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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Welcome to the Writing Life! (Read 581 times)
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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #800 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:28am
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September 27, 2016

Road trip went as planned and I got a lot of reading done. One section I read has me thinking about rearranging the sequence of events in the first two or three chapters of Book 4. There’s time before any decisions have to be set in stone but it’s something I’ll be thinking about. Books One through Three don’t need to have the sequence changed since we “played it out” for the most part and -- after I converted it to prose -- it pretty much follows the “escalating threat” formula until the end.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #801 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:29am
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October 2, 2016

For all practical purposes, vacation is over. I managed to get more done than I thought I would during it so I’m not terribly far behind. I found another section -- nearly a page long -- that could be cut without sacrificing story since all it did was reiterate the fact that the female character trying to get into Our Hero’s pants by fair means or foul is a selfish, self-centered little bitch who thoroughly deserves what happens to her in Book 3 and her gruesome demise in Book 4 -- which I thoroughly enjoyed writing by the way! So out it went and the story is better for it.

I’m well into the second edit of Book One and yes, I’m STILL finding things that my “reader” should have caught and didn’t. As previously mentioned, that reader either skimmed it or flat out lied about reading it at all....
« Last Edit: Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:29am by Penthesilea »  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #802 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:30am
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October 3, 2016

I worked on Book 1 today and made good progress despite wanting to cry. The section I’m working through now is particularly rough on Our Heroine. Not as rough as it will get in Book 2 but she’s in a pretty hopeless place at this point and it made me want to cry while I was roleplaying it, while I was writing it and it STILL makes me cry. Which I guess is good from what I’ve read about writing such things....
« Last Edit: Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:31am by Penthesilea »  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #803 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:31am
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October 4, 2016

Continued working on Book 1 today. Despite cutting a lot and adding a lot, it looks like Book 1 won’t be too much longer or shorter than it was to start with. I have about a hundred pages to go in this “pass.” Then I’ll go onto Book 2 and make sure that everything I’ve added to #1 lines up with what’s in #2 and, of course, #3.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #804 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:32am
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October 6, 2016

I have 20 pages to go and Book 1 is now shorter than it was originally even with several pages of additions. It’s still longer than either Book 2 or 3. I expect to wrap up the editing on it tomorrow. Then I’ll be going back to work on 2.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #805 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:33am
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October 7, 2016

I’m working on the last 20 pages of Book 1. Specifically I’m working on rewriting a scene between Our Hero and one of the minor characters. If I can’t get it to work I’ll cut it but I’d like to save it if I can.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #806 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:34am
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October 7, 2016

I’m finished with this pass through Book 1 which is now nearly 500 words shorter than it was when I first started. I’m not anticipating having to add any more new material although “tweaks” are possible. It looks like I’ll come close to meeting my goal of having all three books polished by the end of April Then all I need to do is figure out how to pay a professional editor....
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #807 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:35am
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October 14, 2016

I’ve been working on Book 2 this week although I took a couple of days off. I cut 783 words today and I won’t be surprised if the word count falls below 215,000 before I’m done -- which will leave room for anything I may need to add to the final draft.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #808 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:36am
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October 16, 2016

Working on Book 2, Chapter Five. It made me cry when I roleplayed it, when I  wrote it and it’s making me cry now.....
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #809 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:36am
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November 13, 2016

Finished the second pass through Book 2 tonight, Deleted some stuff and added some stuff since I needed to rewrite a bit to bring Book 2 in line with Book 1. I’ll probably start on Book 3 tomorrow or Tuesday depending on how the “housewife stuff” goes.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #810 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:37am
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November 17, 2016

The second pass through Book 3 is going well. With the holidays and Spirit’s birthday coming up I don’t know how much time I’ll have to work but I’ll find bits of time somehow.....
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #811 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:38am
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November 19, 2016

I’m about halfway through Book 3 and I’m not finished for the night although I have stopped to give my eyes a break. I’m definitely going to need new glasses in the spring. I’m just glad that I can go without them most of the time.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #812 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:39am
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December 8, 2016

I’m nearly done with Book 3. Once I am, I’ll dive into Book 1 and do what needs to be done there.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #813 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:40am
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December 12, 2016
9:49 pm


I’ve finished with Book 3. Smiley Given the time of year and the amount of baking I’ll be doing the next two weeks, I won’t be doing anything substantial on Book 1 until after Christmas, maybe New Years! This time of year has always been the busiest and this year is no exception! Now I’m going to start dinner and not think -- much -- about writing.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #814 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:40am
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January 9, 2017

Things are finally starting to settle down after the holidays. I’ve done some work on Book 1 but I’m having to take it slow -- typing while wearing a thumb stabilizer is hard and typing without it sets back the healing. I haven’t had to do any additional rewriting yet -- I think Book 1 is in pretty good shape but 2 and 3 may require more rewriting. I won’t know for sure until I “get there”.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #815 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:41am
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January 22, 2017

I’ve been sick most of this last week and not feeling really “right” for a couple of weeks previously so tonight was the first night I’ve felt up to working on Book 1. At least I’m out of the thumb stabilizer!
Tonight’s work involved some rewrites. I didn’t change what happened but I did change how I explained it. The action should be a little easier to follow now. The prose is certainly cleaner.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #816 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:42am
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January 27, 2017

I’m still recovering from whatever it is that I’ve had for the last three weeks so I didn’t do much tonight other than a little editing and a read through to the end. Once my head is a little clearer, I’ll get serious but on the whole, it doesn’t look like too much in the way of tweaking/rewriting is going to be necessary.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #817 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:43am
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February 19, 2017 12:10 a.m.

