Thursday, September 03, 2009
Slash and Burn, Baby
Yesterday I was so proud of myself for breaking 50K on the Work in Progress (WIP). Woot! That would put me closely on pace to being done end of September with October for revisions.
Today I cut nearly 2,000 words at lunch time.
Sigh.
The words needed to be cut, but still. Rats. However, my motto is cut the crap sooner rather than later. I'm happier because, after a LOT of work, I got my chapters into an order that flows better and puts me in a position to move ahead. But that being hard work, I was brain dead for making up much word count. I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time listening to old recordings of Susan Boyle. She's the real deal. I wish the world had found her sooner.
(Back on topic!)
Which leads me to the title of today's post. I did some slash and burn and it was good. Tough love for the MS.
I wish I had an amusing anecdote, but I don't. I don't even have a good rant. Well, I could think of one, as there is never any shortage of strong opinions here at Chez Jewel and a lamentable abundance of idiots places other than here. But not at your house. Some other house. Anhyhoo, no ranting because then I'd be up all hours ranting and I find that sleep deprivation generally decreases my ability to do quality writing.
As this point amply demonstrates.
Today I cut nearly 2,000 words at lunch time.
Sigh.
The words needed to be cut, but still. Rats. However, my motto is cut the crap sooner rather than later. I'm happier because, after a LOT of work, I got my chapters into an order that flows better and puts me in a position to move ahead. But that being hard work, I was brain dead for making up much word count. I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time listening to old recordings of Susan Boyle. She's the real deal. I wish the world had found her sooner.
(Back on topic!)
Which leads me to the title of today's post. I did some slash and burn and it was good. Tough love for the MS.
I wish I had an amusing anecdote, but I don't. I don't even have a good rant. Well, I could think of one, as there is never any shortage of strong opinions here at Chez Jewel and a lamentable abundance of idiots places other than here. But not at your house. Some other house. Anhyhoo, no ranting because then I'd be up all hours ranting and I find that sleep deprivation generally decreases my ability to do quality writing.
As this point amply demonstrates.
Labels: editing, The Next Paranormal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/03/2009 10:27:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
In which progress is made
By the way, if you haven't voted for My One True Love (see previous post) that's okay, really, but if you feel like showing the love, please vote.
Right. Get your mind off Viking vampires, Carolyn.
I'm transferring paper edits of The Next Paranormal to my document today. And I am, in a sick kind of way, happy to say that I did some massive chapter order re-ordering. The pacing was off. Way off. I've moved some bits from one place to another because I've got split actions and they need to be consolidated. I've also handwritten a big portion of a new chapter -- just enough to set in my mind what I want to happen. I have 49K and really, really want to be at 80K by end of this month. I'm 2K behind target though.
In other news, my agent has sent my historical proposal to my editor and since this is Publishing we're talking about it's time to hurry up and wait. Hopefully they won't want chapters because I'm not sure how I could hit 80K for the WIP and also bang out proposal chapters too.
I suppose it's safe enough to say that I've signed the contract for two more paranormals, but until they sign their end, it's not officially official.
Since I'm up too late, time to go to bed.
Right. Get your mind off Viking vampires, Carolyn.
I'm transferring paper edits of The Next Paranormal to my document today. And I am, in a sick kind of way, happy to say that I did some massive chapter order re-ordering. The pacing was off. Way off. I've moved some bits from one place to another because I've got split actions and they need to be consolidated. I've also handwritten a big portion of a new chapter -- just enough to set in my mind what I want to happen. I have 49K and really, really want to be at 80K by end of this month. I'm 2K behind target though.
In other news, my agent has sent my historical proposal to my editor and since this is Publishing we're talking about it's time to hurry up and wait. Hopefully they won't want chapters because I'm not sure how I could hit 80K for the WIP and also bang out proposal chapters too.
I suppose it's safe enough to say that I've signed the contract for two more paranormals, but until they sign their end, it's not officially official.
Since I'm up too late, time to go to bed.
Labels: editing, proposals, The Next Paranormal
posted by Carolyn @ 9/01/2009 10:47:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Reading Through the Old MS
I recently printed off a copy of The Next Paranormal stuck it in a binder and am hauling it around with me so I can edit at every opportunity. I need to pick up a new binder as my current MS binder is falling apart. It's neon green with one of those clear plastic thingees so you can slip a sheet of paper or what have you on the front and spine and spiffy up your binder. I put some colorful stars on the front of mine. Perhaps I will decorate The Next MS Binder with a picture of My One True Love, Alexander Skarsgard. Right. Focus Carolyn!
A wee story for you: At work, I have this large very large project with an insanely impossible deadline. Now, large projects (not unlike a novel) benefit from some kind of documentation. Luckily, I am not the documenter for this project. But the person who is expressed great surprise at the fact that the document when read on paper looked and was completely different from its state when read on the screen. I, of course, am saying to myself, well, doh! (I did offer a warning about this, by the way, but you know the saying about horses and water.)
Be that as it may, my point is that it behooves a writer who is working digitally to read through a paper version from time to time. You will find errors, places where the prose requires fixing, story problems become apparent, you'll read sentences that are pure nonsense or that do not mean what you thought they meant when you wrote them. You will be bored (fix or delete that right away!) and there will be places where you say, hot damn! This rocks! and Oh. I didn't know that was going on between them!
Sometimes when I do this, I don't get very far before I know I have to redo my opening. And, being the person I am, I am unable to continue reading until that's fixed, reprinted and I can start over. In one case, this meant moving chapter 27 to chapter 1. In other cases it just means really tightening the prose or shifting the focus of the chapter.
I'm happy to say that I haven't had to do that with this project. (yet) I'm not quite halfway done so there's lots of things that can change between now and having 95K words written. And there are many places that rock. Yay!
I'm not typically a writer who does multiple drafts, and this process is why. By the time I hit 95K or so, the book is final form and already edited for story and language problems. Works for me. Might not for others.
A wee story for you: At work, I have this large very large project with an insanely impossible deadline. Now, large projects (not unlike a novel) benefit from some kind of documentation. Luckily, I am not the documenter for this project. But the person who is expressed great surprise at the fact that the document when read on paper looked and was completely different from its state when read on the screen. I, of course, am saying to myself, well, doh! (I did offer a warning about this, by the way, but you know the saying about horses and water.)
Be that as it may, my point is that it behooves a writer who is working digitally to read through a paper version from time to time. You will find errors, places where the prose requires fixing, story problems become apparent, you'll read sentences that are pure nonsense or that do not mean what you thought they meant when you wrote them. You will be bored (fix or delete that right away!) and there will be places where you say, hot damn! This rocks! and Oh. I didn't know that was going on between them!
Sometimes when I do this, I don't get very far before I know I have to redo my opening. And, being the person I am, I am unable to continue reading until that's fixed, reprinted and I can start over. In one case, this meant moving chapter 27 to chapter 1. In other cases it just means really tightening the prose or shifting the focus of the chapter.
I'm happy to say that I haven't had to do that with this project. (yet) I'm not quite halfway done so there's lots of things that can change between now and having 95K words written. And there are many places that rock. Yay!
I'm not typically a writer who does multiple drafts, and this process is why. By the time I hit 95K or so, the book is final form and already edited for story and language problems. Works for me. Might not for others.
Labels: drafts, editing, The Next Paranormal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 8/29/2009 07:25:00 AM Permalink
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Update with Zombies
Just a quick update. The Next Historical is going along. I've reached a part where I need to do some fixes of chronology and/or geography or risk a ripping massive hole in the time-space continuum. I'm not quite sure what to do, but suspect a very simple solution is out there, just out of reach and if I push too hard, it will blow up. But if I don't push hard enough, well, there goes the universe! You see my dilemma.
If you-all were on Twitter you'd already know about the Regency Zombies storming Almack's and having tea.
No. I am NOT procrastinating. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls today. Back to saving the world!
Oh. I think I thought of the solution. And the crowd goes wild!! Yes, it was simple. I'm still going to make cinnamon rolls though.
If you-all were on Twitter you'd already know about the Regency Zombies storming Almack's and having tea.
No. I am NOT procrastinating. I think I need to make cinnamon rolls today. Back to saving the world!
Oh. I think I thought of the solution. And the crowd goes wild!! Yes, it was simple. I'm still going to make cinnamon rolls though.
Labels: editing, The Next Historical, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/23/2008 10:12:00 AM Permalink
Saturday, November 08, 2008
The cookie diet tip, NaNoWriMo, flowers and other stuff about writing
As you may know, I'm doing NaNoWriMo and so far I am -21,000 words or so. Yeah. That's negative words. Cough Cough. That would be for The Next Historical.
The good news is it's never all bad news when you cut crap from your novel. Plus last night I was able to get myself above 60,000 again. I think I need to add one more chapter, but I have to spend some time thinking about exactly what needs to happen in it. In the meantime I'm reading through and editing as I go. I'm feeling a lot better now that I've removed all of the chapters that needed to go stay in the Trash Files, an all expenses paid vacation for Words That Are Not Right. Or maybe it's a Rest Home. Yeah, more like that. Or maybe it's more like an orphanage. Without the big pathetic please take me home with you eyes. They try, sure, the pathetic whiners. But it's important not to listen.
What else? Today was the last league game for the son's soccer season. They won league with a 2-2 tie. I wrote in the car before the game started, which is always good for lack of distraction. It was an awesome game, too. Both teams played good soccer. From now until January they practice for the big state-wide tournament. This means I have my weekends back.
Today I ate mostly cookies. I said I'd bring cookies to the End Of Season soccer party so I made the dough last night and cooked the cookies when we got home from the game. I'm afraid I did too much taste testing, though I can at least report that each and every one of the cookies I ate were excellent. I couldn't eat anything at the party because I was too full from the cookies. Which is a great diet tip only I think you're supposed to fill up on carrots and celery, not cookies. Whatever. It worked, didn't it?
Here's a random picture I took yesterday:
OK, off to write a few more words then I'm going to bed.
The good news is it's never all bad news when you cut crap from your novel. Plus last night I was able to get myself above 60,000 again. I think I need to add one more chapter, but I have to spend some time thinking about exactly what needs to happen in it. In the meantime I'm reading through and editing as I go. I'm feeling a lot better now that I've removed all of the chapters that needed to go stay in the Trash Files, an all expenses paid vacation for Words That Are Not Right. Or maybe it's a Rest Home. Yeah, more like that. Or maybe it's more like an orphanage. Without the big pathetic please take me home with you eyes. They try, sure, the pathetic whiners. But it's important not to listen.
What else? Today was the last league game for the son's soccer season. They won league with a 2-2 tie. I wrote in the car before the game started, which is always good for lack of distraction. It was an awesome game, too. Both teams played good soccer. From now until January they practice for the big state-wide tournament. This means I have my weekends back.
Today I ate mostly cookies. I said I'd bring cookies to the End Of Season soccer party so I made the dough last night and cooked the cookies when we got home from the game. I'm afraid I did too much taste testing, though I can at least report that each and every one of the cookies I ate were excellent. I couldn't eat anything at the party because I was too full from the cookies. Which is a great diet tip only I think you're supposed to fill up on carrots and celery, not cookies. Whatever. It worked, didn't it?
Here's a random picture I took yesterday:
OK, off to write a few more words then I'm going to bed.
Labels: diet tips, editing, flowers, NaNoWriMo, Revising, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/08/2008 07:05:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Happy Halloween!
Halloween is my favorite holiday. Not because of the candy, which I shamelessly steal from my son, but because the kids have such a blast dressing up! Since we don't get any trick or treaters where we live, we go to my brother's where I adore adore adore!! giving out candy to the tykes.
My son and I finalized his ghost costume tonight. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. And the pumpkins were carved and arranged in the vignette you see below.
Blogger is smooshing the original some so all I can say is the original is clearer that this. But at least you can see the handiwork of my son -- It was his idea to add the little dead pumpkin in the bowl. He and I agreed the big one looked nauseous and so needed the barf.
Have a safe and happy halloween!
P.S. The Next Historical is being knifed and shredded and the various bits reassembled, rejiggered and re-engineered to make a creature that is new and awesome to behold. I hope to soon be shouting to the belfry "it's alive!!" But right now, not so much. Right now, it's Frankenbook, frightening those who dare to look and sending the good Dr. Carolyn von FrankenNeuroticWriter into fits of chocolate overindulgence.
My son and I finalized his ghost costume tonight. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. And the pumpkins were carved and arranged in the vignette you see below.
Blogger is smooshing the original some so all I can say is the original is clearer that this. But at least you can see the handiwork of my son -- It was his idea to add the little dead pumpkin in the bowl. He and I agreed the big one looked nauseous and so needed the barf.Have a safe and happy halloween!
P.S. The Next Historical is being knifed and shredded and the various bits reassembled, rejiggered and re-engineered to make a creature that is new and awesome to behold. I hope to soon be shouting to the belfry "it's alive!!" But right now, not so much. Right now, it's Frankenbook, frightening those who dare to look and sending the good Dr. Carolyn von FrankenNeuroticWriter into fits of chocolate overindulgence.
