down to the last 9 chapters for editing!!!! i'm so pumped! and after this, seriously, no more edits. i'm DONE. i'm gonna prep for send-outs. this means queries and synopses galore. woo. friggin. hoo.
one half of me is completely exhilarated while the other half is toast. dry wheat toast. i'm so excited to get this out (even though i know that the whole waiting thing's gonna suck, but i waited for a guy for almost 3 years and nothing came of that, so waiting for like, a year to be rejected is actually a relief) and actually prove that i can do it. granted, whether it gets picked up or not is something else ENTIRELY, but i just want this off my hands. like a term paper. you slave over it and agonize, and then when you turn it into the professor, it's like this huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders because it's out of your hands by then, and you can only sit and wait for your grade while working on all your OTHER projects... OK, i'm running on a LOT of mt dew right now, so sorry for the spastic run-ons. i'm just ready to go on to the next phase.
speaking of, i'm 3 chapters into my fantasy novel, and i'm gonna take a brief break for plotting purposes... but it's going fairly well, i suppose. 4 main characters... doing a kind of anne rice-y thing with weaving together completely different people into one major plot. (like queen of the damned, but less involved. there were what, like, 10 different sub-plots in that?) why am i using "like" so much? argh. the pitfalls of waking up too early to successfully stay up all night... this really does feel like college.
oh, hotel tidbit:
"i lost my wallet, my key card, and my bra." ~~random guest.
seriously. how do you lose your BRA? any takers?
going to run audit now.
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
03 April 2010
17 February 2010
learning to be a real writer
i just read rachelle gardner's post and i'm thinking about my WIP and my new project and my head is spinning. and to think, if i were in that real world, i'd be marketing on top of it. i don't know if i'm just tired or if i'm sick *again* of editing, but i do know that this would be the best ever time to find some good beta readers. i love my mom, but she'll never get around to it.
the sad thing is that, while other people have significant others or family members or close friends to do this, i don't have anyone in my immediate vicinity. i have overseas friends on my writing site whom i've never met, who have been with me for almost a decade while i built this book. i have whined and complained to my mom about it, but that's the extent of it. my significant other has minimum interest because he's not really a reader. i don't know many people who enjoy SF. so i'm kinda stuck. and my eyes have been over it so much that i'm just seeing words and losing Dima's voice.
i know that there's a site to hook you up with partners, and it was on someone's blog the other day... i guess i'll have to sift through the last few entries and see if i can find it again. i need someone else's eyes on this thing before i hack it to death...
in the meantime, i'll be playing in my fantasy book. i finally have character motivations figured out. now i just need to find the point at which it all comes together.
my only hesitation with this is that i'm afraid some of the terminology will become cumbersome. i know that fantasy writers like s.l. farrell and george r.r. martin use loads of different terminology in their books, and that some names are a little taxing (no offense, i know it's all about world-building; names are incredibly important), but i fret. because i'm not the genius that either of them is, so i get nervous. i guess my penwrights friends will tell me if it's annoying.
ugh. it's distressing to be a writer sometimes...
so, you tell me. what do you do for beta readers? i'm sure a lot of you are in writers' groups, but unfortunately, my job takes away a huge chunk of daylight and my hours are never consistent (i know, excuses excuses). any suggestions?
the sad thing is that, while other people have significant others or family members or close friends to do this, i don't have anyone in my immediate vicinity. i have overseas friends on my writing site whom i've never met, who have been with me for almost a decade while i built this book. i have whined and complained to my mom about it, but that's the extent of it. my significant other has minimum interest because he's not really a reader. i don't know many people who enjoy SF. so i'm kinda stuck. and my eyes have been over it so much that i'm just seeing words and losing Dima's voice.
i know that there's a site to hook you up with partners, and it was on someone's blog the other day... i guess i'll have to sift through the last few entries and see if i can find it again. i need someone else's eyes on this thing before i hack it to death...
in the meantime, i'll be playing in my fantasy book. i finally have character motivations figured out. now i just need to find the point at which it all comes together.