I’ve finished the last pass I’m going to make through Book One which is now1,694 words shorter than it was when I started editing/revising/tweaking back in August. The next revisions I do -- if I need to do any -- will be after it has been gone over by a professional editor. Book Two is next up and I expect to do more work on it than I did on One. The same with Three. But given the hour and the fact that I haven’t had dinner yet, Book Two will wait until tomorrow.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #818 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:44am
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February 19, 2017 11:30 pm

I started on Book Two this evening and cleaned up quite a bit -- 143 words gone. I found some “repetitive” stuff that could be cut and it was. It will make room for any holes that need to be filled. I’m trying not to think too far ahead. No deadlines THIS time and NO ONE pushing me to finish -- which means I’ll do better work. I’m not a “hack writer” and have no intention to pounding out new material just to say that I did so many words today/this week. I prefer to take a little time and get what’s in my head down as accurately as I can. It may and most likely will need polishing later but I want to have to do as little of that as possible!

Skywise has tomorrow -- the 20th -- off so I’m not expecting to be working. That’s okay. My brain will be better for a day off. Agents of SHIELD is going on hiatus for six weeks after tomorrow night so I’ll be a loose ends on Tuesdays. I’ll need to keep busy and I know just the thing!
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #819 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:45am
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February 25, 2017

I worked on Book 2 tonight. I started late so I didn’t bet as much done as usual but I cut 50 words without remorse so it’s good.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #820 - Apr 13th, 2017 at 1:45am
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April 1, 2017

Well, I spent most of March being sick. I’m not sure what it was I had but all I felt like doing was sleep and doing the required “mom/housewife stuff” was all I had the energy to do. After a couple of relapses and falling off the bed which left me with a badly bruised foot/toes and knee and not as badly bruised head and hand, I finally started feeling marginally healthy a couple of weeks ago. Still tired as hell but I was over trying to hack up my lungs. This past week, I started feeling sharp enough mentally to work. So far I’ve cut two pages off Book 2s original length. I’ve stopped for the night ‘cause a.) I’m tired and b.) I need to decide if a longish section needs to be cut or simply rewritten. It could go either way right now.
  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #821 - Apr 14th, 2017 at 1:31am
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I'm plugging away on Book 2's edit. It is going to be considerably shorter than it was in the beginning -- over 6,500 words shorter so far and I'm not even at the halfway point yet -- and I'm getting there withOUT gutting the story. Granted, I have cut a couple of longish scenes but they told the reader things that they already knew (redundant) and didn't move the story forward. So they were cut without remorse. Now that Sanctuary is back up, I'll be updating this more often.
« Last Edit: Apr 16th, 2017 at 10:49pm by Penthesilea »  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #822 - Apr 14th, 2017 at 3:55am
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I'm quitting for the night -- dinner needs to be finished and I'm at as good as place as any to stop. I've cut 286 words tonight. Of course, if I didn't have to cook I'd probably work until Skywise turned the lights out on me! 
« Last Edit: Apr 16th, 2017 at 10:48pm by Penthesilea »  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #823 - Apr 15th, 2017 at 1:54am
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I've cut 202 words so far and I'm past the halfway point in the book. I'm still finding things my "reader" would have caught if she'd read it thoroughly, which only reinforces my conviction that she only skimmed it or didn't read it at all. Granted, what I'm finding now requires paying close attention to catch but if you're looking for any kind of error rather than reading for "content" then you SHOULD be paying close attention -- which this "reader" obviously was not.
*sigh* I was too trusting and I won't make that mistake again. At least not where my writing is concerned. Live and learn. 
« Last Edit: Apr 16th, 2017 at 10:48pm by Penthesilea »  

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Re: Welcome to the Writing Life!
Reply #824 - Apr 15th, 2017 at 4:59am
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Quitting for the night. Skywise is on his way home and I haven't eaten yet. The girls are fed so I didn't completely drop the mealtime ball and I've just realized I'm hungry. I REALLY need someone to shove food under my face when I'm working...

I've cut 342 words today and shortened Book 2 by another page withOUT cutting any "story". Yeah, I'm pleased about that.
« Last Edit: Apr 15th, 2017 at 5:01am by Penthesilea »  

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