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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Welcome to the Writing Life! (Read 699 times)
Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #100 - Feb 15th, 2012 at 2:07am
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Done! Smiley
Now to change it from single spaced to double spaced and check the last page of each chapter. If there is only a few sentences or less on the last page, the chapter will need to be tightened up. Agents, editors and publishers HATE nearly empty pages....
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #101 - Feb 15th, 2012 at 4:10am
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Okay, THAT is done. I found some pages that were less than one quarter to one third full and I tightened those chapters up and lost about 3 pages off the page count.

Tomorrow, I will pull out my most recent hard copy and make sure that I've found all the formatting errors. When that is done, I'll print another hard copy (double spaced) for submission (if needed) and make a copy in Pages for electronic submission.

I know that I'm running behind but I AM gonna get this baby published!
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #102 - Feb 16th, 2012 at 3:32am
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I got out the hard copy and have gone through the first three chapters. As expected, I'm not finding too many errors so if I can keep on track, I should have this part done by next week, early I hope!  Then I'll start making the various "versions" that I need to have. I'll also be rattling the cage of the agency I queried and have yet to hear from.  I'd keep working tonight but my eyes are burning and my right index finger is hurting. Too much "mousing" today I guess!
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #103 - Feb 17th, 2012 at 4:28am
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I've finished the second pass through the first seven chapters and I'm about half way through the manuscript by page count.  Hopefully, I'll be printing the hard copies sometime during the weekend.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #104 - Feb 18th, 2012 at 5:26am
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I've finished the proofing. Smiley And I've made the double spaced copy in Appleworks.
Next comes single spaced and double spaced copies in Pages. I "hope" that I'll be able to transfer them intact on the first try.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #105 - Feb 19th, 2012 at 1:19am
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As noted elsewhere, the transfer didn't go off without a hitch. The Bold, Italics and Underline came through this time but centering and page break didn't and random blank lines (three or four on some pages) were scattered through the manuscript.  Smiley Smiley Research done this morning revealed that the problem wasn't me being stupid and not being able to figure out the software. The problem was the DEVELOPERS being stupid in not providing for a method of converting AppleWorks to Pages without having to reformat everything. *sigh* I am apparently not the only person with half finished novels who needs to convert and can't.  I am hoping that I will be able to run my AppleWorks copy through the scanner and somehow get them into Pages that way. Otherwise, I am faced with the extremely unpleasant task of typing the manuscripts for both Books 1 and 2 into Pages which will run nearly 1,000 pages single spaced. Smiley  I have been working on this project for SIX DAMNED YEARS and I am NOT happy to be having to work around some [censored] developers' idea of "good" software because said developers were too damned lazy to write a progam to convert AppleWorks6 to Pages.

I WANNA WRITE, DAMNIT!! NOT STRUGGLE WITH THE [CENSORED] SOFTWARE!!

Damned good thing I don't drink.............
« Last Edit: Feb 19th, 2012 at 2:29am by Penthesilea »  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #106 - Feb 19th, 2012 at 3:37am
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I'm still going to the mat with this "expletive deleted" software in the hope that I can avoid retyping both Book 1 and Book 2 into Pages since my "scanner" idea doesn't look promising. *sigh*
I've just had another thought and I'll try that....


Post # 23,900
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #107 - Feb 20th, 2012 at 3:44am
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I believe that I've avoided having to retype Books One and Two. One is more or less finished in Pages.  The first chapters are the most messed up and I'll be working on them tomorrow and I'll be going over it a couple of more times before I set it aside. The Pages copy is for use if/when I epublish it on Amazon.
« Last Edit: Feb 20th, 2012 at 3:49am by Penthesilea »  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #108 - Feb 21st, 2012 at 9:46pm
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I've been working on the "Pages" copy of Book 1, running down the small formatting errors which are turning out to be too many spaces between sentences or "tabs" in the middle of sentences and similar problems. Of course, find and fix enough of those and you may find a blank line or two at the bottom of the page, so I've been fixing those too. Since I'm likely the only editor Book One will see if I end up going the epublishing route, I'm having to be rather "obsessive" about it.  The eyes however, are "complaining" mightily right now so I'm going to take a break while I still have the ability to focus. I'll be back in a while.
  