my only hesitation with this is that i'm afraid some of the terminology will become cumbersome. i know that fantasy writers like s.l. farrell and george r.r. martin use loads of different terminology in their books, and that some names are a little taxing (no offense, i know it's all about world-building; names are incredibly important), but i fret. because i'm not the genius that either of them is, so i get nervous. i guess my penwrights friends will tell me if it's annoying.
ugh. it's distressing to be a writer sometimes...
so, you tell me. what do you do for beta readers? i'm sure a lot of you are in writers' groups, but unfortunately, my job takes away a huge chunk of daylight and my hours are never consistent (i know, excuses excuses). any suggestions?
04 February 2010
what a difference *almost* a decade makes...
it seems that i'm *finally* getting some familial support for this whole book-writing thing i'm doing.
my parents are thrilled that i'm pursuing an agent. my dad hasn't read a single word of my manuscript, and my mom hasn't read anything in a while, but they have faith in me because i'm their little girl and because this is my dream.
my sister told me that she's proud of me (years earlier, she told me i'd be living in a box if i pursued this) and nearly gave me a heart attack. tonight she told me that she's excited for me.
i know that the failure rate is about 99.9%. but i've never been good at doing things that are easy. i'm one of those silly people who realized that life is too short not to do what you love, and what i love is writing, hands down. so rather than work a job i hate in order to make money, i'm working a job i love that pays me nothing but allows me a LOT of writing/planning/reading/plotting time. if not for my current job, i still wouldn't be finished with my manuscript, let alone working on "final" edits (though no edit is truly "final" right?) and writing query letters.
i hatched the original concept for my manuscript when i was sixteen. i fell in love with the island of dr. moreau by wells and was so intrigued by the idea of it, but i wondered what it'd be like from the POV of an experiment. obviously, they had similar sensibilities as their human masters and they had their own hierarchies. but then the idea burst into my brain after a few days of mulling it over. dima was born, painstakingly. the skeleton outline formed in my brain. and then 4 years later, i actually got it right. a few times in that 4 years, i wanted to scrap the entire thing and focus on something else. a lot of ideas were swimming around in my brain, but dima was always at the front of that. i'd written about 1/3 of the book before i realized that i was totally wrong. and then another few rewrites showed me who my antagonist truly was. now, eight years later, i'm finally giving it the attention and love it deserves and actually feeling confident enough to show it to agents.
but don't get me wrong. while it's been a labor of love (and insanity), it's not my baby. it's one of many worlds in my head that i've tried to give life to, but i'm not in love with my words. i'm still cutting and adding and cutting some more, trying to view them as objectively as possible, wondering if i can make parts clearer, or deeper, or more concise. my AP english teacher taught me not to love my words (in fact, she made me despise words that year) but to nurture them and make them meaningful and contextual. she forced me to dig as deeply in myself as i could and come up with something better. always better. and honestly, i credit her with getting me to this point. without her tormenting me and bringing me to tears with nearly every friggin' paper, until i developed a thick enough skin and the skill set to avoid being ripped apart, i wouldn't have written what i've written, and i wouldn't know that i could do better. so yes. because of her, i've dug as deeply into myself as i could to bring out this labor of love and polish it into something meaningful (to me, at least) and give it depth. and now i feel as confident as i did when i handed something in to her that i knew would bring back an A. THAT is how i know i'm ready.
and as soon as i land an agent, i'm telling her.
my parents are thrilled that i'm pursuing an agent. my dad hasn't read a single word of my manuscript, and my mom hasn't read anything in a while, but they have faith in me because i'm their little girl and because this is my dream.
my sister told me that she's proud of me (years earlier, she told me i'd be living in a box if i pursued this) and nearly gave me a heart attack. tonight she told me that she's excited for me.
i know that the failure rate is about 99.9%. but i've never been good at doing things that are easy. i'm one of those silly people who realized that life is too short not to do what you love, and what i love is writing, hands down. so rather than work a job i hate in order to make money, i'm working a job i love that pays me nothing but allows me a LOT of writing/planning/reading/plotting time. if not for my current job, i still wouldn't be finished with my manuscript, let alone working on "final" edits (though no edit is truly "final" right?) and writing query letters.