Labels: editing, Frankenbook, halloween, Revising, The Next Historical
posted by Carolyn @ 10/30/2008 09:58:00 PM Permalink
Monday, October 27, 2008
Ow! And Yet Strangely Refreshing
Today I cut 15,524 words from The Next Historical which entailed deleting 5 chapters and moving 4 others. I actually thought I'd have to cut even more, but as I looked at the deadwood, I figured out where some would go instead of to the Valley of the Lost Chapters, which helped solidify the beginning a lot. I think. Hope.
Also, tomorrow I will have a guest blogger, fellow Grand Central Publishing author Jeff Rivera Be on the look out for that!
Also, tomorrow I will have a guest blogger, fellow Grand Central Publishing author Jeff Rivera Be on the look out for that!
Labels: cutting room floor, editing, Revisions, The Next Historical
posted by Carolyn @ 10/27/2008 09:17:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Sometimes Paranoia is Justified
The Next Historical is at a tad over 80,000 words. Normally, I'd say that's more or less done, just polishing left. But as I work my way through the chapters, writing new ones, deleting old ones, fixing the survivors, I feel like I am heading into a dark and very scary place.
There be monsters there.
Monsters in the form of really old chapters that don't reflect the current story. Which makes me feel like my actual word count is something more like 50,000 which is a panic number. Ack! Ack! Carolyn running around panicking
I continue forward into this unknown country from which this writer may never return, ready to fight monsters with my trusty... er... keyboard, delete, backspace, select-all delete, undo, redo, and
K. That's how I'm feeling. And now, for a quickie post of good news. In the next post. Not this one!
There be monsters there.
Monsters in the form of really old chapters that don't reflect the current story. Which makes me feel like my actual word count is something more like 50,000 which is a panic number. Ack! Ack! Carolyn running around panicking
I continue forward into this unknown country from which this writer may never return, ready to fight monsters with my trusty... er... keyboard, delete, backspace, select-all delete, undo, redo, and
q w e r t y u i o p a s d f g h j k l z x c v b n m(but not necessarily in that order, plus there will be lots of repetition of the little buggers, hopefully in new and sparkly combinations)
K. That's how I'm feeling. And now, for a quickie post of good news. In the next post. Not this one!
Labels: editing, Revisions, Word count, word whacking, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 10/23/2008 09:58:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Catching up is hard to do
Good news! We got our Internet back Saturday night. Major kudos to Wildblue Satellite engineer Peter Pigeon, who arrived at 7:00pm and stayed until everything wrong was fixed. He said he'd come and he did. And he came with everything he needed to make things right. It's just too bad that the companies they outsource to were liars and incompetents and basically didn't care at all about Wildblue's actual customers.
Ah. You Tube, how I missed you. No new AuthorTalk vids but I watched the man-slave episode a few times, and then some others because I way needed the laughs. And then Jill Monroe actually friended me on Facebook. Squeeee!! And then she even messaged me! We are now BFF forever, I can feel it.
Anyway, yesterday, the page proofs for Scandal arrived and since there was no soccer, I was able to get through the entire book in a day and return the fixes.
Of course that meant I wasn't working on The Next Historical but I did get some stuff done last night. Today there was soccer so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. And, as it happens, I ended up cutting more than I wrote. But the dreck needs to go and that's what happened. Tomorrow, I think I need to whack a whole chapter or else figure out where it needs to go. Right now it's totally in the wrong place. But I'm up to chapter 16 in this unbelievably slow process of fixing stuff. Painfully, painfully slow.
I'm anxious to get to the back half of the book which is good because I'm finally feeling my hero and heroine the way I need to. The emotional points are starting to pull together. And I know what I need to do. What I don't know is how many existing chapters need to bite the dust. I suspect a lot of them. Way a lot.
Anyhow, tomorrow I am doing the day job from home because they sprang for a wireless card with decent enough speed to actually work from home. Satellite is way not fast enough. So, we'll see. My son doesn't have school tomorrow, but he's catching up on 10 days of no World of Warcraft, so I don't expect he'll be out of bed much before noon. I will be getting up at the usual time but without the driving to work bit, I should be done with the EDJ by 2:00 or so.
We shall see. Wish me luck.
Ah. You Tube, how I missed you. No new AuthorTalk vids but I watched the man-slave episode a few times, and then some others because I way needed the laughs. And then Jill Monroe actually friended me on Facebook. Squeeee!! And then she even messaged me! We are now BFF forever, I can feel it.
Anyway, yesterday, the page proofs for Scandal arrived and since there was no soccer, I was able to get through the entire book in a day and return the fixes.
Of course that meant I wasn't working on The Next Historical but I did get some stuff done last night. Today there was soccer so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. And, as it happens, I ended up cutting more than I wrote. But the dreck needs to go and that's what happened. Tomorrow, I think I need to whack a whole chapter or else figure out where it needs to go. Right now it's totally in the wrong place. But I'm up to chapter 16 in this unbelievably slow process of fixing stuff. Painfully, painfully slow.
I'm anxious to get to the back half of the book which is good because I'm finally feeling my hero and heroine the way I need to. The emotional points are starting to pull together. And I know what I need to do. What I don't know is how many existing chapters need to bite the dust. I suspect a lot of them. Way a lot.
Anyhow, tomorrow I am doing the day job from home because they sprang for a wireless card with decent enough speed to actually work from home. Satellite is way not fast enough. So, we'll see. My son doesn't have school tomorrow, but he's catching up on 10 days of no World of Warcraft, so I don't expect he'll be out of bed much before noon. I will be getting up at the usual time but without the driving to work bit, I should be done with the EDJ by 2:00 or so.
We shall see. Wish me luck.
Labels: editing, Scandal, The Next Historical
posted by Carolyn @ 10/19/2008 08:24:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Fun with numbers!
Today when I finished working on The Next Historical my total word count for the MS was 55,552. So I actually spent 10 minutes finding the right 3 words to add to bring the total MS word count to 55,555.
It was fun. And now I'm feeling unaccountably happy even though I'm still 1000+ words away from recovering the 3000 and some words I deleted over the weekend.
In other number news, yesterday I rewrote the opening of Chapter 1 12 times before it was right and ended with a net increase of about 234 words. Ouch. Today when I was driving home, all of a sudden I knew I needed a different chapter 1. So today I renumbered all the files and Chapter 1 became Chapter 2 and then I wrote the new Chapter 1.
I think it works.
I'm going through start to finish on a mission to clean up my little messes. Fast. I'm freaking a bit about my deadline. I wish panic wasn't such a motivator.
It was fun. And now I'm feeling unaccountably happy even though I'm still 1000+ words away from recovering the 3000 and some words I deleted over the weekend.
In other number news, yesterday I rewrote the opening of Chapter 1 12 times before it was right and ended with a net increase of about 234 words. Ouch. Today when I was driving home, all of a sudden I knew I needed a different chapter 1. So today I renumbered all the files and Chapter 1 became Chapter 2 and then I wrote the new Chapter 1.
I think it works.
I'm going through start to finish on a mission to clean up my little messes. Fast. I'm freaking a bit about my deadline. I wish panic wasn't such a motivator.
Labels: editing, numbers, writing, writing fast
posted by Carolyn @ 9/09/2008 09:52:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Ooohh, Shiny New!
So I'm writing along tonight after moving a chapter to a new place and thinking it's boring, but then it wasn't after I fixed some stuff and took one conversation and gave all of Crosshaven's lines to Foye, and all of Foye's to Crosshaven. Me happy. I have nearly 30K words now. Which is not where I hoped to be by this time but reasonably OK.
In shiny new news, my author's copies came for My Wicked Enemy! There are indeed some special effects on the cover. The cover is matte which was a surprise because the ARC was glossy. But the matte finish looks totally awesome and serves as a good device to highlight the shiny bits. Oooh. And, the blub is there! I was afraid to post it before because, like what if she took it back or something? Here is is:
Pretty awesome, huh?
OK, off to bed for me.
In shiny new news, my author's copies came for My Wicked Enemy! There are indeed some special effects on the cover. The cover is matte which was a surprise because the ARC was glossy. But the matte finish looks totally awesome and serves as a good device to highlight the shiny bits. Oooh. And, the blub is there! I was afraid to post it before because, like what if she took it back or something? Here is is:
Jewel casts a wicked spell! Escape into a world of dark enchantments and fiendishly sexy immortals.
Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author
Pretty awesome, huh?
OK, off to bed for me.
Labels: blurbs, editing, My Wicked Enemy, writing scenes
posted by Carolyn @ 7/08/2008 10:10:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Meet my friend Mr. Delete Key
Xia is just over 93K, but I'm not getting out the fork yet. I've finished my read back and fixed a lot of typos and other general clunkiness. I've started searching through the MS for words ending in LY. Most of them meet my good friend Mr. Delete Key.
Since I wanted to blog tonight I ended that at Chapter 17. Will finish that tomorrow, I hope. Then I have at least one chapter that needs some work. Then I guess a read through on paper and then I'll be pretty much out of time.
Sigh
Today I got my State tax refund and a royalty statement for A Darker Crimson which had an unexpectedly large check in it. Nowhere near enough to buy a MacBook Air, but it will finish paying for my son's braces.
DELETE
Since I wanted to blog tonight I ended that at Chapter 17. Will finish that tomorrow, I hope. Then I have at least one chapter that needs some work. Then I guess a read through on paper and then I'll be pretty much out of time.
Sigh
Today I got my State tax refund and a royalty statement for A Darker Crimson which had an unexpectedly large check in it. Nowhere near enough to buy a MacBook Air, but it will finish paying for my son's braces.
Labels: editing, word whacking, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 4/17/2008 09:57:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, March 23, 2008
I'm baaack!
Back from visiting my brother and his wife in Santa Barbara. We had a great time, even though I did, sadly, lose my camera somewhere in the SB mountains. Rats. So I do not have any great photos of breathtaking views, although we saw many such views and I'm sure at least some of my pictures were great.
Other than that, I cut a chapter of Xia. Sigh And got up to about chapter 8 or 9 I think on a read through. Which considering that I was doing family visiting stuff, isn't too bad. Most of that got done in the car on the way there or the way back.
Had to give the Fudgester a bath when I got home. He'd rolled in something v. smelly. Of the not so recently dead variety. He has forgiven me, I think.
I'm in full freak out mode and tired. Back to work.
Other than that, I cut a chapter of Xia. Sigh And got up to about chapter 8 or 9 I think on a read through. Which considering that I was doing family visiting stuff, isn't too bad. Most of that got done in the car on the way there or the way back.
Had to give the Fudgester a bath when I got home. He'd rolled in something v. smelly. Of the not so recently dead variety. He has forgiven me, I think.
I'm in full freak out mode and tired. Back to work.
Labels: cutting room floor, editing, writing freaking writing, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/23/2008 06:57:00 PM Permalink
Monday, March 10, 2008
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
That was me today. Rowr! Chapters 12 and 13 completely turned upside down and backwards. I made a trash file for the first time with this puppy. As Xia would say, Boo hoo, you effing witch. You did what had to be done. So f*ck that. or something a lot like that anyway. He's out somewhere up to no good, or I'd ask him.
Still, I'm only in the hole a thousand words. More R&S tomorrow though.
To bed for me.
Still, I'm only in the hole a thousand words. More R&S tomorrow though.
To bed for me.
Labels: editing, ripping to shreds, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/10/2008 10:00:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Literary Twister
Last night, this morning at the gym and during various downtimes of the day, I've been mulling over this particular scene that Just Wasn't Working the way it needed to. It involves Xia giving Alexandrine a substance that affects people with magic. Originally, he did it to prove to her she has magic. But the new! Alexandrine already knows that. Obviously, that original scene needed a re-write. While notebooking at the gym, I settled on her taking the pill by accident. I recognized the idea was a wee bit lame, but I thought if I meditated on it some more, I'd see my way to the solution. I am not at my best at 5:00 a.m.
So I sat down to do the work this evening and I was in there with the machete getting things conformed etc and at last I get to the substance scene at the end of chapter 6. How is she going to take this pill?
She's not. It turns out, as I was writing, that, as a former teen runaway (which was previously established) she had issues with drugs and does not take any drugs ever anymore. Color me surprised! But this revelation ended up being a major development in their relationship. Oh! Oh! I get it! Neat-o.
But now I had a chapter 7 of substance-induced events that needed a new home. And I knew the perfect place for it. Between chapters 13 and 14. The beginning of 14 got spliced onto the top of chapter 7 which was renumbered as Chapter 13 (with 8-13 becoming 7-12) Are you following me here? and then about-to-be 13 and 14 were temporarily combined so I could look for the best chapter ending. Found it. Chopped it. And Voila as they say in France. Chapters 7 and 14 were spliced and split and became 13 and 14. It's a bit messy yet but tomorrow I will smooth that out into a scene that has my heroine who is afraid of backsliding on drugs facing the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of taking a drug that humans with magic routinely abuse... See? Much more at stake.
