Tuesday Comings and Goings

I've been absent from the blogging world for a bit while I try to figure out my next step. Right now I'm focusing on editing several mauscripts. I have a harddrive full of unusual historical manuscripts I'd like to publish, but want to make sure they're as good as I'm remembering them! Sometimes distance does make the book better.

What's on your agenda this week?

Thursday Progress

This month I've devoted to reading over 2 stories I have completed but not published. Everyone knows the game: Write the book, send it out...and wait. Then revise and do it all again.

I'm in the revision stage. Not because I think plot elements need fixing, but because, as with all my stories, I think the opening can be tighter. I also wrote one of them with very stick guidelines and want to relax those to see if I can find a wider audience.

And the beat goes on...

What's your latest project? Writing, gardening, home repairs, or otherwise!

From the Grammar Divas

I subscribe to their email newsletter and in this is their latest. Thought I'd spread the good-will grammar. And I highly recommend subscribing to their newsletter.

Misplaced Modifiers: How Not To Lose Your Reader

A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is not placed close enough to the word it describes to be clear.

Confusing: The waitress served ice cream to everyone in bowls.

Wow! Everyone had to get in bowls in order to get their ice cream?

To fix, place the modifier as close to the words it modifies as possible.

Better: The waitress served ice cream in bowls to everyone.

Sentences like this are common in conversation. But they are imprecise. So they have no place in your fiction.

Note: misplaced modifiers can be hard to find in revision. Why? Because you, the writer, already know what you’re trying to say. Your mind “sees” what you intend to say. The reader, however, does not want to do your job.

What was then

I can't believe how much I've learned writing-wise in 3 years. (In other things, too, but let's stick with writing.)

Just recently I read over In the Shadows, my Civil War novella. Coming in at 10,838 words it's one of the shorter stories I've done. It's also one of the weakest. I know what happened, it fell into the category of the write until the end and be done with it.

Since then, I've learned 2 very valuable things: Plot out your stories to the finest scene. (If that isn't your way #2 is even more important). Know your characters.

The end of In the Shadows is much stronger than the beginning. Why? I know who Jack & Marion were by the end. In the beginning, not so much and it reflects my lack of knowledge.

I'll be spending the next 2 weeks adding to this story, both in content and character development. When it's finished, I know it'll read so much better!

Thursday Progress

Have you ever looked back at a story and wondered just why you went in direction A instead of B or where you made a wrong turn when you should have taken a left at Albuquerque?

Not saying the story's wrong, just that I seemed to have missed a twist somewhere. And this is why there are 1st drafts (2nd drafts, 3rd...etc.). And why we self-edit before sending a story in. Not only for plot, grammar, and characterization, but for intensity.

Dark Inheritance (the working title of my Dark Regency story) is an extremely shadowy story with murder, betrayal, suspicion, spies, and a romance that's ever so intense. But the romance has to fit the plot and vice versa. It all comes down to words. The correct choice of them and the correct placement of them.

That's what I'll start this weekend, the final read-through of the story, one act at a time, before sending it in. Wish me luck!

1920s story redux

Tri-dux? Is that a word? Re-redux? Either way, I'm slowly widdling it down. Revamping, rewording, basically rewriting large sections to get this story ready for submission. Man, makes me wish I'd done this when I finished it! Would've saved me lots of time now...

Alas I didn't. So I am now. But all this is really why the term 'FIRST DRAFT' was coined. I'm on draft 3, and am so very much happier with this, I can't begin to describe it.

The good news is that I'm through Acts 1 and 2 (of 5) and moving on through Act 3. I think I actually will have this finished by Christmas!

And don't forget my Title Contest!

I forget what week I'm in...4?

But I know my goals for the week! And isn't that all that counts?

• Edit Germany story (and possibly title it)
• Stare at synopsis file (currently blank) and create a wonderful synopsis to wow and amaze potential editors/agents
• Stop fooling myself and hope for the best when it comes to the synopsis
• Research contests and enter at least 2
• Edit Birthrite - Raven as it's been ages since I last looked at it and think I could change and tweak things to better suit the overall story.

Complete!

I've finished my Germany-set story! OH, happy day, I love it when things are finished.

OK, it's finished as in done but not finished. I haven't gone over it again, not the whole thing. Gotta trim some words, and I think tighten a chapter towards the end - it's missing something and I suspect it's the H/H.

Last, I have to figure out the word count. I know how many words it is, but publishers have a variety of formulas that don't make much sense to be, but what do I know.

Back to work

I've been out of commission with the flu. Haven't managed to write much, but did plot a bit. I'm pretty sure it makes sense, but one never knows when one is delusional with illness, does one. OK, so there might be a niggling point or 2 I need to clarify.

That said, I plan on writing at least 5 pages a day. Considering I edit as I go, this might not work out, but I have a small obsession with editing as I go. I can't leave it until the end, mostly because I don't want to have to change everything after page 6 when I could've saved myself all that trouble at page 7.

Yes!

No that's not a 'yes!' someone wants to publish me, it's a YES I managed to trim Warrior Heiress to the necessary length for Ellora's Cave's anthology. Phew. For a while, I added more than deleted, but it's amazing how a sentence can be retooled to eliminate 3 or so words. Do that with enough, and all those words add up until I'm doing the dance of joy and giggling to myself. Luckily, no one saw me.

Tomorrow, it's back to writing.