Dec 10, 2008 | Business, General, Writing |
Um, yeah, absolutely! Except my beverage of choice is red wine. 😉
Okay, going list style today, because the thoughts are random:
1. Finished the corrections and sent them to editor.
2. Yay!
3. No lights up on the house yet. Knew it!
4. Wow, where'd that wind come from? At least it's not freezing or snowing!
5. RWA chapter Christmas party on Saturday.
6. What a difference a year makes!
7. Last year, I trotted off to the party having only squeaked my GH entry in under the deadline.
8. This year, I was ineligible to enter. Not upset about that!
9. Emote, people! I need forward motion *yesterday* on the WIP.
10. Need to watch my favorite holiday movies. Christmas Vacation is a must every year. Need me some Grinch and Rudolph too.
11. Remember when you were a kid and could only watch Rudolph once a year?
12. Eat, Santa, eat!
13. Watched The Polar Express in 3-D on Hubby's movie screen. Wow. I mean WOW.
14. Sometimes it's pretty cool to have a techno geek husband. 🙂
15. What are your favorite must-watch holiday movies?
Dec 9, 2008 | Writing |
I'm almost finished making my line edit corrections. At the same time, I'm thinking about the book I'm supposed to be writing. Wondering if I'll ever get into that groove where I know what my characters want and what they will do. Where every scene flows logically and I'm not sitting there going, “Uh, now what?” Man, I can't wait for that to happen.
Hasn't happened yet. *sigh* Partially, I'm distracted by the holidays and the preparations. My tree is decorated, my mantel is done, and my dining room table is mostly there. I have the poinsettias out, Sam the Snowman is in the front yard, and all that's really left are the lights on the house. Hopefully, that'll get done this week. Because if it doesn't, we're running out of time. We'll get them up in time to take them down. Not too much fun, really.
So, I'm staring at the WIP and trying to use the Force on the characters. Get busy, you two! Emote for me! We need some interesting, compelling, and amazing things going on. Isn't a forced marriage and a secret baby enough?! You'd think.
It makes me think of something Jane Porter said over on her blog. I'm paraphrasing, but she said that writing was like trying to wring water out of a mostly dry dishtowel. That's where I am at the moment. *sigh*
What's on your mind? Any interesting tricks or tips for getting the words flowing again?
Dec 5, 2008 | Writing |
I finished reading my line edits. It was harder than I thought. First, there were the changes made by the copy editor — some subtle and good for the story, others jarring and not my voice at all — and then there was the knowledge that what I was reading was the finished product, for the most part. I couldn't delete scenes or rewrite them or shift them around. What is there, is there.
And I'm not sure how I feel about it. I cringed in parts. Not always because of jarring CE changes, but simply because of the characters and what they were up to. Wow, I wrote that? Sometimes I was happy about it. Sometimes I was surprised — and not necessarily in a good way.
Every dream has a trade off. I would not trade this dream of being a published author for anything, but sometimes I'm surprised at how it has its negatives too. Once that baby is in print, it's out there. I'll have to learn to be tougher about it, I think.
Today, I begin inputting the corrections for my editor. And I still have my current WIP to get busy on again. Going away for the holiday threw me off. *sigh* What's on your plate this month, in addition to all the holiday craziness? December is always sooo busy, isn't it? It sure is for me, whether I mean it to be or not….
Dec 2, 2008 | Holidays, Writing |
I got line edits of my book!! I kept calling them copy edits, but realized we don't get copy edits from London — we get line edits. These are a print out of the entire book with all the lines numbered. It's your last chance to make corrections to the text. Some people see copy edits, which is the marked up manuscript. I got confused because I was expecting that.
But no, these are line edits. Contractually, I have two weeks to read them and communicate any changes to my editor. And there is one major, humongous, gigantic, freak-out worthy change that needs to be made: they spelled my name wrong.
For some reason, people see my name and gloss over the Y in Raye. They leave it out. They have also been known to give me an E on the end of Lynn. But there's no E, only a missing Y. *sigh* Perhaps I should have considered more carefully about taking a pen name. I did not because I'd had publicity already, and I wanted to build on it. Maybe it would have been easier anyway.
Too late now. I have already emailed my editor a panicked note telling her about this major, major mistake. I'm not a fan of my name in the first place, but I am not a Rae. No way, no how.
Aside from that, the line edits look pretty neat. I'm diving in today and seeing what's been done. I did peek a little and everything looks normal on the first few pages. Except one of my scene endings has been changed. I'll be thinking about that, I assure you. It's going to be weird reading this book and seeing those little changes here and there. It feels oddly like someone broke into your house and rearranged your furniture. You might like the arrangement, or you might be absolutely horrified. Guess I'll find out as I read. 🙂
As for the holiday, it was great and Florida was much warmer than Alabama is at the moment. Still, I am SO happy to be home. It was a long drive (10 hours each way), but we listened to audiobooks. We finished up Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and started Eragon — which, surprisingly, is extremely engaging.
How was your holiday? Did you finish your Christmas shopping and/or decorating yet? I thought Hubby and I would decorate yesterday since we were home — but no, he didn't want to do it. With line edits to do, and a deadline getting closer, I'm a bit worried about getting it done. 🙁
Nov 20, 2008 | Writing
This one is for the hubby. Thank goodness he has a hobby while I write!
I'm slogging along in the WIP, so unfortunately can't think of a single thing to talk about today. I have to get this proposal done ASAP. And I'm second guessing myself, of course. I always do this. You'd think I'd know this is the tough part, and to soldier through, but I don't want to face the rewrites later. I'm such a baby.
How's your day going?
Nov 15, 2008 | Blogging, Interviews, Writing |
Join me over at Romance Writers on the Journey! Keli Gwyn asks me about The Call, how my life has changed since, and what my advice to writers is for how to prepare for being published. Come on over and ask me a question or make a comment! You'll be entered for a chance to win a seriously cool bookmark!
Come keep me company. 🙂