It's like that game Twister. Only with words and paragraphs and my characters and story instead of people.
This sounds like a horror show, I know. I suspect it is, but that's how it's been for all my books so far. I have an advanced case of esprit d'escalier only since these great ideas have to do with a novel which takes a while to put together, I can actually go back with the perfect bon mot and nobody will ever know I didn't think of it until way late.
I have to do this kind of slice and dice very quickly because I often need to have 3 or 4 chapters all in my head as I reassemble and sort out the bits and put the left overs in the right places, and I don't want to forget who's going where. If I go too slow or think too much every thing just goes to heck. It's scary because in the middle every thing's a bit fat mess, and I get in there and muck about and then it's all better. Usually. To be honest, sometimes it's not and I have to start over. But this one feels good.
So I sat down to do the work this evening and I was in there with the machete getting things conformed etc and at last I get to the substance scene at the end of chapter 6. How is she going to take this pill?
She's not. It turns out, as I was writing, that, as a former teen runaway (which was previously established) she had issues with drugs and does not take any drugs ever anymore. Color me surprised! But this revelation ended up being a major development in their relationship. Oh! Oh! I get it! Neat-o.
But now I had a chapter 7 of substance-induced events that needed a new home. And I knew the perfect place for it. Between chapters 13 and 14. The beginning of 14 got spliced onto the top of chapter 7 which was renumbered as Chapter 13 (with 8-13 becoming 7-12) Are you following me here? and then about-to-be 13 and 14 were temporarily combined so I could look for the best chapter ending. Found it. Chopped it. And Voila as they say in France. Chapters 7 and 14 were spliced and split and became 13 and 14. It's a bit messy yet but tomorrow I will smooth that out into a scene that has my heroine who is afraid of backsliding on drugs facing the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of taking a drug that humans with magic routinely abuse... See? Much more at stake.
It's like that game Twister. Only with words and paragraphs and my characters and story instead of people.
This sounds like a horror show, I know. I suspect it is, but that's how it's been for all my books so far. I have an advanced case of esprit d'escalier only since these great ideas have to do with a novel which takes a while to put together, I can actually go back with the perfect bon mot and nobody will ever know I didn't think of it until way late.
I have to do this kind of slice and dice very quickly because I often need to have 3 or 4 chapters all in my head as I reassemble and sort out the bits and put the left overs in the right places, and I don't want to forget who's going where. If I go too slow or think too much every thing just goes to heck. It's scary because in the middle every thing's a bit fat mess, and I get in there and muck about and then it's all better. Usually. To be honest, sometimes it's not and I have to start over. But this one feels good.
Labels: editing, Pantsing, writing freaking writing, writing process, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 3/04/2008 10:07:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sigh
Didn't get much done today. At least not yet. Stuff going on etc that's distracting me a bit. I struggled with Xia today so I decided to start reading from the beginning in order to get a check on where I am with this. Are things hanging together? Are there small tweaks doing big things? Stuff like that. The answer seems to be yes, more or less. So, back to it. Sigh
But Xia ia gratifyingly bad in the opening chapter, and I fixed it starting out more boring than it should have. Hopefully I fixed it enough. I have 15 chapters so far. I hope to exceed 30K today. That would be good.
But Xia ia gratifyingly bad in the opening chapter, and I fixed it starting out more boring than it should have. Hopefully I fixed it enough. I have 15 chapters so far. I hope to exceed 30K today. That would be good.
Labels: editing, plotting or the lack thereof, Xia
posted by Carolyn @ 1/27/2008 08:17:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
YesSSSSS!!
posted by Carolyn @ 12/11/2007 09:59:00 PM Permalink
Monday, December 10, 2007
Down to the Wire
Today I hit 95,066 words so I'm golden tonight. I'm up to chapter 23 in the final read through. I fixed my two trouble spots and it rocks completely. Put a bit more on the line in a couple chapters tonight. Tomorrow, I'm pushing on.
Tonight, I'm going to bed.
I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?
What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.
OK, off to bed.
Tonight, I'm going to bed.
I've been listening to a lot of James Blunt as I finish up. I really love the emotion of his music. Plus sometimes he uses a bad word or two and it's really kind of nice knowing the work wasn't sanitized for consumption. I have three of his CD's now and when I have the money I'll be on a quest for everything else he's done. I can sing along to the music and get myself in a good mood for writing. Which is pretty much the whole point. Yet another artist discovered from MySpace. But not from his profile. From someone else's profile music. So, let's see. Someone has a song of his playing on their profile. Carolyn hears it, and now owns three of his CD's plus an Amazon download of a single he did on some other album. So, why do artists delete their songs from MySpace profiles?
What else? Killer headache. But I can't get sick so I won't. That's it. At my son's soccer practice the temp was 53 with about an hour to go and by the end it was 44. Yeah, people who live with real weather are wondering why I'm complaining about a heat wave but for here, that's just darned cold. I was thinking about putting on my socks.
OK, off to bed.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/10/2007 10:07:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Still working...
I fell asleep this afternoon. I feel a lot better for the nap, but it kinda put a crimp in the reading. I went grocery shopping early today so as to get it out of the way and have my afternoon clear, but a bunch of stuff kept coming up. I washed hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of box elder beetles off the outside of the sliding glass door in my room. After that murderous spree, I admitted I had a couple of rough patches to fix in Scandal and then went and fixed them. I hope. And no I was NOT procrastinating or anything like that. Sheesh! Like I'd ever do that. I just didn't want to stare at all those bugs any more. I didn't. Would you? I wish the peacocks were still here. They ate a lot of box elder beetles.
I had to make two batches of cookies tonight, one for the Darling Child and his lunches for the week, the other for the Cookie Parade at work. Not, as I was hoping, an event where you dress up as your favorite cookie, but one where you bring them to work for every one to enjoy. Can you say good bye diet? I can. Rats.
Anyway, I'm going to read more and hope I find out that I've fixed the problem chapters.
I had to make two batches of cookies tonight, one for the Darling Child and his lunches for the week, the other for the Cookie Parade at work. Not, as I was hoping, an event where you dress up as your favorite cookie, but one where you bring them to work for every one to enjoy. Can you say good bye diet? I can. Rats.
Anyway, I'm going to read more and hope I find out that I've fixed the problem chapters.
Labels: Ack, editing, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/09/2007 08:51:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Making Progress!
Today I got through all my action items for Scandal. Yay! By the time I was ready to print out the MS for a final read through I was up to 94K. I'm doing the read through now, and it's going pretty well so far. Nothing major. So far.
I'm posting early because I promised my son months ago that we'd see the Golden Compass when it came out. The movie's out now. We're just waiting for my sister to get here, since she gets off early enough on Saturdays that she can come with us. Then we're off to the movie.
At the moment, I'm really tired. Don't know why but I am.
I'm posting early because I promised my son months ago that we'd see the Golden Compass when it came out. The movie's out now. We're just waiting for my sister to get here, since she gets off early enough on Saturdays that she can come with us. Then we're off to the movie.
At the moment, I'm really tired. Don't know why but I am.
Labels: editing, polishing, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 12/08/2007 06:06:00 PM Permalink
Friday, December 07, 2007
Closing in
I think I'm just about done with Scandal. No fork quite yet, but I finished having it read to me. I have a list of action items, going through the MS for phrases I think I've repeated or overused, some continuity etc. There's only 8 things on the list. I'll get through that in the mornning, then print it off and start reading.
At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.
OK, off to sleep.
At the gym in the AM, I've started blocking out the next paranormal. That's been fun. Sort of.
OK, off to sleep.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/07/2007 11:14:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Catching up
Looks like my (very) brief post from yesterday got munched. Oh. Well. It went like this: Working on Scandal. Back to it.
That is still a true statement. I'm having it read back to me. Catching a lot of pesky typos and fixing a lot of continuity stuff. I have this habit of (need to?) moving stuff around, and then I forget where things are and either don't delete or don't conform enough to the new (for now) home. There's a lot of that in this one. To quote my favorite TV show ever (::Adrian Paul::) Highlander: There can be only one. Meaning, typically, your characters can only meet for the first time once, not once in each of 5 to 6 chapters. Sheesh. Looks bad, you know? So I'm fixing that.
The best part is that little things are getting settled and elicited. Things that make a story resonate. Which is better than if it sucks. Back to work.
That is still a true statement. I'm having it read back to me. Catching a lot of pesky typos and fixing a lot of continuity stuff. I have this habit of (need to?) moving stuff around, and then I forget where things are and either don't delete or don't conform enough to the new (for now) home. There's a lot of that in this one. To quote my favorite TV show ever (::Adrian Paul::) Highlander: There can be only one. Meaning, typically, your characters can only meet for the first time once, not once in each of 5 to 6 chapters. Sheesh. Looks bad, you know? So I'm fixing that.
The best part is that little things are getting settled and elicited. Things that make a story resonate. Which is better than if it sucks. Back to work.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/05/2007 04:44:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Typing Typing Typing
Keep those doggies typing
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!
That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.
What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.
Random Pics from this morning:
Raw Nerves!
Fix it up
Cut the crap
Add some in
Edit more!
Raw Nerves!
That's me. Working on Scandal. I'm writing a new chapter right now. But I finally got to a spot where I wasn't fixing the crap out of, er, crap and was just fixing typos and polishing, which was SUCH a relief. Then I got to a spot where I realized I needed a new chapter, just to add a certain element of suspense that was missing. But I thought of a good one and after this post I'll be back to it.
What else? In all of November, I think we had exactly 1 day of rain. It's cold (for here) and when I went out this morning to snap some pics, I had to wear shoes instead of my sandals. Geez! My cat Jake finally got tired of trying to push me off my chair and is now back to sleeping on the printer.
Random Pics from this morning:
The first Snowbells of the Winter
Leaves Frozen In the Birdbath
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing freaking writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/01/2007 08:39:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, November 25, 2007
where does the time go?
I actually have the answer. Time flies because it's a hurry to join all your lost socks. They put on a great party, you see. And whenever time seems like it's slowing down? That's what happens when someone discards all their onesie-socks. The time-space continuum flexes when the missing socks are returned to the poor fool. Inevitably some other schmuck gets stuck in one of the creases. For him, or her, time inexplicably slows. This is most noticeable at the dentist's office or fifteen minutes before it's time to go home from someplace boring. Mostly we don't notice. But it happens, I assure you.
What, you never read A Wrinkle in Time? I'm sure that was in there.
Working on Scandal. Not looking forward to going back to the day job.
And sorry, despite the tag, this post has nothing to do with Navy SEALs. I just wish it did because that would be better than just about anything, including fixing that wretched chapter 8. Plus, you know, why not think about Navy SEALs now and again? I'm sure it's good for me.
What, you never read A Wrinkle in Time? I'm sure that was in there.
Working on Scandal. Not looking forward to going back to the day job.
And sorry, despite the tag, this post has nothing to do with Navy SEALs. I just wish it did because that would be better than just about anything, including fixing that wretched chapter 8. Plus, you know, why not think about Navy SEALs now and again? I'm sure it's good for me.
Labels: editing, Navy SEALs, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/25/2007 07:01:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The weekend's ended. Rats.
Today was a very busy day. I slept later than I wanted to but given my typical sleep deficit, it's probably a good thing. The Darling Child spent the night at his uncle's house (that would be Uncle Geography for readers of this blog) so I worked all morning but wasn't as productive as I hoped. Then I had to go shopping and then make cookies because today was the DC's end of League Play party, and I said I'd make cookies. Then I had to call the uncle to bring the DC home, and off to the party. And, the party was pretty fun, there were parents this year who like to talk about literature! One of the parents had met Michael Chabon. Whoa. Golly, I love talking about books so for once I wasn't standing around feeling like a dork. The kids had a good time, they ran around outside and when it was too dark to see they came in all sweaty and hot and ready for cake.
When we came home I got some good work done, though.
Now I just get to buckle down and polish and hopefully have time to send it out for outside reading.
What else? Nothing. I have to go to work tomorrow and that's always kind of depressing, especially when I wish I had 10K more words than I do. Although, come to think of it, I always wish that. And the words I have I've beginning to suspect are quality. Let's hope.
When we came home I got some good work done, though.
Now I just get to buckle down and polish and hopefully have time to send it out for outside reading.
What else? Nothing. I have to go to work tomorrow and that's always kind of depressing, especially when I wish I had 10K more words than I do. Although, come to think of it, I always wish that. And the words I have I've beginning to suspect are quality. Let's hope.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/18/2007 09:10:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, November 17, 2007
In Which Things Get a Little Better
Tonight, I wrote my ending chapter. It needs a little work, but it's there where yesterday there was nothing. I also made back the word count I lost from cutting the two sucky chapters yesterday. Yay for me. I have one or two more chapters that I know need some work. I hope to get that done tomorrow. And then I'll have a crappy draft. But, as every writer knows, crap can be fixed.
