THE END

How do you feel when you write those words?  The end.

Okay, so maybe I didn't actually write them at the end of Parasite's, but I "finished".
I'm hoping I'll feel like celebrating later, but right now I've come to the conclusion that I have to clean up a whole lotta word vomit.

50,297 to be exact.  A whole lot higher than the 35,000 goal--but what's funny is I feel like I need to flesh out a  lot--cardboard characters, scenes, pacing, the last few chapters are pretty rushed.  And then I need to take the machete and hack it to bits and get rid of all the extra words.  I guess I don't feel like partying because I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO.

What I am going to do this time--I'm going to let it sit for 3 weeks like a good little writer.  Because, confession, I actually started going back and editing while I was still working on the thing, and I realize that was dumb because I need to do all my big picture first and how can you do big picture unless you have the whole thing written... but I get so dang anxious for feedback and then I don't feel like I can send it out unless I tweak it and it just goes down hill from there.

My plan for those three weeks is to pump up my word count for my other project--ya know the whole co-authored thing.  So goodbye Parasites until November 2.

Phew.  That made me smile a little.  Maybe I can celebrate--and what am I thinking? I need a new broach for the broach purse.

(Um, and side note... I'm kinda scared to tell my husband because then the WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SEND IT IN? Questions are going to start back up...little does he realize this thing needs at least 5 more drafts before it goes anywhere.  Anyone else have relatives who can't understand why you haven't been published yet?)

And since I neglected the 31 days of Halloween for so long (because I was so busy word spewing...) here are some more awesome Halloween costumes for your viewing pleasure.

I would be the center witch.  

Bucket head. Woot.

My husband was like, 'What? You were a nun for Halloween?' Uh, no I wasn't--that was for Sound of Music, and technically it's just a dress up picture.

This is obviously a Christmas pic, but is that Santa massively creepy or what?

*Shivers*  

Deadlines: self imposed and otherwise...

I have this deadline coming up--10 weeks to whip my novel into the best shape I can. (That's like 4 chapters a week...uh...)

BECAUSE I'M HAVING A BABY! Phew, just had to get that off my chest.  

Is this weird that I'm just starting to realize this? I mean come on--I start my final trimester tomorrow...  And yeah my due date isn't until May...but since my last child came at 36 weeks, um I'm kinda feeling like maybe I need to rush things along.

Is this stressing me out?

NO NOT AT ALL!  SHEESH!  WHY ARE YOU EVEN ASKING ME THIS!?!
(wiping copious amounts of frosting off my face)

I'm not sure if it's realizing that I'm going to have another kid around, making it twice as hard to do anything for a while or the fact that I have this deadline...but it's like all of a sudden my brain is shutting down and I can't even fix the next page let alone the next chapter.

Maybe it's because I'm having serious nesting issues today and worked my bum off--seriously when did I care that there were crumbs on the toaster or that weird pink stain on the linoleum...but all of a sudden my eyes were like hyper-critical noticing every freakin' thing...crumbs, peeling paint, un-organized drawers, and all the random dirt, dust, sparkles... it was a long day.

Okay.  I feel better...I guess I'll go stare at my stupid novel again.

Anybody else have an impeding deadline?  Or any idea what to do about it?

99th Page Blogfest

So here is my 99th page... (with minimal editing, which makes me realize I need to edit like this... take it out of context and it's easier to look at the mechanics of writing).  For whatever reason the format is really weird and it's not cooperating, so sorry.  :) 


After feeding the horses, I found a brush hanging on the wall and tried to keep myself content by grooming the large animals.  I cleaned Mr. Birdwell's blood off my coat with handfuls of water from MadPlay’s stall and an old rag.  Duke’s paw prints changed into red and brown smears.  I took a ragged breath, fighting the tears.  How long had it been?  How much longer would it be until I knew anything?

            When I had resorted to pacing the length of the barn, the light started to fade.  If Mr. Birdwell had died Jack would have found me by now and if he were still waiting for news he wouldn’t leave--not that I could blame him.  I didn’t want to spend the night in the barn again.  But where was Camille?  When would she show up again?  Her disappearance left me uneasy, I wasn’t sure what had happened in the woods—but she had vanished.  And with her went my chances of getting home.  I started to panic thinking of the photograph, wouldn’t it have to be one of Jack and his father hunting?  I pulled the image from my pocket, it was blurry, nothing like it had been before, I couldn’t make out people or anything in the background, just swirls of dark and light.

