Apr
30

Will Edit for Food

Posted in editing | 4 Comments
I sent the first 16 chapters of my revisions over to my editor yesterday. I still have several chapters to go, but it *is* getting there. It’s a lot more than I thought it would be. Edits are like that I guess, but I’ve found as I’ve tried to expand the story more, new details started cropping up – and new ideas. It’s a bit like herding cats, maybe, but there comes a moment when you look at something and you have to decide if it’s *really* necessary. I mean, sure it’s a funny bit, but if it’s not moving things along, I’m probably going to have to cut it. What I sent her wasn’t polished at all  – I discovered that if I tried to fix it up too much as I went, then I wasn’t really moving forward anymore. Never mind the fact that as soon as I… Read more
Apr
19

The Edits Shall Continue Until Morale Improves…

Posted in editing, updates | 10 Comments
Thanks to some company this weekend, I managed to wiggle out another chunk of editing. This particular scene has been taking me a bit longer than I thought it would, but I was able to finally get over the hump on Saturday. One of those things where my brain understands the concept just fine, but getting the words down and making it work correctly is a bit of a bear. In the end I had to just stop trying to make it perfect and get the bones down. For me, this means a lot of stilted dialog and crappy dialog tags: “Blah blah blah blah,” I muttered snarkily, doing something that’s probably going to get cut next pass.“Blah blah, blah blah blah blah,” he pointed out, making smexy eyes at me.“But blah blah! How else am I going to be able to Comshock with the Groosalugg?”  My mouth pursed as I made an astute observation while… Read more
Apr
12

Lord of the Edits.

Posted in editing, updates | 3 Comments
I spent 13 hours straight editing my book on Saturday. A bit less than that yesterday, though mostly because SnarkyNavyWife was in town and we needed to meet up for lunch. Both of these things were made possible because mr myn took the kids out of the house for pretty much the entire weekend, a fact for which I am terribly grateful. I do regret not being able to enjoy the sunshine much on Saturday, but unfortunately, deadlines don’t wait on the weather. On the other hand, I got a tremendous amount done (including about 2500 new words written), so I suppose that’s the trade off. Much of this editing isn’t really about writing new stuff so much as reorganizing what I have.  I feel like I’m constantly going back and forth and pulling out details at one spot and shoving them into another. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t… Read more
Apr
6

Effort vs. Payoff

Posted in editing, metaphoric crap that is supposed to mean something deep but probably doesn't | 5 Comments
I tried my new Ebelskiver on Easter morning. I kept it fairly simple – just your basic chocolate chip pancake mix. Not that making full on chocolate ones stuffed with peanut butter wouldn’t haven’t been totally awesome, but I like to give things a trial run before I waste a lot of time prepping something that might just end up getting tossed out. Anyway – first thing I learned? Don’t fill the little wells up all the way like I did in this picture. They cook too quickly on the bottom, but not enough on the sides/top to actually flip over with the skewers. By the time I could flip them, the bottoms were horribly burned. Lesson learned. Next round I only filled them part way up and it was much better. According to the directions, I should have done that from the beginning, but where’s the fun in reading… Read more
Mar
4

Give Me Chocolate or Give Me Death…

Posted in editing, hello kitty fail, revisions, socks | 12 Comments
You know – in case you didn’t really believe my tweet that my awesome editor, Danielle, sent me chocolate with my revisions. (Yes that is a pink Hello Kitty keyboard. Yes, I’m a freak. Sorry.) I’m still mulling the notes over, honestly – but in more of a potential “what can I do to really make this rock” sort of way than anything else. And because I know there will be two more books, I can also try to look at weaving some of the plots together so they will be a bit more cohesive between stories. I tend to think long-term. I’m very used to those long Fantasy epics, so when I first started writing, I assumed I could do the same thing…but as an aspiring author, writing a series is frowned upon – or at least pitching a book as part of one, anyway. As anyone who’s tried… Read more