In other news, my brother was supposed to come over to give my son a man-to-man talk that would reinforce The Talk that I've had with him about S. E. X. I consider this especially important now that girls have discovered him. So, pretend for a minute, that this girl who is interested in my son and who my son is (supposedly) just friends with has a name that sounds like the capital of a country. This is true. Pretend that it's Paris. Her name isn't Paris, but pretend. My brother's conversation with my son went like this:
I am not kidding. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I overhead it and while I may not have the exact words, this is pretty darn close. I did not ask my brother to talk to my son about geography. We have an enormous map of the world on the wall in the hallway. My son and I often stand in front of that map and talk about geography. He's actually very good at geography.
The conversation should have gone like this:
Geography. Oh, for crying out loud.
In other news, my brother was supposed to come over to give my son a man-to-man talk that would reinforce The Talk that I've had with him about S. E. X. I consider this especially important now that girls have discovered him. So, pretend for a minute, that this girl who is interested in my son and who my son is (supposedly) just friends with has a name that sounds like the capital of a country. This is true. Pretend that it's Paris. Her name isn't Paris, but pretend. My brother's conversation with my son went like this:
Uncle: Hey, I hear you really like France.
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: I hear one city in particular is your favorite.
Son: What?
Uncle: Yeah, it's the capital of France. Paris.
Son: (whispering to self) I gotta talk to my mom.
I am not kidding. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I overhead it and while I may not have the exact words, this is pretty darn close. I did not ask my brother to talk to my son about geography. We have an enormous map of the world on the wall in the hallway. My son and I often stand in front of that map and talk about geography. He's actually very good at geography.
The conversation should have gone like this:
Uncle: Never have sex. But if you do, use a condom. You know what a condom is, right?
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: Do you know how to use one?
Son: Umm.
Uncle: [Manly talk that women never hear, but that conveys respect for women and mastery over the use of birth control.]
Son: Thank you. But I'm going to listen to my mom and never have sex.
Geography. Oh, for crying out loud.
Labels: editing, Geography, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/17/2007 10:26:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Progress Report -- Panic with a Chance of Hysteria
Things are developing as I edit like crazy. Trying to combine a read-through with regular editing. At least I get a lot done during soccer practice. It's not been cold at all lately, so I'm OK sitting in the back seat with the laptop. Very few distractions.
Any hoo - I need titles for the novel formerly known as Magellan's Witch. Fiends. Mages. Witches. They all hate each other. People fall in love anyway. Warlord Fiend. Witch who can't use her magic. They shouldn't get together but they do. Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Any hoo - I need titles for the novel formerly known as Magellan's Witch. Fiends. Mages. Witches. They all hate each other. People fall in love anyway. Warlord Fiend. Witch who can't use her magic. They shouldn't get together but they do. Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Labels: Book Titles, editing, Magellan's Witch, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 11/14/2007 10:17:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Eve of All Hallow's Eve...
I've always wanted to write that. And today is my big chance!
All righty. Got that out of my system. I'm exhausted. It's been a long day and for some reason I didn't sleep all that well last night. Sigh.. I worked on Scandal at the gym and right as I was in the midst of a huge reorg of material involving musical chapters and parts flying all over, my 45 minutes was up. I actually sat on the bike a few more minutes, dripping sweat all over the pages as I worked, but then realized I'd need twenty more at least to get through that so hosed down the bike and went to stretch out and do push ups and sits up before I showered. Sigh. Hopefully I can make some sense of it tonight.
I got a delightful email today from someone who read The Spare in Dutch! That was exciting. I'm so glad she emailed to let me know. Wish I knew what the cover looked like...
OK, off to work on Scandal and go to bed early I think, on this, the Eve of All Hallow's Eve.
Boo.
All righty. Got that out of my system. I'm exhausted. It's been a long day and for some reason I didn't sleep all that well last night. Sigh.. I worked on Scandal at the gym and right as I was in the midst of a huge reorg of material involving musical chapters and parts flying all over, my 45 minutes was up. I actually sat on the bike a few more minutes, dripping sweat all over the pages as I worked, but then realized I'd need twenty more at least to get through that so hosed down the bike and went to stretch out and do push ups and sits up before I showered. Sigh. Hopefully I can make some sense of it tonight.
I got a delightful email today from someone who read The Spare in Dutch! That was exciting. I'm so glad she emailed to let me know. Wish I knew what the cover looked like...
OK, off to work on Scandal and go to bed early I think, on this, the Eve of All Hallow's Eve.
Boo.
Labels: editing, flying chapters, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/30/2007 06:34:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
World's most boring post title removed from this space
Moving right along. I went to the gym while my son was at soccer practice, then home etc. I exceeded my minimum tonight because last night I kept waking up to find myself dreaming about Scandal and that resulted in a proper ending for last night's chapter and a new chapter today. Mulled it over during the mental downtime of the day and then while I was waiting for practice to be over notebooked it a bit which meant I was prepared to write tonight.
I'm still kind of freaked that Scandal seems to be going well at the moment. I have to decide now if I go over earlier chapters and get them conformed to its new emotional tenor. I'm trying to avoid saying gravitas again, but I think that's the right word. I think that's the right thing to do because that way when I get to the back chapters I'll know exactly where they're headed and will have undoubtedly (Patti O'Shea, close your eyes now!!) ripped out, reordered and rewritten a good deal of the front two thirds.
Oh, boy. Ripping to shreds. I can hardly wait.
I'm still kind of freaked that Scandal seems to be going well at the moment. I have to decide now if I go over earlier chapters and get them conformed to its new emotional tenor. I'm trying to avoid saying gravitas again, but I think that's the right word. I think that's the right thing to do because that way when I get to the back chapters I'll know exactly where they're headed and will have undoubtedly (Patti O'Shea, close your eyes now!!) ripped out, reordered and rewritten a good deal of the front two thirds.
Oh, boy. Ripping to shreds. I can hardly wait.
Labels: editing, ripping to shreds, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/03/2007 09:57:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
I'm getting nervous
Scandal is going well and that's making me nervous. I wrote more than my minimum tonight but had to delete half an older chapter, so I'm only ahead a couple hundred words tonight. I have a bit over 60,000 words and that's typically critical mass. Now there's much more editing and a lot less first draft writing.
I've nailed down the gravitas of the book which is good. It means I can start editing with that in mind. I imagine over the next month, I'll be moaning and groaning about the pain of it all, but right now, I'm feeling OK about things and that makes me nervous. Tonight's chapter went especially well.
In cooking news, my son is going to be making chocolate mousse for family and his French class. And then crepes and ratatouille for us. My brother who has been a pastry chef for a fancy restaurant sent us instructions and gotchas that included warnings like if the chocolate isn't cool enough, it will seize up... I have no idea what that means. Turn into a lump in the pan? He advised us to practice, so tonight I helped the DC make chocolate mousse using cheap chocolate. We'll use the good stuff for when he's practiced enough. I don't think the chocolate seized up. We'll know tomorrow. I'm up first, so we agreed I get the first taste.
I've nailed down the gravitas of the book which is good. It means I can start editing with that in mind. I imagine over the next month, I'll be moaning and groaning about the pain of it all, but right now, I'm feeling OK about things and that makes me nervous. Tonight's chapter went especially well.
In cooking news, my son is going to be making chocolate mousse for family and his French class. And then crepes and ratatouille for us. My brother who has been a pastry chef for a fancy restaurant sent us instructions and gotchas that included warnings like if the chocolate isn't cool enough, it will seize up... I have no idea what that means. Turn into a lump in the pan? He advised us to practice, so tonight I helped the DC make chocolate mousse using cheap chocolate. We'll use the good stuff for when he's practiced enough. I don't think the chocolate seized up. We'll know tomorrow. I'm up first, so we agreed I get the first taste.
Labels: chocolate mousse, editing, Scandal
posted by Carolyn @ 10/02/2007 09:38:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, September 20, 2007
That Old Panicky Feeling
Yesterday was my son's Jr. High Open House so that's what I was doing last night. I didn't get much writing done. Maybe three hundred words, and then it was really just too late. I don't want to get behind on my sleep. With soccer season on, I don't think I have any weekends for quite some time during which I can sleep in.
This morning I went to the gym and while I biked I notebooked and mapped out the ending for Scandal. I have that blocked out in my chapter outline and now I'm working my way there. I want to be done by Nov. 15 so I have a month to edit and polish. Meanwhile I have some chapters to fix, and one that is currently homeless, but soon won't be.
Back to work.
Oh, and I guess one last thing. People want to live their lives and be happy and avoid conflict and unpleasantness. But there are events that must not be left unremarked and wrongs that cannot be met with silence or inaction. It's not enough to think someone else will surely be more eloquent or is better placed to act. Quite probably that's true. But the point isn't to wait for someone else's eloquence or the action. The point is to add your voice somehow so that your silence doesn't add itself to evil. Forget eloquence. Act if you can, but speak out. So I'm speaking out.
It really makes me just spitting mad when people say or do things that insult, demean or denigrate another race or gender and then remark, with all seriousness, that gee, they didn't mean it that way. Don't you get that it was a joke? You know, like those white kids in Jenna, Louisiana thought those nooses were a joke. Or the adults who actually said people are overreacting to a prank. Well, it wasn't a joke to the black kids. Right now the legal system in LA is failing all of us. A felony charge? Those nooses were powerful symbols of hate. And quite frankly, if the people of Jenna are really the non-rascists they claim to be, why the hell were they glaring from their porches (as was reported) instead of marching? That's another symbol and I understand it loud and clear. And that's just something I can't let go unremarked.
This morning I went to the gym and while I biked I notebooked and mapped out the ending for Scandal. I have that blocked out in my chapter outline and now I'm working my way there. I want to be done by Nov. 15 so I have a month to edit and polish. Meanwhile I have some chapters to fix, and one that is currently homeless, but soon won't be.
Back to work.
Oh, and I guess one last thing. People want to live their lives and be happy and avoid conflict and unpleasantness. But there are events that must not be left unremarked and wrongs that cannot be met with silence or inaction. It's not enough to think someone else will surely be more eloquent or is better placed to act. Quite probably that's true. But the point isn't to wait for someone else's eloquence or the action. The point is to add your voice somehow so that your silence doesn't add itself to evil. Forget eloquence. Act if you can, but speak out. So I'm speaking out.
It really makes me just spitting mad when people say or do things that insult, demean or denigrate another race or gender and then remark, with all seriousness, that gee, they didn't mean it that way. Don't you get that it was a joke? You know, like those white kids in Jenna, Louisiana thought those nooses were a joke. Or the adults who actually said people are overreacting to a prank. Well, it wasn't a joke to the black kids. Right now the legal system in LA is failing all of us. A felony charge? Those nooses were powerful symbols of hate. And quite frankly, if the people of Jenna are really the non-rascists they claim to be, why the hell were they glaring from their porches (as was reported) instead of marching? That's another symbol and I understand it loud and clear. And that's just something I can't let go unremarked.
Labels: editing, hate, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/20/2007 08:59:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Rats.
So, I was writing along, in between bouts of emailing, turning on the laptop and getting stuff updated etc. (where by etc is meant anything not writing-related) and things were going well. Until it turned out I had to delete all of Chapter 18, which was the most recent chapter, and substitute a different chapter that needed to be conformed to its new home. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I did it. No sense keeping a chapter that turns out not to be pulling its weight. And, I like the way this section is now coming along.
More soccer tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed, down 900 and something words. Coulda been worse.
More soccer tomorrow morning, so I need to get to bed, down 900 and something words. Coulda been worse.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/15/2007 09:26:00 PM Permalink
exhaustion
This morning I was soccer Mom. When we got home from his game, I futzed around a bit, answered emails etc, and then took a nap and fell fast, fast asleep. Not one of those lovely afternoon naps in which the mind is working for you, but a deep, dark completely comatose sleep. I'm still groggy from that. But I'm working on Scandal, in fits. This whole book is getting worked on in fits. I keep worrying that it's too vanilla Regency and I'm worried that it's boring.
The thing is, I have to have enough written to know in my bones what the deal is with the story and the two characters. But I'm not there yet, and so here I am in the painful writing stage. Sigh. Which I hate. I'd much rather be editing a substantially complete book. At the moment, I have just short of 50,000 words, which is not quite critical mass for me. Almost, but not quite. 70K is about where the story is essentially done, the other 20-30K comes from editing and polishing. But I'm not there. Wahhhh! I'd rather clean my desk than do this. OK, I'll stop complaining and go back to work.
My son is off with a friend tonight for a bit, so I don't have to cook dinner. It'd be cool to hit my minimum early and read or relax or something. Which isn't going to happen if I'm blogging. Rats.
The thing is, I have to have enough written to know in my bones what the deal is with the story and the two characters. But I'm not there yet, and so here I am in the painful writing stage. Sigh. Which I hate. I'd much rather be editing a substantially complete book. At the moment, I have just short of 50,000 words, which is not quite critical mass for me. Almost, but not quite. 70K is about where the story is essentially done, the other 20-30K comes from editing and polishing. But I'm not there. Wahhhh! I'd rather clean my desk than do this. OK, I'll stop complaining and go back to work.
