Tag Archives: rewrites

Too MUCH!

04 Monday Nov 2019

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I have found myself experiencing a significant increase in the amount of messages I’m receiving and, therefore, having to respond to!  My phone at the end of a day is sitting around 30% these days all due to everyone seeming to think I need to be inundated with messages!  Yesterday I actually decided to not reply for several hours and see what happened… guess what?  Nobody died!  Nobody ended up calling 911… and I had P&Q!

I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with that.  I understand that Mercury is, apparently, in Retrograde which can mess with people, increase their negative thinking as well as mess with electronics, among other things.  What I read was that you shouldn’t make any decisions during this time… wait if you can.  You can look it up if you absolutely must have further details!

Of course the time change is playing it’s usual tricks!  I’m hungry all the time and I’m tired beyond words.  Last night I actually did something I haven’t done before and this morning wasn’t quite as bad as other years has been… except that I’m hungry right now and it’s only 3:00!

This morning I had a break in appointments and got my laptop out.  I was working on the writing for Breadcrumbs and may have actually managed to come up with something.  I will have to wait and see if I still like what I wrote after I have stepped away from it for a while.  Neither is very long and I’m not sure if it’s what they are truly seeking.

I also had more time to look at a couple of publisher’s notes and I’m debating if it would be better to write the prologue in Lizzie’s POV but that kind of takes away from the mystery of it… which is why I haven’t decided yet if I want to pursue this… I’m not saying it’s not great that a publisher is interested but my challenge is that I wrote this novel from a true story making things up and a few changes to the scenario but kept the prologue in the same mood as the original newspaper article so it’s hard to alter that.  That’s my biggest challenge.  Other things like POV, tightening wording, I don’t have an issue with that.

Still have to think about that!  Haven’t completely dropped the idea.  I do need to get some solid time to review and try my hand at a couple of things because they do want an answer from me about whether I’m willing to sit and do the rewrites.  I can’t sit on that forever.

Life is just soooo busy right now… not saying that’s a bad thing, just not accustomed to all this writing stuff all at the same time!  It’s what I have wanted; it’s what I’ve waited almost 20 years for!

 

I LOVE my readers!

08 Monday Jul 2019

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I was delighted to get a comment today and it was reassuring to see that I’m not the only one who will abandon Camp NaNoWriMo this month because of other “things”!

We don’t always get the opportunity to write what we think we should be writing!  I know that we are the writers but there sometimes seems to be someone else in control of the what!

I find I cannot be all things to all characters until I’m published and fully able to leave those characters behind for good and the ones from this novel seem to be sticking around for the long haul.

However, there’s a lot of chatter going on!  I added 1,000 words yesterday to this manuscript and today I managed to spend a couple of hours and added another 1,500 words to it!  All this on a novel I thought was complete but for proofreads.  And it’s not like my writer brain said it needs more… the characters are still alive and well and needing different parts added.

So, like my reader who commented, I too, will likely end up putting my Camp NaNo on hold until November and I will resort to finishing this glorious work in the time it takes.

I guess I can chalk up another blog post for today… YAY me!

Tomorrow I am going to talk a little about this novel of mine.  I really need to title it so I can reference it in my posts easier.  With all the works in progress at the moment I feel like I’m confusing you!

Perhaps I’ll get a couple of suggestions from you?

Too tired and too cold…

22 Saturday Oct 2016

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to write a long post…

The fatigue now comes from Wednesday staying awake later than I should have finishing a book–hey, in my defense, it was the longest epilogue ever written!!!

Last night, because I had gone all day without writing anything other than my blog post, I had to write!  I ended up handwriting four or five pages in my notebook carrying on the story from the point I was at.

The story has taken a more interesting turn now that I’m focusing more on rewriting than sticking with the old story… and moving it around.

I would recommend that to anyone who has tried it.  I usually manage to do this though on my edits.  Usually this isn’t a problem.

The last time I had this problem was trying to tell the story Til We Meet Again.  I was trying to tell that double storyline and I just wasn’t happy with it.  It took me multiple tries, walking away and then coming back to it to make it work.

