I feel accomplished!

Thinks are looking up for The Taste of Blood. It has survived first physical edits, and is half way through complete rewrites. It feels good to have gone this far, and knowing that my goal of querying at the end of March is close at hand. I will hopefully have second edits done by then, and during that first initial 6 week waiting period, I will be constantly polishing the novel with final edits.

This small accomplishment has given me the enthusiasm to keep going, and even start musing for my query letter. It is an exciting time for me, and after this novel is polished I will be working on the second book, the outline at least, and trying to see what I can do with Something's Missing.

I haven't heard anything back on the Writer's Digest Contest, so I don't think I won, but that's alright. March is my next month to send something out, and, though I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do, I will send something out. Things are looking up in the Amy world of writing. Let's hope it stays that way! Well I'm off to bed, I think, and have all the hopes in the world to get up at 6 with Brandon. :D

Early morning blurb

It's almost seven now, and though I have been up for an hour, I have accomplished some small feats. I have had my first cup of coffee for the day, and I have done my early morning query research. www.writers.net always has query letters that are up for review. Some are good, and others bad, but I can learn from them all. In progress of my own writing, I can smile and give a small easy sigh. I am making progress now, true progress.

I'm almost done with physical first edits for Taste of Blood. This is a very good sign, seeing as after I'm done with physical first edits, and retyping them, I can start physical second edits. Which will be more in-depth in certain aspects, but I won't have to retype all the chapters. I hope.

On the upside, I have started rambles for book two in the series, I was trying not to start any until book one was completely done, but in order for me to make sure book one was completed properly, I had to start rambles for book two. Some decisions had to be made, somethings stayed and some things didn't. Everything is turning out wonderful.

I have three days without my husband here, and I have two options for those days. One: Work on my novel endlessly and nonstop in hopes that I don't notice his absents, or Two: work feverishly to make that house spotless.

Take your guess on which one I'm doing? :)

Small set back and school

Or maybe school does count as the set back? Okay, no not really. I'm not where I wanted to be, I'm still considered a week behind on edits. I will get caught up, but first that dreaded thing called home work must be finished. I'm starting to worry that my novel will not be done before March 1st, though I try to tell myself I'm alright with that fact, I can't lie to myself. I gave myself a goal, and I'm failing to meet that goal. I do that enough at work, I don't want to do it at home as well. Of course it didn't help that when I actually had extra time yesterday morning that my computer didn't want to start up. It gave me a scare, but Brandon has done a once over and everything is alright. So tonight, after doing homework I will go back to pounding out the rewrite of Ch 6, lucky, the physical edits of Ch 7 are almost already done, and that will move me on the physical edits of Ch 8 sometime tomorrow. So we hope.

I wasn't feeling well today, so I opted to sleep in instead of getting up when Brandon left. Tomorrow though, I am determined to start getting up with him again, because that seemed to work. So much to get done, and so little time, but I have to learn how to meet deadlines. Simple as that. So there's my update, I have to go get ready for work.

yikes!

39 days until the first of March. I may not make my deadline, and that scares me. Though I have closed some of the gap, I'm still about a half a week to a week behind. According to my schedule, I had left a week of relaxation between final edits and starting the Query work. I'm starting to think it's time to be selfish. No more going out, no more being social during lunch, and strictly working on editing and homework during my free time.

I no longer have days off because school has started. Though I have started my schedule of waking up at 6 every morning and that is going...wellish. It takes a little trying, but it gives me a nice two hours before school or work that I can edit and rewrite.

Even as I struggle though editing, I find myself dreaming about book two. I have made several notes already. I'm glad to know these characters are still with me! Well I gotta get back to work. Have a good day readers.

Feeling off

So despite the fact that I have been on a good roll with editing lately, I am still behind. I know that I have been trying to catch up, but just things in life keep coming up. I was thinking yesterday about where I want to go in my life and what I want to do, and I realized something. As soon as all the bills are paid off, and we both can find decent jobs, I want to move away from Colorado Springs.

I moved back here originally to be closer to family and move to a bigger town, but the problems that I moved away from, didn't manage to solve themselves. They managed to stay right where they were. I thought three years of being away would have at least put them in a different light. No. And it's not like these are problems I can fix, and some of them are the same problems I had when I was living in Grand Junction. So maybe it's time to grow up and face them. If that's what I'm going to do, then I want to do it while I live somewhere I actually like.

My writing has began to suffer again, though I did get a boost from a conversation with Nicki, and I don't mind the editing all of a sudden, but something just feels...off, and it's hurting my stories and my characters. I'm hoping to get a small vacation in March, but still the book is 'due' by then. That's all I really have that I can share right now. Off to work, in hopes that today is not horrible. Maybe I need more coffee?

Editing update

So, thanks to being sick, I am behind on my editing. Only by a couple days, but still; however, I am on a roll. I finished retyping Chapter 3 tonight, and though I have already cut about 6,500 words because of edits, I have no doubt that I will add later on during the book, and of course during second edits.

I am finding that my characters are coming even more alive for me. As I retype it's like the story becomes even more clear, who likes who, and the characters you love to hate, you can well...hate more. I think I like the way Chris Baty puts editing/writing. When you do Nano, you are going at a tree stump with axes and chainsaws to get something rough, and kind of...well ugly. When you edit you are going after it with dental picks and chisels. I think I'm somewhere in between, maybe with knives and axes, and second edits will be those chisels and that last edit will be dental picks, brushes and book polish.

I'm taking the rest of the night off I think. So I can finish healing from this ass-kicking cold. Yay for progress!

Book Review: No Plot? No Problem!

Founder of National Novel Writing Month, Chris Baty, released his book No Plot? No Problem! in order to help participants deal with the stress of writing a novel in thirty days. The beginning of the book Chris explains the history of Nanowrimo, and the meaning behind it. He explains on how to lock your inner editor up, and board it away for the month and how that striving for imperfection is fine, as long as you write.

The second part of the book is four pep talks that are meant to be read at the start of each week in November (Or which ever month you decide to write your novel). Each pep talk is inspirational to the stressful writer, who may be considering giving up. Chris keeps true to the feeling of Nanowrimo in his pep talks,and encourages all authors to reach that 50k goal. He closes the book with encouraging words to those who faced the challenge, and with a few wise words on editing.

Filled with humor, inspiration, and a bit of Chris Baty's quirkiness, No Plot? No Problem! is a book that any Nanowrimo participant should pick up and any author should keep for a quick inspiring moment.