My son is off with a friend tonight for a bit, so I don't have to cook dinner. It'd be cool to hit my minimum early and read or relax or something. Which isn't going to happen if I'm blogging. Rats.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/15/2007 05:38:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Weekends are never long enough, are they?
My brother's wedding was really lovely. My son was very handsome in his white shirt and dress pants. I even managed a few pictures of him. The drive up north was winding, but gorgeous. The coast in this part of California is rugged. The wedding was at a house with a back yard (where the ceremony was) that looked directly over the ocean. 
There was a beach within sight of the house full of Sea Lions. Their barking was a constant background noise. Later, I grabbed a pair of binocs and got a closer look at them. Got home about five, made dinner and then everyone went to bed early, including me. My brother will probably be mad if he reads this (I don't think he does, most of the family pays very little attention to my writing) but this time he married the right woman. They're wonderful together.
Here's a picture of the Darling Child in Full Pout Mode. He didn't want to leave and the chair was comfy, too. Those are not the dressy clothes, by the way.
Turns out my son's Saturday soccer game that he was supposed to miss because of the wedding got canceled. Today's game went very well. They won 4-0 and looked like a much different team than before. Then we went to Art In The Park where Balou, the ceramacist/potter gave my son a gorgeous pottery mask. He's getting quite a collection of her work. She was telling everyone that he's her oldest customer. We've been seeing her every year now for 6 years. It's really wonderful for him. We had a great time. Then home, and then I had to go shopping.
My dog fell in the pond. One part of it is so covered with duckweed I think he thought it was solid. Fortunately, I was there to pull him out. I'm not sure he could have gotten out on his own. He's quite traumatized over it. Me too, actually.
At last, though, I got to work on Scandal. I finished re-ordering the chapters and wrote a new one. But I'm still behind. Now I have to go to bed.
Last night I finished Lisa Gardner's Survivor's Club. It was really good.
There was a beach within sight of the house full of Sea Lions. Their barking was a constant background noise. Later, I grabbed a pair of binocs and got a closer look at them. Got home about five, made dinner and then everyone went to bed early, including me. My brother will probably be mad if he reads this (I don't think he does, most of the family pays very little attention to my writing) but this time he married the right woman. They're wonderful together.Here's a picture of the Darling Child in Full Pout Mode. He didn't want to leave and the chair was comfy, too. Those are not the dressy clothes, by the way.
Turns out my son's Saturday soccer game that he was supposed to miss because of the wedding got canceled. Today's game went very well. They won 4-0 and looked like a much different team than before. Then we went to Art In The Park where Balou, the ceramacist/potter gave my son a gorgeous pottery mask. He's getting quite a collection of her work. She was telling everyone that he's her oldest customer. We've been seeing her every year now for 6 years. It's really wonderful for him. We had a great time. Then home, and then I had to go shopping.
My dog fell in the pond. One part of it is so covered with duckweed I think he thought it was solid. Fortunately, I was there to pull him out. I'm not sure he could have gotten out on his own. He's quite traumatized over it. Me too, actually.
At last, though, I got to work on Scandal. I finished re-ordering the chapters and wrote a new one. But I'm still behind. Now I have to go to bed.
Last night I finished Lisa Gardner's Survivor's Club. It was really good.
Labels: editing, Scandal, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 9/09/2007 09:51:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Is it possible??
that Magellan's Witch is done?
Today, I did a read through on the computer and did not make a single major change and very few moderate ones. I did change the POV of one chapter, which I will take a look at tomorrow, but honestly, I'm at the point now where I'm likely to make things worse instead of better.
I think.
That's what it seems like now.
But all my trouble spots of late, that pesky chapter 10, the vexing chapter 17, both I just read right through with bated breath...
Is it time for the fork? I'm going to sleep on it. We'll see.
Today, I did a read through on the computer and did not make a single major change and very few moderate ones. I did change the POV of one chapter, which I will take a look at tomorrow, but honestly, I'm at the point now where I'm likely to make things worse instead of better.
I think.
That's what it seems like now.
But all my trouble spots of late, that pesky chapter 10, the vexing chapter 17, both I just read right through with bated breath...
Is it time for the fork? I'm going to sleep on it. We'll see.
Labels: editing, get the fork out?, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/28/2007 09:51:00 PM Permalink
Friday, July 27, 2007
Working away
The good news is I can email Magellan's Witch to my editor. The bad news is it has to be in Word format. arghh!! Word is just so awful. I'm going to spend July 31 trying to get the darn thing to work. Stuff that is an absolute breeze in Word Perfect is a nightmare in Word. Oh well. I think it's coming along. I got through this last round of edits without ripping anything to shreds. I have my list of Action Items to go through now. These are issues, details and plot points that feel like they're dangling unresolved or unaddressed. I got through two of those tonight and have 3-4 more to deal with tomorrow. I'm not going to row tomorrow, I'll do the make up class on August 4 instead. I'm hoping to push through an entire read through tomorrow. But only if I get to bed pretty soon.
In other news, um, is there any?
In other news, um, is there any?
Labels: editing, loose ends, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/27/2007 10:37:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
I'm a Sculptor (Pronounced Artiste)
So, last night as I was reading chapters 16-18 I was bored. Yuck. So I cut a bunch of stuff and had a sort of a glimmer of an idea but wasn't sure what to do about it. Today I cut even more. A sea of red ink, I tell you. Took the Darling Child to soccer practice and since they had a scrimmage tacked on, I had extra time at the OTHER Starbucks, although just to be safe I ordered hot mint tea. While there, I cut all but 3 pages of chapter 18. Fortunately, Chp 17 was kind of long so I did my find a good chapter ending trick and stuck the rest of chapter 18 onto it, then around page 7 started looking for a place that had high tension. Found it on page 8. All the rest went into a new and improved Chapter 18. Then I re-read what I had starting from chapter 16 and it was good. Darn good.
Yes, today I was a sculptor in that I carved away all the hooptedoodle and left only the good parts and then brought other parts into better relief, with a sort of chiaroscuro effect. Only on paper. The 3D shadows and art part happens in your head.
Now I'm home, I have a dirty rotten headache, but the DC has been fed, the laundry is started and I've printed out the new chapters 16-18 and can only pray they hold up they way they did when I was reading them on the laptop. I used to get all depressed about cutting crap, but today, not at all. The crap needs to go, and fast. So it was really easy and painless to do.
Yes, today I was a sculptor in that I carved away all the hooptedoodle and left only the good parts and then brought other parts into better relief, with a sort of chiaroscuro effect. Only on paper. The 3D shadows and art part happens in your head.
Now I'm home, I have a dirty rotten headache, but the DC has been fed, the laundry is started and I've printed out the new chapters 16-18 and can only pray they hold up they way they did when I was reading them on the laptop. I used to get all depressed about cutting crap, but today, not at all. The crap needs to go, and fast. So it was really easy and painless to do.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/25/2007 08:49:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
On the bright side
My changes from yesterday seem to be pretty awesome. After two days of writing and rewriting chapter 10, I made it to chapter 11 and couldn't stop. I had to read chapter 12. Thank goodness. Hopefully nothing else major. That would be nice.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/24/2007 05:10:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Harry Potter (No Spoilers)
I finished last night about 12:30 (or would that be this morning?). It was exciting the entire time. I loved it. I cried, smiled and gasped. I'll write more later when the book has been out longer.
Back to work on Magellan's Witch, which I think may just have come together. In the nick of time, too. We'll see. I'm starting another read-through now.
Back to work on Magellan's Witch, which I think may just have come together. In the nick of time, too. We'll see. I'm starting another read-through now.
Labels: editing, Harry Potter, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/22/2007 09:12:00 AM Permalink
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Progress Report
Well, so far so good. I got the last round of changes in and have started rereading from the middle forward. Nothing major to fix yet and I'm up to chapter 28. So, we'll see.
I've been working hard to avoid spoilers to Harry Potter 7. So far so good on that, too. Discussions abound in the house about what we think will happen.
Off to work.
I've been working hard to avoid spoilers to Harry Potter 7. So far so good on that, too. Discussions abound in the house about what we think will happen.
Off to work.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/19/2007 06:42:00 PM Permalink
Monday, July 16, 2007
Eye been workin' on the Man-u-script
Well, you're supposed to read the post title to the tune of I've been Working on the Railroad. Pretend, OK?
Went to see Harry Potter 5 last night. I was mentally broke from working all day. Great movie! Loved it. A lot. Got to bed at 11:00 pm. Urk.
No soccer practice for the kidlet this week, so I thought, great! I'll get home, abandon all my parental duties and get all my changes from the weekend into the computer and I can resend to one of my readers who just started and will much appreciate having the better middle version. But then at 7:30 I remembered I had to go the soccer board meeting (that's my volunteer job) and I couldn't blow it off because the team gets fined $25.00 if there's no rep at the Board Meeting. Got home from that about 9:00pm, worked for an hour and ended up sending off the revised 1-23. I'll finish up tomorrow.
Sigh.
I had to stop at 23 because the new 24 needs more of an overhaul, and I didn't want to start that this late at night. I have to get enough sleep --- Crud. It's 10:48 pm. Rats. 4:30 is early. I'm off to bed.
Went to see Harry Potter 5 last night. I was mentally broke from working all day. Great movie! Loved it. A lot. Got to bed at 11:00 pm. Urk.
No soccer practice for the kidlet this week, so I thought, great! I'll get home, abandon all my parental duties and get all my changes from the weekend into the computer and I can resend to one of my readers who just started and will much appreciate having the better middle version. But then at 7:30 I remembered I had to go the soccer board meeting (that's my volunteer job) and I couldn't blow it off because the team gets fined $25.00 if there's no rep at the Board Meeting. Got home from that about 9:00pm, worked for an hour and ended up sending off the revised 1-23. I'll finish up tomorrow.
Sigh.
I had to stop at 23 because the new 24 needs more of an overhaul, and I didn't want to start that this late at night. I have to get enough sleep --- Crud. It's 10:48 pm. Rats. 4:30 is early. I'm off to bed.
Labels: deadline, editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/16/2007 10:41:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Still editing
Well, I had to fix another couple chapters. Sigh. By fix I mean eviscerate. I chopped out four pages at least. Possibly more. I'm not sure right now. I'm working on it between sentences of this blog. Still, any time you take out the boring stuff and improve what's left, that's reason to celebrate. I just wish it were June 14th instead of Bastille Day. (Vive la France!) Oh well. Off to do more work.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, ripping to shreds
posted by Carolyn @ 7/14/2007 09:54:00 PM Permalink
Thursday, July 12, 2007
More Editing
So, I got to chapter 17 of Magellan's Witch before I had to really massively rewrite chapters 17 and 18. I've been fixing a lot of stuff. Sigh. The problem was shut up stupid nagging voice those chapters where my hero and heroine weren't together enough. I thought I'd fixed those, but I didn't shut up fix them quite enough. So today I was right, wasn't I? Shut up. You should have listened to me.
Actually, stupid nagging voice, I did listen. It just took a few days to know I needed to listen even harder. I need you, but you're really irritating to the right brain side of me.
Left turn people. I'm off to see if I need to make an even sharper left.
Actually, stupid nagging voice, I did listen. It just took a few days to know I needed to listen even harder. I need you, but you're really irritating to the right brain side of me.
Left turn people. I'm off to see if I need to make an even sharper left.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 7/12/2007 10:01:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I'm not In Dallas
No RWA conference for me this year. Nope. I have my nose to the grindstone, working hard on polishing Magellan's Witch. I'm up to chapter 14 and so far no disasters, rewrites or deletions. I've corrected a few continuity issues, caught another typo or two and am generally continuing to deepen and improve.
In Other Writing news, I was saddened to hear of the death of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Her website hasn't been updated with the news yet, but take a minute to visit the site of a literary pioneer. Thank you, Ms. Woodiwiss. We'll miss you.
Other news includes upcoming books I'm itching to read. Harry Potter 7, of course. We had a lively discussion over dinner tonight about who we thought is the character mostly likely to die. My son said Snape or Hermione. I said, what if it's Hagrid? Others thought perhaps Harry. -- If it is, I can see the book flying to the wall right now.
But, the book I can hardly wait to read is J.R. Ward's next Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Lover Unbound. Michelle Buonfiglio over at B(u)y The Book is reading an ARC right now. Waahhh! I want an ARC too! I have the email from Amazon assuring me my copy is coming. It better be here September 25th! Sigh. Vishous.Sigh.
All righty. Back to work.
In Other Writing news, I was saddened to hear of the death of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Her website hasn't been updated with the news yet, but take a minute to visit the site of a literary pioneer. Thank you, Ms. Woodiwiss. We'll miss you.
Other news includes upcoming books I'm itching to read. Harry Potter 7, of course. We had a lively discussion over dinner tonight about who we thought is the character mostly likely to die. My son said Snape or Hermione. I said, what if it's Hagrid? Others thought perhaps Harry. -- If it is, I can see the book flying to the wall right now.