This one has already been shelved, finished, rearranged and now I am doing huge rewrites and I haven’t even seen it on paper yet.

If there’s a story inside you that needs to get out, tell it.  I’m beginning to once again see that it’s worth it in the end.  Maybe my last two novels were easier to tell!

I wish you all a goodnight.  I’m taking my cold, tired and extremely painful self to bed!

Way off course!

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

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I’m forcing myself to take the time to do some editing every day.  I was going to bed agitated and have actually been spending part of my bedtime editing.  This is a good thing for me as I’m finally getting back into it!

However, and YIKES!!

Last night I reached page 50-something/Chapter 9 and I realized that it took this long for something to happen.  The book starts off with convocation and it’s a) David’s last and b) the introduction of the artist painting the mural.  Aside from two dreams that Rebecca has hinting at what’s to come, that’s it.  They go three days in those chapters before something happens.

So what do I DO?

We all tend to want to tell more story than we need to and that our audience wants us to.  They want the goods.  They want the meat of the story.  In the first book there were two stories.  The mystery that the writing on Rebecca’s kitchen wall brings and the romance that suddenly lands on her doorstep despite telling her best friend that she was done with men, at least for a while.  But I started that book off with her discovery of the writing on the wall under the old wallpaper.

It sets the stage!!

I’ve made a few tiny notes in my phone on what I will likely have to do to recollect and I think my idea will work, but it’s going to take a lot more rewriting, at least of the first part.  I’m going to finish the editing and then go back because I also don’t want to start repeating in the front of the book what I already have covered in the back of the book.

This is what happens when you start writing a book in 2011, write it in sections then let it sit for almost five years before picking it back up again.  I don’t recommend it.

For a long time, writing came so naturally to me.  Sure, there’s always room for improvement and improve I did, when I was writing a book or more per year.  Now I’m lucky to get one out once every two years.

I think I’m going to change that.  It’s time.  As part of the whole re-evaluating/start-over plan, it’s time to change my focus back to what I love to do.  The more I am able to do it, the better off I’ll be.  If I can keep editing in the evenings, even if it’s for 20 minutes, then when that’s done, I should be able to start writing for that 20 minutes.

I miss it.  It’s time to get it back.  It’s time to clear the clutter and take back my passion!

And eat chocolate but that’s another story!

Getting there…

06 Sunday Mar 2016

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I am always torn when I reach this point!

I have a Cursive class that’s going to run, I’ve been invited back to teach Adult writing and I have marked my writing camp on the calendar in ink!

Now I have to get down to the tasks of actually planning the adult class and the camp because there has been a time gap since I taught adult last and I want to add so much more to it!  The request for an advanced camp leaves me pulling new material for the kids but I have to keep it understandable at the same time… these are 10-13 year olds after all!

The feeling is incredible when I think about all of it and it just makes me want to do it all the time and I know that’s not possible either… at least not yet.

Last week I spoke of that desire to have my studio and that urge builds with each of the above.  The successes build things up to make me wonder if my studio would be viable.  Could I do it?  Could I really make a go of it?

And then there is the flip side of all of it… it means needing the time to get all the planning done and that is such a huge challenge for me.

The world of writing evolves so quickly that it’s sometimes difficult to keep up. I make sure I pick up copies of Writer’s Digest, The Writer and Poets & Writers regularly in order to keep up, or at least try.

But there is much more that I want to do and so little time to do it in and even less energy.  My back has been extra painful for the last four weeks which takes a lot of energy out of me.  I can’t sit for extended periods of time but I can’t stand either.  I think back to 2003 when my doctor explained my “condition” and told me that my spine would degenerate at a far faster rate than average and gave me about ten years.  That was up three years ago and I have to wonder sometimes.  And do I want to know?

We all have our own issues that we are battling with.  Whether temporary or permanent we all have to sit back and evaluate what it is that’s most important to us, how we want to proceed and, ultimately, how will we get there.  Taking the plunge just can’t happen.  Now is when I wish I could win the lottery and make it all happen.

Perhaps I should actually write a memoir about life with back pain… I’ll keep that in mind!

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