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Penthesilea
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #109 - Feb 22nd, 2012 at 11:36pm
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It's taken all day but I have FINALLY finished going through the Pages copy of Book 1. Smiley It is now filed (in two places!) until such time as I may need it for epublishing. What changes I made on it that weren't formatting errors have been made on both of the "final draft" copies in AppleWorks6.
I intend, for at least the rest of the night, TO THINK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE!
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #110 - Feb 26th, 2012 at 2:59am
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Book 3, Chapter 13, first draft is done. That just leaves what is now being called Chapter 14 but which will be 14 and 15 when all is said and done. I have stuff to add Smiley and stuff to delete Smiley and since more is going in than coming out and the chapter is 41 pages long now, I fully expect to get two chapters out of it. hehehehe The night of Our Hero's handfasting to his True Love is gonna rock the house and the orgy that goes on at the same time will be explosive as well since most of the major characters are going to get in on the naughty action.  Once I have the first draft of Book 3 done, I'm going to transfer it to Pages and do the final draft in that. Maybe that way, the formatting errors will be less and hanging onto my sanity will be easier.... Smiley
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #111 - Feb 26th, 2012 at 5:42am
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Rather than start on Chapter 14/15 tonight -- I'm not feeling terribly inspired -- I decided to copy Book 2 into Pages and start the preliminaries on it. I'm getting the centering and page breaks put in and doing a little of the preliminary tightening up. *sigh* This book made me cry a lot while I was writing it and I keep tearing up while working on it tonight.
At least my eyes won't dry out...
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #112 - Feb 28th, 2012 at 5:33am
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I worked on Book 2's formatting errors while I waited for my cognitive functions to come online. Then I started in on Chapter 13/14 and I've done pretty well. Right now, it's mostly editing/deleting the source material and making posts into prose. Once I've gotten through the whole thing, I'll decide what I need to put in to finish up this "story arc" and lay the groundwork for the next one.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #113 - Feb 28th, 2012 at 11:12pm
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Smiley It's looking like Chapter 14/15 is gonna turn into Chapter 14/15/16.......
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #114 - Feb 28th, 2012 at 11:21pm
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*BLINKS!!* Chapter SIXTEEN????
  


We creative types have to create in order to feel ALIVE... That's why I write. Without my writing, I would not be living, only existing. ~Me~