But, the book I can hardly wait to read is J.R. Ward's next Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Lover Unbound. Michelle Buonfiglio over at B(u)y The Book is reading an ARC right now. Waahhh! I want an ARC too! I have the email from Amazon assuring me my copy is coming. It better be here September 25th! Sigh. Vishous.Sigh.
All righty. Back to work.
Labels: books, editing, Magellan's Witch, polishing
posted by Carolyn @ 7/10/2007 06:38:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Sunday Bliss - More or Less
At last! I got through the rest of Magellan's Witch. The read-back caught a lot of typos I probably never would have found on my own. I hit some boring patches and either deleted them or fixed them -- I hope. I deleted a chapter, split another in two and changed the POV (point of view) on one of them. This morning I added in the stuff to support my Fantastic Solution To A Nagging Issue. I have about 92,000 words. Which is about where I tend to up up no matter what, give or take a couple thousand. So, now this thing goes out to readers. My wonderful printer that does duplex (on my gosh, I am SO IN LOVE with this feature!!!) saved me a couple hundred sheets of paper when I printed it out for my neighbor who's a journalist. And how I'm going to get it into Word (can I just say YUCK! here?) and email it to my agent and a writer acquaintance. We'll see if I get feedback in time, since RWA is right in the middle of this. Rats.
OK, so what do I think about this book? I'm so close it's hard to say. I'm pretty sure the first 10 chapters totally rock and I'm hoping my work of the last two weeks has gotten the rest to match. I crossed some lines in this book, to which I say, so freaking what? That's just how this book had to be. My heroine has multiple encounters with characters who are not the hero and I'll also just put it out there that sometimes the hero is present during those encounters, and he's not just sitting around on his hands either. And, there's some inter species shape shifting stuff, too.
I have three more weeks to work on this. I'll start another read-through tomorrow sometime.
What else? I'm going to relax for what's left of the day. I've done the shopping and I'm going to read and surf the net and maybe play around on MySpace.
OK, so what do I think about this book? I'm so close it's hard to say. I'm pretty sure the first 10 chapters totally rock and I'm hoping my work of the last two weeks has gotten the rest to match. I crossed some lines in this book, to which I say, so freaking what? That's just how this book had to be. My heroine has multiple encounters with characters who are not the hero and I'll also just put it out there that sometimes the hero is present during those encounters, and he's not just sitting around on his hands either. And, there's some inter species shape shifting stuff, too.
I have three more weeks to work on this. I'll start another read-through tomorrow sometime.
What else? I'm going to relax for what's left of the day. I've done the shopping and I'm going to read and surf the net and maybe play around on MySpace.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, relaxing
posted by Carolyn @ 7/08/2007 03:42:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
The Joy of Sleeping
It's a holiday today (Happy Birthday USA!) and I slept until 10:30 am. Whoa. Guess I was exhausted. I feel rested right now. There are various festivities today and a child to entertain and spend time with. We're going to the movies and then he has a party (I'll be working!) and then fireworks at my brother's.
Day before yesterday I deleted a boring chapter from Magellan's Witch and rewrote the boring beginning of another. As I was in bed trying to keep my eyes open while I was reading a book about Structure and Plot, this great idea popped into my head about what my heroine had done. It solves quite a few issues for me. So I had to notebook that because I was so tired I was afraid if I didn't I'd fall asleep and forget. The read through continues, but slowly because I've had to stop and fix several things.
Anyhoo, off to celebrate and spend time with family.
Day before yesterday I deleted a boring chapter from Magellan's Witch and rewrote the boring beginning of another. As I was in bed trying to keep my eyes open while I was reading a book about Structure and Plot, this great idea popped into my head about what my heroine had done. It solves quite a few issues for me. So I had to notebook that because I was so tired I was afraid if I didn't I'd fall asleep and forget. The read through continues, but slowly because I've had to stop and fix several things.
Anyhoo, off to celebrate and spend time with family.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, ripping to shreds
posted by Carolyn @ 7/04/2007 12:11:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Reporting In
I've been having Magellan's Witch read back to me (using Text Aloud). It's a great way to catch typos, repetition of subject matter, words, phrases and other awkwardness and just plain boring parts. When it's working, you can feel it. While I'm listening, I have my file open so I can fix things right away. I've got one spot I need to go over and fix up a bit, and last night I added a kind of unexpected bit. I'll have to have that chapter reread today. And I swapped the order of two chapters. I'm pretty sure things are coming together. Back to work.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, Text Aloud
posted by Carolyn @ 7/01/2007 09:25:00 AM Permalink
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
freaking, freaking, maybe not, freaking
So here it's pretty much the end of June. Magellan's Witch is due August 1. I seem to be spending most of my time massively rewriting. Sigh. Right now I'm going through some comments and addressing those-- if I haven't already deleted or re-written the chapter -- and last night as I was reading this one particular chapter which even when I wrote it I knew was pushing things, I thought to myself, hey, this is good! This is actually fascinating. So for the first time ever I went to bed thinking maybe I don't have a total disaster on my hands.
OK, moment over. Back to freaking. Um, yeah. Definitely that.
OK, moment over. Back to freaking. Um, yeah. Definitely that.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/26/2007 05:08:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Not a Sleep over but a Wake-Over
Today is my son's birthday. He's 12. Ohmygoshhowdidthathappen? Last night he had a sleep over, which, in point of fact, was actually a wake-over since I got up at 4:00am to tell them to go to bed, please. But others in the household reported variously that said boys were up at 5:00am and having waffles at 5:30am. I got up at 10:00 am and the boys were sprawled on the couches in pretzel-like positions. I woke them at 11:20 because we were going to the Fair. Between 10:00 and 11:20 or so I worked on editing Magellan's Witch.
To the Fair we went. At 12, they can run around on their own without constant supervision. And, as I discovered, there was no need to worry about losing contact with them as they phoned me whenever they ran out of money. They knew the location of the ATM's, too. Imagine that. I got a free massage and a $10.00 airbrushed tattoo of a dragon. It'll wash off in a few days. I now know that when I get my real tattoo, I will not get black as my skin is too pale, and will get something perhaps a square inch or less in size. So, we were all fried about 4:00pm and the various 12 year olds went home with parents etc.
Then I picked up a cake for my son's party with family and went home. My present to him, besides the Fair, was to take down his share of the garbage. This is a big deal on account of the garbage needs to go down to the bottom of the driveway. See the Driveway Torture post for more.
He was asleep on the couch at 8:30pm but when I woke him to to say perhaps he should go to bed, he refused. It's summer and he just can't bring himself to go to bed early. By which I mean, being in his bed. Crashing on the couch is completely involuntary and doesn't count.
I've been working on editing Magellan's Witch since I got back. Some progress is made. At least so far it's editing, not massive rewriting. I'm going to go to bed a bit early tonight,as I am tired from all the walking at the Fair and the rowing and the summer heat.
One big fat ick for Monday.
But, for once I feel like I got some good away time. I feel mentally refreshed. Which store of freshness I will need in order to get this book into shape. It's going to have to go to other readers in whatever shape it's in by, say, mid week. Urk.
To the Fair we went. At 12, they can run around on their own without constant supervision. And, as I discovered, there was no need to worry about losing contact with them as they phoned me whenever they ran out of money. They knew the location of the ATM's, too. Imagine that. I got a free massage and a $10.00 airbrushed tattoo of a dragon. It'll wash off in a few days. I now know that when I get my real tattoo, I will not get black as my skin is too pale, and will get something perhaps a square inch or less in size. So, we were all fried about 4:00pm and the various 12 year olds went home with parents etc.
Then I picked up a cake for my son's party with family and went home. My present to him, besides the Fair, was to take down his share of the garbage. This is a big deal on account of the garbage needs to go down to the bottom of the driveway. See the Driveway Torture post for more.
He was asleep on the couch at 8:30pm but when I woke him to to say perhaps he should go to bed, he refused. It's summer and he just can't bring himself to go to bed early. By which I mean, being in his bed. Crashing on the couch is completely involuntary and doesn't count.
I've been working on editing Magellan's Witch since I got back. Some progress is made. At least so far it's editing, not massive rewriting. I'm going to go to bed a bit early tonight,as I am tired from all the walking at the Fair and the rowing and the summer heat.
One big fat ick for Monday.
But, for once I feel like I got some good away time. I feel mentally refreshed. Which store of freshness I will need in order to get this book into shape. It's going to have to go to other readers in whatever shape it's in by, say, mid week. Urk.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, plugging away
posted by Carolyn @ 6/24/2007 09:02:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Bleary Eyed Writer
I've been trying to get all my paper edits into the computer and things were going OK for a while. I got through a fairly rough patch blah blah edit cut etc.I have maybe 30 pages to go. But my gosh. I have some major fixing and no inspiration at the moment. This morning I had my first rowing lesson. It was really fun. Can't wait for more. I got home and started working and found myself falling asleep in my chair since I had to get up early for the rowing instead of sleeping in to catch up from the work week deficit. I could have pushed through, but this nagging little voice I am NOT a nag! Yes, you are. kept saying, Carolyn, you can't keep writing chapters without the hero and heroine both in them. Shut up, I'm fixing this just fine without your help, thank you very much. No you're not. So I took a nap when my eyes drooped closed for the bazillionth time and just when I was in the nirvanah of napdom the phone rang. So now I'm awake. Carolyn, go rewrite those chapters with your hero in them. Just do it, OK? All right all right! Sheesh.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/23/2007 03:36:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Nudge Nudge Wink Wink
Boy, did I need to read this interview with Lemony Snickett:
It's a good interview, too.
Back to work. Editing crap.
Say n'more.
Since that time, I sort of love it when things are going badly because I know that means that soon things will go well. I just stay at my desk, and I say, "There's no shame in writing crap," knowing that it's good for the brain because meanwhile, in some corner, something is getting nudged. And I've used that strategy ever since.
It's a good interview, too.
Back to work. Editing crap.
Say n'more.
Labels: angst, editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/19/2007 07:49:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Driveway Torture
Rats. It's Sunday and I need it to be Saturday or for Monday to be a holiday. Nice father's day. Yesterday I told myself that if I got through the rest of the manuscript read through, I could take the evening off to read. Which I did. I finished off Chuck Pfarrer's Warrior Soul which is a memoir of a Navy SEAL. Good book. I really enjoyed it. Apparently, nobody in D.C. has learned anything since Beirut in the 80's or Iran-Contra. That was kind of depressing.
Worked today. One of my brothers came over and played poker with my son. I think one of them is rich now. Then I had to go shopping and today, shopping included shoes and shirts. My sandals are falling apart and one pair of my work shoes is worn through. Also, I needed new running shoes. The sole of my current pair is now separating from the shoe. I also needed summer shirts. I believe I've mentioned I despise shopping. Yuck. But mission accomplished. Then grocery shopping. Then had to make cookies for lunches tomorrow. Not mine. I am on a cookie free diet. (Rats!)
I've changed up my work out on account of a couple weeks ago as I was heading back to the house after taking down the garbage I was dying jogging up the driveway. The driveway is roughly a quarter mile uphill (depending on your point of view, I guess, it was uphill for me at the time.) I should have been able to jog up the freaking driveway without dying. I was wearing my sandals, at the time, but still. So, now 2 days a week instead of going to the gym I run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes. Torture. Horrors. Sweat. Then one day I cycle for 45 because I'm not able to add a third day of driveway torture yet and the other two I do free weights and resistance training. I added in 10 push ups between every set, and am happy to report I'm up to 12 push ups between sets. The good news is my arms are getting some cuts and by the third morning of running I was still dying but at a slightly faster speed. Really slightly. Next weekend I start the rowing so that should help, too. All of which is my way of explaining that I really did need new running shoes. And, lucky me! The Nike outlet carries Men's size 6, which is the size of running shoe that fits me best. Before grad school, I could do 100 push-ups and run a mile in 7:30, which I thought was pretty sad since in college I ran 5:30's. Now I'm in the double digits for roughly a mile. Of course, 45 minutes of driveway torture is something like 3 or 3.5 miles. Maybe grad school wasn't all good for me.
I figure if SEALs can do what they so, I can run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes and do a few measly push ups. I hope to swap out the cycling day for more driveway torture but right now I need that for recovery so I don't get (too) sore. See, reading is good for you!
In comparison, writing is --- well, a completely different kind of torture. Which I've been doing all weekend. And will be doing more shortly.
Tomorrow morning, driveway torture. Yay. Not.
Worked today. One of my brothers came over and played poker with my son. I think one of them is rich now. Then I had to go shopping and today, shopping included shoes and shirts. My sandals are falling apart and one pair of my work shoes is worn through. Also, I needed new running shoes. The sole of my current pair is now separating from the shoe. I also needed summer shirts. I believe I've mentioned I despise shopping. Yuck. But mission accomplished. Then grocery shopping. Then had to make cookies for lunches tomorrow. Not mine. I am on a cookie free diet. (Rats!)