            I shivered.  If I hadn’t come things would have been different.  Camille would have taken the picture.  Instead, I made the stupid duck call to distract them, guilt consumed me.  The barn door creaked open and I squinted through the twilight at the figure coming through it. 

            “Oh Jack! How is he?”  I ran to him, noticing the deep circles underneath his eyes.  He smiled at me and held out his arms, wrapping me in his embrace.

WIP Wednesday

Word count:  4218

I'm kind of bummed.  I only worked on this project once in the last week, but lately my free time has been entirely gone--so I need to grateful I even got this much done.

Goal for next week:  AT LEAST up to 5500

WIP: Sick

I think I'm really over my cold.  (crossing fingers)  This wouldn't be such a huge deal if I weren't involved in a relay race on Saturday...where I have to swim 1.2 miles.

In  other news, I'm also so sick of my old WIP and have decided it's officially time to move on (until Natalie gives me her feedback...which will probably send me into a whole new slew of revisions...).

I'm so excited about this new idea...because it's fun.  I've been chewing on it for a long time and it feels so great to start it.  I'm such a dork.  I get these bursts of inspiration where I'm cracking myself up while writing.
I love writing a first draft.  I don't hate doing revisions...because I usually figure out how bad the first draft is and I love rewriting scenes to make them better.

But there is something about having a blank canvas again.

It's a little scary and super exhilarating...

I have an outline, but I don't get detailed.  I just write and see where things go.  I love this part of writing... all kinds of crazy things pop up that leaving me saying:  Really?  And then I grin and think:  Yes, really.

And even though I know I will eventually hack it to bits and make it better... it's awesome just to word vomit and not care if my ideas seem lame in another month--because you have to have these 'awesome' first ideas to build on them later and make them magic...

So official word count of shiny new WIP = 3529 only 56471 to go... yes!

I'm shooting for 60,000 because last time I totally over shot and had to hack away a lot of words, we'll see how this goes.

Final (kind of) word count for E.I.G. =   68,998

WIP: Brainstorm Edition

My last Beta read my MS.  Dun Dun Duuunnnn!

I've got some tweaking to do.  Tweaking's good.

Need to fill out the ending.
Beef up a couple of characters.
Sprinkle in with some minor details.
Play with the idea of a Prologue.

And then Viola... I'll be done and buy a ticket to query land.

Wait what?  A PROLOGUE...but you never even read those... 


Yes I know a Prologue.  I've started sketching out a couple.  IT'LL BE SUPER SHORT I PROMISE.  We'll see how it goes... If I can possibly insert some of the information/story of my villain in a different way--I will do it.  But right now this seems like the most smooth/best way to get 'er done.

What do you think?

Do you like writing or reading prologues?

Are they confusing? Do they add anything?

I'm curious what other people think.  In the meantime I'm going to keep reading this awesome blog I just found:     Between Fact and Fiction--Natalie Whipple

She has amazing insight and has helped me not throw in the towel... go check out her archives with stuff about:  writing a synopsis, critique groups, querying.  It's great.

 I'm seriously addicted to chalk... 

WIP Thursday

I'm experiencing burn out...

I want to work on my WIP--I've had more major editing ideas/I'm still streamlining my MS... but it's just not working today.

I think it has to do with sleep deprivation and a busy/unpredictable schedule.

Time to pick out a book and recharge.

WIP

I've been hiccuping on my WIP...

I worked hard for about a week, and then WHAMMO...I haven't worked on it in four days! 

My hiccups have been induced by having some awesome plot twisting ideas... and putting off making the changes. (I've been studying up on "raising the stakes" and character motivation) 

I'm on my 8th draft. 8th. 

And I just realized that I need to add two major threads to my story...

I had just successfully chopped my word count to:

79496 (which is still kind off long, I'm shooting for 75,000)

Bummer, because that's about to go back up.  Here's me putting on my writing hat...and then back to the chopping block. 

