Word Imperfect

So last week, I handed over my manuscript to my editor and asked her to tear it apart and tell me what I did wrong.  It's never easy receiving criticism, but this was about as painless as it comes.  My editor is so wonderful.  She has taken an experience that could potentially be so frightening and made it a breeze.  I cannot say it enough.  If you need editing and/or critique services, check out Taryn Albright .  You won't regret it. This is my second Reader Report from Taryn.  The last report prompted some major changes and a lot of work.  What did she have to say this time?  Well, I'm on the right track.  There are a few things that still need work, but the good news is the major changes I made the last go round worked well.  Basically there are things here and there that need to be improved and I need to work on my use of commas and periods, and dialog tags. (Confession: I suck at grammar.)  So at least one more pass is n...

I did it!  I edited/wrote over 50K words in 30 days.  I am mentally exhausted, but I couldn't be more thrilled.  I have two weeks until this draft is due at the editor, and it's done.  I can honestly say that I am happy with ever change I made. Over the last couple weeks I've been really tempted to make some changes that, in the end didn't make a lot of sense.  Thank goodness for some awesome advice and some support from my friends and family. After sitting on it for a few days I may decide to rework the ending...I am happy with it right now, but someone recently told me that your brain can only make so many good choices in a day, so maybe I won't like it after I sleep on it. Heck...maybe Taryn will be able to take it early and the decision will be out of my hands all totally. So...here it is...25 minutes until midnight on November 30th and this is my final word count. Thank you all for your continued support.  I'll keep you update...

So I've seen a lot of lists like this and most of them are pretty accurate, but there are a few good ones they seem to miss. 1.  You have actually fallen asleep at the keyboard. 2.  You attend tailgate parties long enough to grab food and say hello. 3.  The first question friends and family ask when they see you is "Have you gotten your chapter count for today?" 4.  The family has come to accept the "writing nest" you've set up in that one spot on the sofa. 5.  90% of your social media posts are #NaNoWriMo or asking for plot/name/word advice. All of my friends and family have been extremely supportive over the last 15 days.  As NaNo reached the half way mark my word count passed 30k. Today's word count Tomorrow I'll be writing a brand new chapter 28...including that I've got 5 chapters left to edit and 3 new ones to write.  NaNoWriMo "winning" starts on the 20th.  Think I can write/edit 8 chapters in 5 days and finish ear...

So day one I edited 2 chapters and added about 1800 new words. Day 2 I did 3 chapters and just over 600 new words. At this rate I'll finish before my deadline.  Hopefully I can keep up this pace during the work week. 

Just set up an edit of my second draft with Taryn. It MUST be in her hands December 12th.  So you maybe asking 'how much do you have left?' Well, I have 17 chapters marked and ready for edits, 4 I need to cut and replace, and 3 or 4 new chapters plotted out.  I know it sounds like a lot, but I can usually handle three chapters in an evening.  So from now until Dec 12th, if you see me playing online, ask me what I've edited that day. If the answer is none, you have my permission to yell at me, show me pictures of zombies or read passages from twilight...whatever it takes to get me to sign off. 

So this year, I decided to involve myself in the NaNoWriMo community.  So much is said about the camaraderie in the forums, so I thought I'd give it a try. So far I've gotten amazing complements on my synopsis, my title, and my ideas.  I've been able to help out others with names and critiques and as a happy little surprise one amazing artist drew a character sketch of Rose for me. This sketch was done only from the brief description I gave of her in the first chapter. (Which is posted as an excerpt.)  I was really impressed by how close it was to my imagination of her. I'm also being interviewed for a blog spotlighting NaNoWriMo writers.  I'll post the link to that when it's up. 

Ok, so the cover was bothering me.  It was VERY Twilight.  If you like Twilight, more power to you, but my book is nothing like Twilight, so to have that connection made would be a mistake.  So, I did a little work and came up with this. I really think this conveys Fantasy more than the last one, but still feels very pigeon holed to me.  I'd really love to be able to shoot a cover...and have control of every aspect right from the start.  NaNoWriMo's twitter account challenged everyone to make a post-it note sketch of our covers.  I came up with this.  Warning: I'm a writer, not an artist.  We can't all be Christopher Paolini and do both. :)  Anyway...It's not like the cover matters, because I'm not finished with the second draft yet.  Covers can come later.  First things first, editing. So once again, I find myself a NaNo rebel but I'm finding my form of rebellion is common AND people have figured out a form...