I've changed up my work out on account of a couple weeks ago as I was heading back to the house after taking down the garbage I was dying jogging up the driveway. The driveway is roughly a quarter mile uphill (depending on your point of view, I guess, it was uphill for me at the time.) I should have been able to jog up the freaking driveway without dying. I was wearing my sandals, at the time, but still. So, now 2 days a week instead of going to the gym I run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes. Torture. Horrors. Sweat. Then one day I cycle for 45 because I'm not able to add a third day of driveway torture yet and the other two I do free weights and resistance training. I added in 10 push ups between every set, and am happy to report I'm up to 12 push ups between sets. The good news is my arms are getting some cuts and by the third morning of running I was still dying but at a slightly faster speed. Really slightly. Next weekend I start the rowing so that should help, too. All of which is my way of explaining that I really did need new running shoes. And, lucky me! The Nike outlet carries Men's size 6, which is the size of running shoe that fits me best. Before grad school, I could do 100 push-ups and run a mile in 7:30, which I thought was pretty sad since in college I ran 5:30's. Now I'm in the double digits for roughly a mile. Of course, 45 minutes of driveway torture is something like 3 or 3.5 miles. Maybe grad school wasn't all good for me.
I figure if SEALs can do what they so, I can run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes and do a few measly push ups. I hope to swap out the cycling day for more driveway torture but right now I need that for recovery so I don't get (too) sore. See, reading is good for you!
In comparison, writing is --- well, a completely different kind of torture. Which I've been doing all weekend. And will be doing more shortly.
Tomorrow morning, driveway torture. Yay. Not.
Labels: editing, exercise, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/17/2007 08:33:00 PM Permalink
Friday, June 15, 2007
What Publishers can learn from my Cat
This quote is from Publishers Lunch:
Anyone who checks out the A-list bloggers of the Tech Altiverse (I just made up that word since the Uber-Geeks do, in fact, inhabit an alternate universe: see e.g., Tech Crunch, Guy Kawasaki or Robert Scoble) knows that the geekish are rolling their eyes at newspapers for not understanding what's happening to their business model. For the most part, the Uber-Geeks are right. Newspapers moan about Craigslist taking their revenue without making the leap to gee, maybe readers want want ads that work like Craigslist so we better do that! It took me about 2 minutes, maybe three, to post my old printer on Craigslist and within 2 minutes, I kid you not, I had a taker. Could I have done that, as easily or as quickly on any newspaper want-ad site? No. Do I go to newspaper websites that are behind a pay wall? No, I do not. I go get my website news somewhere else, and by the way, view someone else's ads when I do. Lest you think that there's no money in Google's ad-sense, I've seen creditable reports (but not proof) that many of the the A-listers make a few thousand a month in ad sense revenue. (A-list bloggers have hundreds of thousands of impressions, not a few hundred. For comparison's sake Miss Snark, despite her avid fans, would not have been considered an A-lister, though before her retirement from blogging, I was starting to think she might get there.)
The cat analogy is coming up, by the way.
Have people become news averse? No. They're just consuming it in places where it's convenient for them. But I still look through 2 print newspapers at home, too.
So here's the cat analogy. My cat Jake loves to sleep on my printer. My brand-new printer! So I keep it covered with two thin-ish kitchen towels. The other day I thought, hey, I'm going to cover the printer with this much bigger and vastly thicker cloth! The printer will be even more impervious to cat hair and Jake will be comfier, too!
That's not what happened.
Jake refused to sleep on the printer. Instead, my big, fluffy 15 pound cat decided to sleep in the space where I put my manuscript binder when I am transferring paper edits to the computer. At first, I thought, man, this is just so inconvenient to have him trying to sleep on my MS! We spent a couple of days irritated with each other about that. And then I removed the big cloth from the printer and Jake got up on the printer and went to sleep on the two thin cloths.
Oh. There was no abandonment of cat-napping behavior, merely a displacement of its location.
See where I'm going with this? If this publisher is right, the medium is changing. But the need for stories people want to read is not.
So authors have no need to panic. Publishers do, if they don't wake up to the translocation.
In writing news, I've deleted two chapters from Magellan's Witch. But things are getting better.
There is a slow but steady worldwide decline in the sales of printed products, roughly matched by growth in sales of electronic media, and gravity is reasserting itself in the UK trade. In 2006, it became clear that book publishers should probably expect medium and long-term sales stagnation and decline in their printed products, just as newspaper publishers do.
Anyone who checks out the A-list bloggers of the Tech Altiverse (I just made up that word since the Uber-Geeks do, in fact, inhabit an alternate universe: see e.g., Tech Crunch, Guy Kawasaki or Robert Scoble) knows that the geekish are rolling their eyes at newspapers for not understanding what's happening to their business model. For the most part, the Uber-Geeks are right. Newspapers moan about Craigslist taking their revenue without making the leap to gee, maybe readers want want ads that work like Craigslist so we better do that! It took me about 2 minutes, maybe three, to post my old printer on Craigslist and within 2 minutes, I kid you not, I had a taker. Could I have done that, as easily or as quickly on any newspaper want-ad site? No. Do I go to newspaper websites that are behind a pay wall? No, I do not. I go get my website news somewhere else, and by the way, view someone else's ads when I do. Lest you think that there's no money in Google's ad-sense, I've seen creditable reports (but not proof) that many of the the A-listers make a few thousand a month in ad sense revenue. (A-list bloggers have hundreds of thousands of impressions, not a few hundred. For comparison's sake Miss Snark, despite her avid fans, would not have been considered an A-lister, though before her retirement from blogging, I was starting to think she might get there.)
The cat analogy is coming up, by the way.
Have people become news averse? No. They're just consuming it in places where it's convenient for them. But I still look through 2 print newspapers at home, too.
So here's the cat analogy. My cat Jake loves to sleep on my printer. My brand-new printer! So I keep it covered with two thin-ish kitchen towels. The other day I thought, hey, I'm going to cover the printer with this much bigger and vastly thicker cloth! The printer will be even more impervious to cat hair and Jake will be comfier, too!
That's not what happened.
Jake refused to sleep on the printer. Instead, my big, fluffy 15 pound cat decided to sleep in the space where I put my manuscript binder when I am transferring paper edits to the computer. At first, I thought, man, this is just so inconvenient to have him trying to sleep on my MS! We spent a couple of days irritated with each other about that. And then I removed the big cloth from the printer and Jake got up on the printer and went to sleep on the two thin cloths.
Oh. There was no abandonment of cat-napping behavior, merely a displacement of its location.
See where I'm going with this? If this publisher is right, the medium is changing. But the need for stories people want to read is not.
So authors have no need to panic. Publishers do, if they don't wake up to the translocation.
In writing news, I've deleted two chapters from Magellan's Witch. But things are getting better.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, publishing
posted by Carolyn @ 6/15/2007 05:14:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Behinder yet
Sigh.
I was stuck at Starbucks until 12:00. Got some work done, not much, and not much of it very cheerful work. Rats. Then I went to my nephew's birthday party and was there until three. At one point I went back to the car and got my binder and very rudely did some editing. Honestly. When do people think I get all this done? Anyway, we left at 3:00 which was just in time for me to remember my son had soccer practice and I hadn't done any grocery shopping. So, got home, he changed and we were off. Only the field was being used and I drove my son and two other boys to the alternate location and got lost. My town has an old Jr. High of a certain name and a new Jr. High of the exact same name. I went to the old one only to realize then that everyone must have been talking about the new one. Sigh. I have never been to the new one and don't know the address. But we managed to find it. Then I had to get groceries. I was able to get in half an hour of editing. Now I'm off to do more.
Sigh.
I was stuck at Starbucks until 12:00. Got some work done, not much, and not much of it very cheerful work. Rats. Then I went to my nephew's birthday party and was there until three. At one point I went back to the car and got my binder and very rudely did some editing. Honestly. When do people think I get all this done? Anyway, we left at 3:00 which was just in time for me to remember my son had soccer practice and I hadn't done any grocery shopping. So, got home, he changed and we were off. Only the field was being used and I drove my son and two other boys to the alternate location and got lost. My town has an old Jr. High of a certain name and a new Jr. High of the exact same name. I went to the old one only to realize then that everyone must have been talking about the new one. Sigh. I have never been to the new one and don't know the address. But we managed to find it. Then I had to get groceries. I was able to get in half an hour of editing. Now I'm off to do more.
Sigh.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/10/2007 07:28:00 PM Permalink
Monday, June 04, 2007
Monday Again
But not for much longer eh? As my neighbors to the north might say. I'm doing another paper read through of Magellan's Witch. I'm up to chapter 5 and I'm not massively redoing anything. Yet. Lot's of polishing and layering. I have this draft out for an early read. I need to get back to work.
What else? The sale of Scandal is totally official now. It just posted to Publisher's Lunch. Yipee!
Tired, but what's new?
What else? The sale of Scandal is totally official now. It just posted to Publisher's Lunch. Yipee!
Tired, but what's new?
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/04/2007 09:35:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Weekend Report
Working. That's what I'm doing. I woke up this morning with a notion for Magellan's Witch that involves a new chapter. I'm writing it now. My son and I went kyaking for the first time. They were having a free water sports day on the Petaluma River so we went and kayaked. Fun! But what I want to do is row. So I'm going to pony up the bucks for the Rowing for Beginners class and do that. Now that I'm home I'm back at work on the new chapter.
What else? Seems like there ought to be something interesting, but, gosh, I guess not. Here's a random picture:
What else? Seems like there ought to be something interesting, but, gosh, I guess not. Here's a random picture:
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 6/02/2007 04:36:00 PM Permalink
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Saturday Evening Post
I got a lot of work done on Magellan's Witch today. I think I got the middle messiness fixed, plus I was looking at this one particular chapter that I realized was headed in a truly awkward direction what with my having materially changed the preceding chapters, plus added a whole new one a while back, and after trying for a bit to fix it as it was, had no success whatever until I told myself that, really, what they were doing made no sense. (Try and say that without taking a breath!) So I changed it around so that it did make sense and it was much, much better. As in, well, to be honest, now it makes sense. Nuff said, huh? Anyhoo, so now I think I can proceed with more paper read through and tomorrow start another fresh.
Meanwhile, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 tonight. Very entertaining. Just when I thought it was going to start dragging something funny and unexpected would happen. Good movie. Jonnny Depp was wonderful and so was Keith Richards.
To bed.
Meanwhile, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 tonight. Very entertaining. Just when I thought it was going to start dragging something funny and unexpected would happen. Good movie. Jonnny Depp was wonderful and so was Keith Richards.
To bed.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/26/2007 11:18:00 PM Permalink
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday for sure
I should have known when I woke up exhausted and decided to skip the gym that I wasn't well. But I got my extra hour of sleep and went to work. 2 hours later I came come. The really good news is our Koi are parents. Four of them between 1.5 and 2 inches long. We know it's the Koi and not the goldfish because the babies look like the Koi: Orange, black and white. One of them is mostly orange. A while back they were doing a lot of breaching the water. I think they were "flirting." Sometimes I'd hear the splash from my room (the koi pond is right outside my sliding glass door) or I'd look just in time and see them pretending they were whales. Anyway, big excitement here today.
I got some work done today despite the foggy brain. I decided to work on my missing chapter. I picked a good spot and started and after a bit I went If this keeps up, Carolyn, this will be boring. So I stared out the window for a while and then got back to work and now my antagonist is with my heroine and there's some stuff going down. And I've got to go find out out that ends up...
I got some work done today despite the foggy brain. I decided to work on my missing chapter. I picked a good spot and started and after a bit I went If this keeps up, Carolyn, this will be boring. So I stared out the window for a while and then got back to work and now my antagonist is with my heroine and there's some stuff going down. And I've got to go find out out that ends up...
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, Pantsing
posted by Carolyn @ 5/14/2007 09:20:00 PM Permalink
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Insert Post Title Here
Today, my son and I went to see Hot Fuzz. I thought this was going to be a film along the lines of Naked Gun, you know, painfully sophomoric humor, but my son really wanted to see it, so, with heavy heart, I went.
I haven't laughed so much and so often at a movie in ages. First off, it's a British film. It riffs off American cop films, martial arts movies, Westerns and the traditional English mystery setting all in the context of the British countryside. I'm not sure I can do this movie justice. The main character plays it totally straight (he also co-wrote the screenplay.) Intelligent with moments of slapstick that aren't stupid. And then it descends into the absurd and is just side splittingly funny. Go see this movie. The IMDB entry is pretty far off the mark, in my opinion.
In other news, making progress with Magellan's Witch. I've deleted one plot element that was making things too complicated and isn't necessary now that I'm clearer on what's really driving the plot. I'm fixing stuff and then having to solve some major issues as I continue -- which basically involves me thinking that I'm stuck, then going off to do something else and have the solution occur to me.
This whole book has been that way. Brick wall with me thinking, geez, I'll never solve this one, then seeing the path continues this other way. Frustrating, but in a way, not. I deleted about 3000 words yesterday. I think I'm still missing a plot element, and I believe I know what that is, but I want to get through the rest of the read through (which I have started and restarted 3 times now) to be sure.
Anyway, off to read to my son.
Go see Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz is Hilarious!
