Marching Forward Thursday, March 13, 2014

I’m starting to grow weary of Anne, which means I’m in a good place literarily. I only grow bored and tired when I’ve been pushing hard on a project, and I’ve definitely been pushing with Anne. I’ve been setting goals of writing 500 words daily and since I’m so early into Anne, this has included 500 words daily of pure writing.

As March begins to wind down, I recognize that my sabbatical is ending and it’s time for me to begin sending query letters again. I’m in no way discouraged about Damen, as I understand I come knocking at the traditional publishing world’s gates at one of its most tumultuous times in history. The world is reading less; I know this from the number of people I’ve unfriended on Facebook for Liking groups like “I Don’t Read.” Not only is the world reading less, the people who are reading are buying fewer books, and when they do buy, more often they are going for e- rather than traditional. It puts everyone, aspiring authors, agents, publishers, in a tough place, which is why I no longer roll my eyes when I see the same themes of books paraded in front of me by the same authors who have always sold well; I understand why the publishing world does how it does. All this notwithstanding, I go into this round of the agent search a little colder and a little more worldly than I was last July.

Since Anne is beginning to wear on me, this may be the best time to take another look at Damen now that I’m about nine months from it. Perhaps, with some a clearer, cooler mind, I can make some more worthwhile edits to make the novel a little more appealing to those unsure about offering a chance to this author.

Onward and upward!

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30-Day 5K – Day One Friday, June 1, 2012

I can’t believe I was actually able to do this today. I fully anticipated that I might get through 2 or possible 3 thousand words, but I was actually able to push through 5700 words this evening. It makes me proud to see that with just a little bit of a push, I can get so much accomplished. Mind you, it’s far easier to re-write and edit 5700 than to write that from scratch, but considering that I’ve got to pause and rub my wrist every two dozen words, I suppose it evens out in the end.

As I push through this edit, it’s becoming glaringly obvious that I may not be able to squeeze this under 120K words before I get to the last chapter. I’m currently down to 203K which, while down from 288K and a vast improvement with still half the novel to go, is still not as thin as I need it to be. Still…if someone told me in February that I’d have the novel done in March and have it cut by almost 30% by the first of June, I’d have called you a bold-faced liar.

So, anyway, cheers to me for getting this month off to a great start. I won’t ignore that I promised myself a single episode of Downton Abbey every night that I meet my goal, with two episodes if I manage to finish more than one chapter in a night, but whatever works.

Edit: Since I’m back to counting daily word count again, I think I’d better start including where I ended each day again (until they arrived at the house) to keep me honest.

Ongoing Thursday, April 12, 2012

This process has seen both good news and bad news.
The bad news is that I’ve seen myself ready to give up on this book at least twice in the last few weeks because of all this cutting. As annoyed as I am, I’ve got no one to blame but myself. I’m the one who rambled on about scenes longer than King or Tolkien and it’s my fault that I’ve got so much to cut.

The good news, however, is that my short term memory is just about shot. I’ve found that if I delete a large section, just start the re-write and take a quick break to do something else for a minute, when I come back to the novel, I’ve completely forgot what I’d just deleted and can just pick up from wherever I’d stopped. I have little attachment to whatever I’d deleted and I’ve been able to speed up this process a bit. Where it took me three days to edit just one chapter, I’m almost up to 2 chapter edits a day; it’s not great considering I’ve another 30 to go, but all progress is progress.

This last chapter I’ve finished ended at just over 6200 words, which is more bad news, but I’ve clipped more 40K words from the novel in 11 chapters, which is more good news.

Life in general seems intent on interrupting me from my writing; boy trouble; first-job stress; family issues. It never ends. Thank God I’ve got God to keep me upright and pushing until I reach the end.

Last week, I sang in the choir for the first time in a while and we sang a song who’s lyrics have been repeating this whole week. I’d add them here but I’ve already Tweeted them. The main thing is that even through this trying, trying time, I’m still okay.

I’m not sure if I’ll make my 4/30 deadline for completing this draft, but as I said numerous times last year, on I trek.