Yeah, I’m going to use that title. I’m feeling it, baby! Not only that; we took our three-year-old to see Brave today — her first theater experience. It was fun. A beautiful movie, with lovely music and a good mix of light-hearted tomfoolery and drama. The storyline was perfect for my girl, although it was all about mother/daughter conflicts which I found a little disturbing, but terribly realistic. Sigh. Daughters. I remember the sort I was as a teen…and it’s nothing to look forward to. Maybe they’ll be more like their dad and end up laid back. 🙂
But in another use of the word brave…that’s one thing we writers have in spades: BRAVERY. I joked to my best friend earlier this week, as my belly churned over my novel, that writers have to simultaneously be extremely critical of their work, and ballsy enough to believe anyone else would give a damn about their stories. That’s a ridiculous balance to maintain. R.I.D.I.C.U.L.O.U.S. Mostly, I try to ignore the parts that make me nervous or scared and delve into the productive side. Hey, there’s plenty to do to take your mind off the pain of putting your work out there. Ha!
On Wednesday, I took a vacation day to write. That may seem drastic — to those of you who don’t have kids. Those of you who do have kids will know that your regularly scheduled work hours are the ONLY time you can count on. (With exceptions for extraordinary yet not uncommon circumstances of raising little ones.)
My vacation day was a huge success. I added all of the new scenes I’d written into my manuscript, and worked on transitions in the scenes around them. I also read through the first 35,000 words, working on consistency in plot, character, etc. The first 24,000 or so words were pretty clean already, but I had to start tying in some loose ends by Wednesday afternoon. So when I ended that day, I had the final 15,000 words to revise. By Friday night, I was done!! I’m going to print a copy and edit on paper, and then this baby is ready for beta readers. I’m starting to consider my publishing timeline and what I want to do in terms of a release for Queen Witch. The cover is in progress, and the proof I saw was gorgeous! I’ll share that when I have a final copy.
I’m still super excited about writing Descent in August. That’s next week! Yeah! And I have a decent outline, but still need to do a little work on that before I start writing. I figured out some new stuff this morning, starting to tie up loose ends for the final book in the series (there are five, and Descent is book four). Sometime in August I’ll do my final read of Queen Witch, too. Maybe by week two or three of writing Descent a few days off from that project will help.
Onward and upward — with word count, that is. 🙂 Have a great week, ROWers!
Descent?? Shiny new project? Awesome. Best of luck as you head into beta reads and revisions/edits. Publishing is right around the corner! We’ll get our new covers about the same time, I figure. I should reveal on 20 August!
I’m planning to publish by the end of September. Maybe we’ll have new releases at the same time. Ha!
Glad your vacation day proved productive. A few weeks ago my husband took the boys camping and I had two days (TWO DAYS!!) to myself. I wrote over 5K. (And I might add…the house stayed clean!!) I’m encouraging another trip…;}
Descent is the fourth Children of the Sidhe novella. I can’t wait; the female lead in this book has been bursting to have her say for quite a while. 🙂
I’m actually going to take a WHOLE WEEK off for writing. 🙂 Well…that’s probably not ALL I’m going to do. LOL
I can’t wait to see the cover. I know you’re getting really excited about this project getting finished and published. It would be cool if you and Nadja released books at the same time. 🙂
Yay for a whole writing week! I have a couple more days I can take, too, before the end of the year. Good stuff!
Wow, you are a quick worker, and really dedicated.
Thank you, Hunter. 🙂
The stories are waiting their turn — and none too patiently.
Sounds like a great week for your writing. Congratulations! (Also, glad to know that Brave is a good movie, too. We have young ones who are addicted to any new Pixar film.)
That’s awesome that you have a new project already lined up to go. Do you try to implement feedback from beta readers on previous projects as you work on new books, or do you keep the writing and revising stages separate for all of your projects?
I have books in multiple stages. All stages. lol. It works for me, because I need breaks before I can move books to the next stage. I usually draft a story, and then take a break before I approach edits and revision. I need that space to see the flaws in my work clearly. If I try to edit right after a first draft, the amount I still have to do is so overwhelming, and the process so slow…doesn’t work for me.
Ah the first movie, how cool! I remember the firsts for all of my daughters and it is always a special occasion. I have four, by the way, and one is laid-back – best of luck (smile).
Awesome use of a vacation day. I’ve done the same thing, but not as productively, on a couple of occasions. You are an inspiration by the amount you were able to accomplish. Kudo’s!
Have a great week 🙂
Thanks, Gene! I believe it was the panic at work. Always makes me extra special productive. 🙂
Hope your week is great, too!