I haven't laughed so much and so often at a movie in ages. First off, it's a British film. It riffs off American cop films, martial arts movies, Westerns and the traditional English mystery setting all in the context of the British countryside. I'm not sure I can do this movie justice. The main character plays it totally straight (he also co-wrote the screenplay.) Intelligent with moments of slapstick that aren't stupid. And then it descends into the absurd and is just side splittingly funny. Go see this movie. The IMDB entry is pretty far off the mark, in my opinion.
In other news, making progress with Magellan's Witch. I've deleted one plot element that was making things too complicated and isn't necessary now that I'm clearer on what's really driving the plot. I'm fixing stuff and then having to solve some major issues as I continue -- which basically involves me thinking that I'm stuck, then going off to do something else and have the solution occur to me.
This whole book has been that way. Brick wall with me thinking, geez, I'll never solve this one, then seeing the path continues this other way. Frustrating, but in a way, not. I deleted about 3000 words yesterday. I think I'm still missing a plot element, and I believe I know what that is, but I want to get through the rest of the read through (which I have started and restarted 3 times now) to be sure.
Anyway, off to read to my son.
Go see Hot Fuzz
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/13/2007 07:55:00 PM Permalink
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Another Victory Against the Opposite of Interesting
I went through the first 6 (now 7) chapters of Magellan's Witch and made my edits and worked on switching things around with my heroine. This morning at the gym I wrote a big note at the top of some chapter or other that I needed to flip hero and heroine. No, I don't mean physically. In that chapter, my hero was convincing my heroine that he was not a regular human. And that wasn't working for me. It was boring and stupid. One of my strategies for dealing with this is to do the opposite. If they're fighting, have them make love. If they're disagreeing have them agree. If they're making love, put them in a car chase instead. Like that. So, I flipped the roles and had the heroine convincing the hero he wasn't a regular human.
It worked great. Suddenly, there's layers of stuff going on. They're both saying one thing and meaning quite another. Even though I cut quite a bit of the boring parts, I only ended up a few hundred words in the hole. I'll know soon if it really works.
Off to bed.
It worked great. Suddenly, there's layers of stuff going on. They're both saying one thing and meaning quite another. Even though I cut quite a bit of the boring parts, I only ended up a few hundred words in the hole. I'll know soon if it really works.
Off to bed.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/09/2007 09:58:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Oh, the carnage, the carnage
I cut 9,400 words from Magellan's Witch today. The mess was bigger than I thought. But now it's not. Now it's more straightforward and the messy stuff is gone. Now, I think, I can do a read through (not paper) and get from page 1 to page-the-end without having to redo everything. That's what I'm going to try to do tomorrow. Or maybe I'll concentrate on the back end, because the replacement stuff is thin right now, and that has to be fixed. That's a bigger priority right now.
The update on the MA is that I can't officially file anything until after my public reading, which is May 15. So I have to live with this for another two weeks because now it's due May 18. I have one more form to file, too. I still have to get my committee members copies of it to read this week so they can sign on the dotted line. Which will have to be Thursday on account of office hours. Which gives me tomorrow and maybe a little of Thursday to finish fixing. Except in a way it doesn't really matter because I need to keep fixing for the real deadline anyway.
Anyway, off to bed before it's tomorrow.
The update on the MA is that I can't officially file anything until after my public reading, which is May 15. So I have to live with this for another two weeks because now it's due May 18. I have one more form to file, too. I still have to get my committee members copies of it to read this week so they can sign on the dotted line. Which will have to be Thursday on account of office hours. Which gives me tomorrow and maybe a little of Thursday to finish fixing. Except in a way it doesn't really matter because I need to keep fixing for the real deadline anyway.
Anyway, off to bed before it's tomorrow.
Labels: editing, Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/01/2007 11:40:00 PM Permalink
Well, I knew this would happen
Work on Magellan's Witch has been going like gangbusters. Yesterday I was at 83K and feeling pretty good about things. Probably it was the sugar rush from all the birthday cake. I knew I had a couple of problem chapters coming up but hey only 7 chapters between me and a solid draft. Whoa. Today I am massively fixing. I've deleted two chapters so far and broken up two others that were too long (so no net loss of chapters). At the moment I'm down to 79K, most of which I should make back,depending on the state of the other chapters. I'm working with chapter 20 right now -- the new chapter 20. I keep thinking that any day now I can print this darn thing off and do a read through and that keeps not happening. Sigh.
At least I'm in the middle of an interesting solution to one of my issues and to be honest, I'm not broken up over the chapters I sent off to the Recycling Folder for Wayward Writing. They were boring and belonged to the previous version anyhow. But still.
In an hour, I'm off to get signatures on the MA project and see about my actual due date. I'll report back later. I'm going to use my new printer for the first time and print off my sig pages.
Updated to add: My pages printed beautifully and oh so fast. I had to do it twice though because the first time I forgot they needed to be numbered with lower case roman numerals at the bottom. Sheesh.
At least I'm in the middle of an interesting solution to one of my issues and to be honest, I'm not broken up over the chapters I sent off to the Recycling Folder for Wayward Writing. They were boring and belonged to the previous version anyhow. But still.
In an hour, I'm off to get signatures on the MA project and see about my actual due date. I'll report back later. I'm going to use my new printer for the first time and print off my sig pages.
Updated to add: My pages printed beautifully and oh so fast. I had to do it twice though because the first time I forgot they needed to be numbered with lower case roman numerals at the bottom. Sheesh.
Labels: editing, Graduate School, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 5/01/2007 12:36:00 PM Permalink
Monday, April 23, 2007
Ballast unloaded, Cap'n!
Tonight I got to about the middle of chapter 14, having cut a fair amount from chapter 13 because I was thinking, isn't this over yet? So right before that point I deleted all the stuff after that point and got it to a chapter end, sorta. That put me about 200 words ahead for the night. So then I went and deleted my two ballast chapters, whose main purpose I think was to sit around in the word count whispering Hey, you might need us! And I did, for moral support. Until I did a little arithmetic and realized that with 13 chapters yet to slog through (more about that later) and adding at least 1000 words a night (well, yeah, except for tonight) I'd be at 93K before I even got around to writing the last chapter, and I have (setting aside the MA madness for a moment) at least 3-6 more rounds through this thing. So, I put them in the recycling in case I really do need some of those 3,400 words back. They're sitting there with the rest of the guests in the green room. Maybe they'll get back on the show. Who knows?
In the meantime, this book is unusual for me in that I am going through these chapters and it's torture to see all those flat emotions, missing detail, stuff and I just keep writing and fixing and fixing and fixing. I get all panicky about how sucky it all is and then the muse kicks in and things are off in some direction I wasn't thinking about on purpose. I just follow along, hoping the fingers hold out while I keep fixing stuff and dealing with the new stuff.
There have been a couple of sparks of life, so I have hope that as an MA project this will not reek too badly. But it will not, as I have represented to everyone, be the finished product.
All righty. My next goal is to get into bed before 10:00pm. I have 6 minutes.
In the meantime, this book is unusual for me in that I am going through these chapters and it's torture to see all those flat emotions, missing detail, stuff and I just keep writing and fixing and fixing and fixing. I get all panicky about how sucky it all is and then the muse kicks in and things are off in some direction I wasn't thinking about on purpose. I just follow along, hoping the fingers hold out while I keep fixing stuff and dealing with the new stuff.
There have been a couple of sparks of life, so I have hope that as an MA project this will not reek too badly. But it will not, as I have represented to everyone, be the finished product.
All righty. My next goal is to get into bed before 10:00pm. I have 6 minutes.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 4/23/2007 09:35:00 PM Permalink
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
In Which Carolyn Writes Herself out of a Corner
69K words for Magellan's Witch. I almost gave up for the night about 45 minutes ago. I was fixing more stuff and getting my hero in those scenes he needed to be in and then I wrote myself into a corner. I'd moved a bunch of stuff around so I was only addressing a certain subject in one place instead of more than one, I consolidated characters etc, and then for a while things were a big awful mess. The choreography was all wrong and people were standing around awkwardly, either too close to or too far from wherever they needed to be, and the tension was going pfft and then, even worse, I realized that if I were my hero and heroine (which in a way I am) I'd just get the heck out of Dodge. And I tell you it's not a fun feeling when you realize you have all your key characters together in a scene that's supposed to be tense only there's no reason on earth to believe these people would ever be in the same room with each other without pulling knives. In my own immortal words, uh oh.
I just wanted to say Carolyn you hopeless hack, stop here for now and fix it tomorrow. In fact, I did say that.
But I kept going and fixed my staging and set problem and all of a sudden my antagonist was doing some really unexpected creepy stuff and it totally worked. He came up with the reason why they should even be in the same room, let alone talking and lying and establishing agendas and the like. Neat. And what a relief, I might add.
I just wanted to say Carolyn you hopeless hack, stop here for now and fix it tomorrow. In fact, I did say that.
But I kept going and fixed my staging and set problem and all of a sudden my antagonist was doing some really unexpected creepy stuff and it totally worked. He came up with the reason why they should even be in the same room, let alone talking and lying and establishing agendas and the like. Neat. And what a relief, I might add.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch, Pantsing
posted by Carolyn @ 4/10/2007 09:54:00 PM Permalink
Friday, April 06, 2007
Reporting in as Ordered
Today was a day off the day job. Things didn't go exactly as planned. When do they ever? I slept late, probably a good thing, considering. Took the laptop with me to go get my car serviced. I got a fair amount done while I was waiting. Then an errand or two and home to discover my brother had dropped off my two nieces and my nephew. Sigh. That blew the morning. We made cookies which was fun, then they went outside to play and I got some work done. But at 1:00pm my son called from school. He's been away at a school camp for the week. I went to pick him up. I let him off at the corner of the driveway because his cousins where there playing in the dirt. This at least allowed me to get his dirty clothes piled up and ready to wash. Get re-acquainted time etc. He had a blast and dirty hair, too. He went off to play with his cousins.
Then my brother came to pick up his kids and my son collapsed on the couch, fried in just about all senses of the work, and then I started to get some serious work done. Break for dinner, then back to work. At one point I was over 64K, but then I hit the spots where I had to do some deep cutting to bring things into alignment with recent changes. The good news is that I ended up a couple hundred words ahead of yesterday which means I wrote a lot to replace the stuff I cut.
Thus, the good news is I did what I intended, which was conform the story, which I did. Along with a couple of surprises that I enoyed, moreo or less. Tomorrow, I'll get that completed and then probably print it out and see where I stand. But, at 63K, I can't be adding too many (if any at all) plot points. The rest of the 25K or so is going to come from editing and layering.
I just hope this doesn't suck. I can't tell yet.
Then my brother came to pick up his kids and my son collapsed on the couch, fried in just about all senses of the work, and then I started to get some serious work done. Break for dinner, then back to work. At one point I was over 64K, but then I hit the spots where I had to do some deep cutting to bring things into alignment with recent changes. The good news is that I ended up a couple hundred words ahead of yesterday which means I wrote a lot to replace the stuff I cut.
Thus, the good news is I did what I intended, which was conform the story, which I did. Along with a couple of surprises that I enoyed, moreo or less. Tomorrow, I'll get that completed and then probably print it out and see where I stand. But, at 63K, I can't be adding too many (if any at all) plot points. The rest of the 25K or so is going to come from editing and layering.
I just hope this doesn't suck. I can't tell yet.
Labels: editing, Magellan's Witch
posted by Carolyn @ 4/06/2007 10:56:00 PM Permalink
Friday, December 15, 2006
I've been a good writer, but it really hurt
All righty. I'm on track for the better direction. Actually, that would be, a direction since until a couple of days ago I had only a very vague sense of direction. First, I stopped futzing around. Then I worked on my outline so that I was clear on what was happening in the chapters I have so far, and I added the skeleton of what I need to write. That way I can keep track.
Then, I went to the chapters and moved the bits around until they were where I needed them to be. Then I fixed the egregious discontinuities that resulted. Next, I looked at and deleted all the chapters (there were 10 of them) that were the result of work on the previous draft. I marked the ones I know have bits I'll need. The result? -8 words which is really not so bad.
The 10 deleted chapters don't count, since I removed them from my master document ages ago. I just hadn't decided on a direction so I wasn't comfortable moving them to the dead files section. But now I am and now I'm in a position to fix more stuff all the while going forward.
And now I'm going to bed. Ah, sleep. You are my favorite muse.
Then, I went to the chapters and moved the bits around until they were where I needed them to be. Then I fixed the egregious discontinuities that resulted. Next, I looked at and deleted all the chapters (there were 10 of them) that were the result of work on the previous draft. I marked the ones I know have bits I'll need. The result? -8 words which is really not so bad.
The 10 deleted chapters don't count, since I removed them from my master document ages ago. I just hadn't decided on a direction so I wasn't comfortable moving them to the dead files section. But now I am and now I'm in a position to fix more stuff all the while going forward.
And now I'm going to bed. Ah, sleep. You are my favorite muse.
Labels: editing, reassembling, ripping to shreds, writing
posted by Carolyn @ 12/15/2006 09:56:00 PM Permalink