Smiley Music is essential to life. ~Me~ Smiley

I'm sunny natured with a side of EVIL...
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #115 - Feb 29th, 2012 at 1:16am
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Hmmmmmm.... yeah. And that will be JUST the handfasting, the reception, the *cough, cough* "consummation" and at least one epilogue -- maybe as many as three  Smiley -- which will set the stage for Book 4. My "unindicted co-conspirator" who came up with the central idea of Book 4 thought that we should take at least a year to roleplay it [this was back in '06 when we were still roleplaying the story and real life hadn't pulled him under yet.  Cry ] and I agreed. NOW, with all the dangling plot lines I STILL have, I'm wondering if I can fit it all into one book -- or at least one that isn't as big as "War and Peace"! I may be looking at two books instead of one. I hope this next arc doesn't go to three but I have so many good ideas that fit into this time frame that it is looking like two minimum. Anyway, Chapter 14 looks like it is going to be dealing with some "characters and situations" that have developed because of that literary murder I didn't commit and Chapter 15 will be the run up to the handfasting. Our Hero will be spending a lot of time either naked or in a skimpy loincloth and I have to decide how much detail to go into about THAT. [Yeah, a whole chapter in which the men (all well developed and endowed specimens) are mostly naked or completely so. Who would have thought it....] And there is the Bachelor Party with belly dancers, pole dancers and all the other "trimmings" that I can think of....
I think that I'd better reserve the rest of the week for blocking out the action in this last section or I'm gonna get hopelessly lost!
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #116 - Feb 29th, 2012 at 7:01pm
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I've finished the first editing/tightening pass through Book 2. I'm gonna take a break and then dive into the last three chapters of Book 3. I'd do the "easy stuff" first except that it doesn't look like there IS any "easy stuff" in this section. *sigh* Oh well, I'll just dive in and start writing. There is always rewrite/revise/edit...
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #117 - Mar 3rd, 2012 at 4:29am
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I keep thinking that "My world" needs something along the lines of the "Impossible Missions Force." The fact that I was fan of the original run of the series and a FANATIC about the second run might have something to do with it! I've already implied that Our Hero has a special covert team as part of his personal forces which he has led personally and used to insure his Lady's security. Being a very recognizable Head of State will cut down on his covert activities so a new team leader will be needed. Smiley They will operate out of Our Hero's Night Club (of course!) and there won't be any "this message will self destruct in five seconds" (trademarks and copyrights, ya know!) but a covert team taking on difficult secret missions might be a handy thing for an author like me to have.....
Need to put that idea on the back burner and let it simmer for a while....
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #118 - Mar 3rd, 2012 at 9:21pm
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Well, that "simmer" didn't last long! Names and faces started popping into my head and I've written about two and a half pages in the last hour that will be inserted somewhere (not sure where yet!) in Chapter 14. Not going to have the time and space in Book 3 to do anything with them but they will be there when I need them for Book 4 and I'm setting it up so stand alone adventures with or without Our Hero can be written later as well.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #119 - Mar 4th, 2012 at 12:10am
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I hit the "three page" mark before the Queen coerced me into joining her on the bed, which I did, which resulted in a nap, which has resulted in me getting a second wind that should carry me through to bedtime -- which will be late since Skywise's shift tonight started at 4 pm instead of his usual 2:30 pm.  I'll wrap this section up tonight and decide where it should go -- might even insert it tonight and that will be one "situation" that needs to be dealt with out of the way.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #120 - Mar 4th, 2012 at 2:37am
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I ended up adding about four and a half pages of new material to Book 3. As I figured, it went into Chapter 14 fairly early on. The next situation I have to deal with is a couple of new members being added to Our Heroine's family. It seems her brother has a daughter in her very early teens who is a bit upset about the situation. And the girl has a mother who has some issues too. They aren't insurmountable issues but fitting into the family is going to be a bit difficult for both of them. I haven't decided just HOW difficult yet. I'll have to see where the writing takes me...
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #121 - Mar 6th, 2012 at 2:39am
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I need more "invective" for my world. Specifically, right now I need a much more offensive term than I've created so far...... Smiley
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #122 - Mar 6th, 2012 at 8:10pm
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Well, I finally created the word I needed last night and just created another one for a specific phobia that does not currently exist in this world and found another one for another, really obscure, phobia which gives me the reason why a character in Book 3 who is reasonably sane up to about the middle of Chapter 14 goes completely Smiley crazy for no apparent reason. I'm currently toying with her trying to kill either Our Hero or Our Heroine. She won't succeed, of course, but it throws an interesting situation into what has been a harmonious "family mix." I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with the situation in Book 4 but it should be interesting whatever I decide to do.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #123 - Mar 6th, 2012 at 8:31pm
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hehehehe Our Hero's big brother, who has heretofore been celibate, is about to fall off the "celibacy wagon" with a bang. It's amazing what a few dozen gorgeous, more than willing Amazons can do for a man......
Writing this is gonna be fun... naughty fun, but still fun!
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #124 - Mar 7th, 2012 at 4:30am
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*sigh* I haven't gotten to writing the fun/naughty stuff yet. I had a couple of ideas about the character with issues I've introduced and I've been working on them. I've finished one scene with her and I have ideas for a few more so it doesn't look like she just flips out out of the blue. Fortunately, I have enough "time" in the last three chapters to do it right.
  

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