Saturday, July 21, 2012

Editor Needed!!

Word Count: 119,991
The Wild Hunt: COMPLETED


............Now what?

I hate to say it, but because I am too close to the story, I need someone outside of it to edit. I'd love to trust myself, to believe that I know my story so well that nothing could have possibly slipped through the cracks. But because I'm human, and flawed, I know better.

I need an editor.

I have a friend who writes and self publishes, so I think I will ask her who she uses. I think I might do some research online as well.

I thought that when I finished the book, I'd be happier. Part of me is ecstatic, after the last sentence was typed, I spent the rest of the day floating. It was such a wonderful high. Today, I'm still happy, but I'm more aware of the next steps, and the work that still needs to be done.

Plus editing sucks, its even more time consuming than the actual writing. Checking word frequency, and deleting ly words. Checking for passive voice, present tense vs. past, split infinitive, prepositions, comma use, dialogue, and that doesn't even include checking the story itself. Making sure all the strings are tightly woven together. Voice, flow, and conflict. There are so many things to check........it's exhausting. I also have to format, a file for hardback and for ebook, and because I'm going to put the ebook on more than one platform that means I have to format for each separate publication, Smashwords, B&N, Amazon............exhausting.

Once I have all that done I need to ARC, find readers, bloggers, and reviewers to test read. Why am I self publishing? I don't even remember anymore............sigh. Writing the book seems like the easy part now, and that is seriously scary.


Thursday, July 19, 2012

I write like.............

Word Count: 118,125
Last chapter........................then epilogue



I have too much time on my hands. Which is silly when I'm still finishing up the last chapter of my first novel.

Because I'm a control freak, and I have to edit while I write, I came across this fun site.

I write like........?

The idea is you put in a few paragraphs of your work, and it analyzes and compares your prose and sentence structure against famous authors.

Since I have too much time on my hands and no work (insert obnoxious snort) I just had to play with the little analyzer. I prayed, PRAYED, my writing wasn't anything like those sparkly vampire books, and I mean prayed.

Lucky for me the writing God's were listening, and I got........... dun dun ta dun..............


Anne Rice.--------->


Which is pretty awesome really since I like her writing. Hell, I can remember reading The Vampire Lestat right after I saw Interview With a Vampire. I was pretty young to read it too, don't know what the heck my dad was thinking, but needless to say, it's still one of my favorite reads.

So go type in I write like, in your search engines. Maybe you'll get someone cool, or maybe you'll get someone awful and decide that work in progress needs some extra love.

Happy writing!!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Chapter 21 Killer Among Us

Word Count: 113,352


I actually thought I'd never get through the last two chapters. They are by no means finished. Both need to be edited and revised. They're not polished, just the first attempts at getting the words down. I wish I could say they were perfect. Alive and moving. I explained yesterday to the honey, how writing them works. This is what I said.

"Writing is like flowing water, you can't stop the water or control how much flows, all you can do is direct it, and hope it moves the way you want it to. That's how writing feels. I know what I want to happen, I start the chapter with a certain goal in mind. But the words flow and go where they want to, I just try to help them along in the right direction."

Words are like water.

It's the best description I have to explain the way it feels. It's a careful balance living inside the flowing words, and hoping you control them and not the other way around.

I still can't believe that I'm this close to being finished. One more chapter and an epilogue. Roughly 6,000 to 8,000 more words. It could be less, but I know myself.

Each chapter is roughly 20 pages or more, between 4,000 and 6,000 words. If the epilogue gets too fat I'll just make it a chapter. But I've rambled on long enough.


Time to get back to work.......

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Chapter 20 The Wild Hunt

Word Count: 104,468


This is when things get hard. Not hard like getting through the first 19 chapters, and revising, revising, revising. No. This is hard like broken keyboard, unsaved chapters, starting over, and finding that one perfect myth to tie it all together. I was so sure last week that I'd be farther along by now. LOL haven't I learned anything?

Writing takes time.

I know this, I know it even before the words come to mind, or my fingers touch the keyboard. I know that writing takes time. I am at that all important chapter of the book, the part where Lo helps hunt a murderer. This should be cake, this is the one chapter I have thought about since the beginning. I know what I want to happen, what needs to take place, but I feel like the well is empty, the inspiration and whisperings of my muse quiet.

What now?

I re-read the same ten imperfect pages hoping it will come to me. It needs to be perfect, its that important to the story. All of my descriptions seem overused. I already did a paragraph describing the ripped flesh with maggots squirming beneath the surface. I already did torn abdomen and yellow ropes of intestine hanging from the open wound. This is horror, its supposed to be terrifying, suspenseful, at least a little description. Every word is flat and lifeless, boring, and not good enough. Is it terrible to hold myself up to such high standards, this is my first book. My first born novel.

Writing takes time.

I will repeat this until the chapter starts to move me, until the words come to life. I will repeat this until the most important chapter of he book is written.The next chapter matters, of course it does but this one, this one, is Lo's introduction to The Wild Hunt. She's a virgin to it, so like any virgin, I want everything to be just right (since it wasn't in the real world :-). And to be perfectly honest what first time ever is truly perfect?

Writing takes time.

My new mantra. I will be so glad when this chapter is done. I don't even want to think about query letters, or synopses. I don't know if I even want to send them out. I think I might just get my feet wet, self-publish. But I will never self-publish if I don't get this damn chapter written. Two to go, plus an epilogue............Writing takes time........writing........takes.........time.

Deep breath..... Let's get to it.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Almost done..............now what?

I never really thought I'd get to this point. Three years ago it seemed impossible. I started researching, flirting with the idea for this book, but in all that time seeing the end, seeing the completed manuscript seemed impossible. Right now I'm at a word count of 98,230 words, and I'm not finished. I have about three more chapters to write. It's unreal being this close to the finish line. It's surreal, exciting, and a little scary. When I'm done it will be time to send it to an editor. I've done as much as I can do.

What have I learned?

Not to give myself deadlines. Most of them I didn't meet. You can't force the story, it has to evolve naturally. I hope that nearing the completion of my book I've got a better idea of what I'm doing then three years ago when I first sat down to write. Three years. I'd like to think that the next book will be easier, but that lesson I learned about deadlines sobers me. Writing is work.

Writing takes time. I'd love to crank out novels every three months but I have very high expectations for myself, and an obsessive perfectionist sitting on my shoulders. Writing is work. That is going to be my new mantra, its not a sprint, its a marathon. As I learn my craft I will get better but no matter what at the end of the day it just takes time.

Some days I wish I never started writing, but then I think about my world and characters, and I can't imagine life without them.

Writing is work, but it's also a high. It's holding a pen that can create worlds. It's living in your head but never feeling lonely. Writing is incredible. I am so glad I did this.