Editing

So I finally managed to get a friend of mine to take a look at the first few chapters of my WIP. I'll have to bake her cookies or something to thank her. I already got the first one back with some great suggestions and I'm really excited to kick editing into high gear. It's a little daunting to get a piece of writing back covered in red ink but it's nice to know it is fixable. Good writing truly does come from rewriting. I even have a phone case that says "The art of an artist is to delete." It's scary to dive into something you're so proud of and start tinkering but the satisfaction that comes from taking a step back after rewriting again and again is wonderful!

Wrapping My Head Around Things

I don't know how this whole editing and revising thing works because I've never done it before but it is HARD! The first thing I did in hopes of making everything a bit easier was just read the whole thing start to finish. I needed to be able to wrap my head around everything before I dove in and started fixing stuff.

Some things I noticed were that the last few chapters aren't just first draft bad but really, really bad. I think it was because I was getting tired at the end or something because I had been writing all summer.  I think I'll start there, fix up the end so I can get a better idea of where the story ends so I can make the middle get there after. I don't know if this will be the best idea but I feel like it is a place to start.

Resolutions

So I made a resolution and like everyone else, it's probably not going to happen because, let's face it any decisions made at midnight aren't always the best. So yeah, even if it just lasts for a week, I want to try my best and finish a pretty good edit of my story by the end of the year, maybe even try and finish it altogether.

This doesn't mean editing everyday or making any concrete schedule but I started writing this story in the hopes that I could be proud of it so I'm going to at least try.

Here's to 2013 being the year I actually finish a novel! (Maybe)

Well...

Okay so it has been a while... okay maybe a bit more than just a while. Not gonna lie, I kind of forgot I even had this blog. Oops.
Anyway, I haven't done much editing. I tried to get a friend to read the first few chapters to get some feedback in September but I never got them back. It's hard to just jump into editing after spending so much time on a story. I feel like it's my baby and even if it's an ugly baby I'll still love it. So that's why I wanted some feedback, so I could get a fresh perspective on it but that doesn't look like it's going to happen so I'm just gonna have to go it alone.
I've done rough edits on the first six chapters but that's it. I've been really busy but I guess I'll just have to make time. We'll see.

FINISHED!!!

Excuse me while I flail in excitement. I know i'm not really finished, now I begin editing, but I've finished the first draft and I am very, very happy! It was hard to stick to the scheduled through the summer when I wanted to go do other things with friends but I think forcing myself was the only way to get it done... the sparkly stickers help too!

If you have thought about writing story but thought you couldn't, just buckle down and do it! there's no other way around it. Don't say I'll start tomorrow either, start now... RIGHT NOW!

Writer's Block

So I finished July and only missed one day of the thousand words! I made it up the next day too! I'm very pleased with myself and I'm still going... I would say strong but in all honesty the last few days have been taken over with writer's block. IT SUCKS! I've still managed to crank out the thousand words in those days but they didn't come easy.
I have a friend who likes to call writer's block, writer's disinterest but i'm not disinterested! I just haven't been able to find the particular words to say what I want to say. I think this might be a product of writing every day and being so worried about being redundant, cliche or pretentious. It was a bit like this when i did NaNoWriMo in 2010. I found around the half way point getting really tiered, not of the story but just of typing it.  But I'm still wanting to finish this story and make it something i can be proud of when it is. So here's to trudging on through the hard parts!

Also I'm changing the word count goal on the side to a higher number... so much for being over 100% done...

Organization

I'm still kicking away at the stickers. It's pretty awesome to see the word count climb steadily. Unfortunately, however planned out the story is, as I'm writing I'm finding those little things that don't necessarily work. Unlike in my last attempt I'm trying my best to stay organized. Although I'm not fixing them as I go because I want to be finished my first draft so I can have something to edit as soon as possible I'm highlighting the section and writing the problem in a notebook. I think keeping organized will be key to making the story work. What I learned from my first attempt is that I either didn't catch these mistakes at first because I was writing so carelessly or I didn't keep track of them at all, eventually forgetting about them. Let's hope that keeping organized will help. But don't worry I've got enough sticky notes to do that twice over!