really, seriously got to work, finishing the…