Yes.  That is my thinking sombrero and my lucky machete.  

  

This is amazing!

Not that it has anything to do with writing or an update on my new "plan"...

but it's so cool.

So I decided to change my time line, I'm doing steps 3-5 all the same time, and hopefully this will save time. So I go through three chapters a day with a fine tooth comb and fix the world building, consistency and cut the fat... it feels like it's going well, I'm really pleased with the first nine chapters I've done.

Hopefully I can keep it up. I'm still giving this segment of the plan until july 11th, but hopefully I'll be moving to the next phase before then.

The Plan...update

So why is everyone trying to get me to finish my book...don't they know it takes time to cultivate perfection?

Besides now I have a plan, I'm going to finish it, for the 7th...maybe 8th time.

My husband just asked me to finish my novel so we can be millionaires and start living the dream...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA!

Oh and he wants that for a father's day gift so, I my deadline has been changed... to June 20th.

Right. I'm on that. Just shut the door and watch the baby...oh and bring me a bag of m&m's because I'm hard at work in here. I've got a deadline!

The Plan

I need to be finished...for my own sanity.

This is the plan:
Part 1:
1. Finish Major Edits (that I'm almost done with, on pg. 202 of 284) 1 week (6/11-6/17)update...finished these Edits 6/12/10, moving onto next phase of plan
2. Re-outline MS 2 days (6/18-6/19) update finished outline 6/15/10
3. Protag. Edits, motivation and consistency 1 week (6/20-6/27)
4. World building 1 week (6/28-7/4)
5. Trimming the Fat... 1 week (7/5-7/11)

Plan revised...I just got edits back from my sister-in-law and they are amazing! So I'm trying to do steps 3-5 plus her edits all at the same time... so it's going a little slower...but I feel really good about it :) So the deadline for all these steps has also change... it's now:  Aug 1st

Part 2:
6. Then send it to my betas and take it on a road trip...(Aug.1-Aug.17)
7. Re-read/re-work query/synopsis/submission material
8. Make Edits
9. Query... September 1st.

I have a deadline. Huzzah.

WIP update, poco a poco

83,661 words

I need to chop more, but I've ran into more plot inconsistencies... which is so frustrating, because if you change something one place you have to change all the others...duh

The real problem when you change those things, you realize it won't work anyway or something is better and you have to go back and fix things again.

And when you miss one that's why you have readers who are like 'what the heck is going on here?' because the whole work is jumbled around in your head...

 Sometimes I can't remember where a scene happened in reference to another and I'm like wait, did he already say that?-does she know that yet?-did meet those people yet?

So the next editing plan I have is to write another synopsis...an updated one so I can keep the plot straight of when things happen and where I need to add things about characters or actions.

I feel like working on this book is never going to end... but I have to remember...poco a poco it will get done.

My WIP

I have edited my manuscript multiple times:

1 wrote it last may-august
2 re-wrote it in the middle of writing it, finished it and gave it to someone else
3 re-wrote it, gave it to someone else
4 rewrote it,
5 then rewrote it again, because I had a break from it, gave it to someone else
6 and rewrote it
7 Now I'm working on tightening it.

After this I have to give it back to one of my editors, and then to my original reader... After I go through those edits, my plan is to send it out to the world... I only hope it's ready, but there is a point when you have to move on, for better or worse and that time is rapidly approaching.

My MS was 87,685 (I still have a few edits that need to be made that will probably add to this word count, but hopefully a few will take away from it) Needless to say my MS feels a little heavy...

I found this really helpful for tightening my MS...

I've searched for:
Just (got rid of 458 words)
Guess (got rid of 253 words)
So (I'm still searching this but I'm up to thirty four words)

Not all words deleted were 'just' 'guess' or 'so' but it helped me tighten lengthy phrases around those words...I feel lighter already...

86942 words, my goal is to get it down to at least 80,000 because that's still a long book--that comes out to about 320 pages... oy! If I can get the story to work in less, that would be great, but I've also heard of people over editing their manuscripts--cutting, tweaking, chopping their words into oblivion...and I love this story too much to let that happen.