i hatched the original concept for my manuscript when i was sixteen. i fell in love with the island of dr. moreau by wells and was so intrigued by the idea of it, but i wondered what it'd be like from the POV of an experiment. obviously, they had similar sensibilities as their human masters and they had their own hierarchies. but then the idea burst into my brain after a few days of mulling it over. dima was born, painstakingly. the skeleton outline formed in my brain. and then 4 years later, i actually got it right. a few times in that 4 years, i wanted to scrap the entire thing and focus on something else. a lot of ideas were swimming around in my brain, but dima was always at the front of that. i'd written about 1/3 of the book before i realized that i was totally wrong. and then another few rewrites showed me who my antagonist truly was. now, eight years later, i'm finally giving it the attention and love it deserves and actually feeling confident enough to show it to agents.
but don't get me wrong. while it's been a labor of love (and insanity), it's not my baby. it's one of many worlds in my head that i've tried to give life to, but i'm not in love with my words. i'm still cutting and adding and cutting some more, trying to view them as objectively as possible, wondering if i can make parts clearer, or deeper, or more concise. my AP english teacher taught me not to love my words (in fact, she made me despise words that year) but to nurture them and make them meaningful and contextual. she forced me to dig as deeply in myself as i could and come up with something better. always better. and honestly, i credit her with getting me to this point. without her tormenting me and bringing me to tears with nearly every friggin' paper, until i developed a thick enough skin and the skill set to avoid being ripped apart, i wouldn't have written what i've written, and i wouldn't know that i could do better. so yes. because of her, i've dug as deeply into myself as i could to bring out this labor of love and polish it into something meaningful (to me, at least) and give it depth. and now i feel as confident as i did when i handed something in to her that i knew would bring back an A. THAT is how i know i'm ready.
and as soon as i land an agent, i'm telling her.
03 February 2010
gr arg!
stupid websense blocking the bransford blog! i need a way to bust my boredom for the next twenty minutes! ah well. this might help.
i spent most of the night hacking away at the old manny, trying to whittle its girth down to something a little easier to swallow. i hacked off about 1000 words, which made me feel loads better. got rid of some parts that i just didn't like, reworded some others, and so far, i'm feeling better about the entire product. there are more moments of "wow, that's actually good" than "what was i thinking when i wrote that?!" definitely a confidence boost.
i need to get this "last" revision done, darnit! i want to start querying next month because i need goals. and i need to get free from this project so i can work on another one. i've got three new ideas i want to develop into...something useful, but my brain just isn't feeling free at the moment. there's still too much clutter, worry, and anticipation. i just need to figure out how to make each agent feel special. because they are. the more blogs i read from them, the more i like them. i follow lucienne diver on livejournal, and she just cracks me up. i'd LOOOOVE to be able to work with her at some point. nathan's awesome, janet reid is awesome, agent kristin and jennifer jackson rock. i love it. agents are people too... i just hope that one of them likes me...
i spent most of the night hacking away at the old manny, trying to whittle its girth down to something a little easier to swallow. i hacked off about 1000 words, which made me feel loads better. got rid of some parts that i just didn't like, reworded some others, and so far, i'm feeling better about the entire product. there are more moments of "wow, that's actually good" than "what was i thinking when i wrote that?!" definitely a confidence boost.
i need to get this "last" revision done, darnit! i want to start querying next month because i need goals. and i need to get free from this project so i can work on another one. i've got three new ideas i want to develop into...something useful, but my brain just isn't feeling free at the moment. there's still too much clutter, worry, and anticipation. i just need to figure out how to make each agent feel special. because they are. the more blogs i read from them, the more i like them. i follow lucienne diver on livejournal, and she just cracks me up. i'd LOOOOVE to be able to work with her at some point. nathan's awesome, janet reid is awesome, agent kristin and jennifer jackson rock. i love it. agents are people too... i just hope that one of them likes me...
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