Checking In
General » Announcements, Fun, Work-in-ProgressJune 10th, 2009
Hello everyone!
Yes, I am alive. I apologize for my absence. Graduate school takes up far more time than I realized, and now I am working full-time in an internship that requires too much of my creativity… I come home exhausted yet satisfied.
Loyalty Contest
I realize I’ve probably lost a lot of my readership, so if you’re still around, thank you for sticking with me. Make sure to comment and tell everyone what you’ve been up to lately. One of the commenters will receive a free copy of my “best of” book, Worderella On Writing. The 52 pg book contains my most popular posts for your scribbling pleasure. As a full disclosure, I make one dollar per purchase.
The winner will be notified/announced next week.
Writing
In terms of writing, I was a little burned out from my fiction class this last semester. However, the class improved my writing tremendously, and I wouldn’t give up that experience for the world. Word Nerd was kind enough to provide comments for Trentwood’s Orphan, the entire draft, and boy do I have some work to do. On the one hand, it seems she liked it, on the other hand, I was obviously way too close to the story because what I thought was clear about the characters was actually very muddy.
I have a lot of work to do. But now that I’ve taken a six-month break from the work, and a month-long break from writing in general, I think I’m ready for it. Wish me luck!
Guest Posts
Do you have a topic you’d like to talk about? Are you new to self-publishing, a veteran, or somewhere in-between? Do you have editing and/or writing tips that others could learn? Submit your idea and we’ll work out deadline. Make sure to provide a summary of your idea.
Related Posts:« Details, Details, Details Lightening Source Publishing »
June 10th, 2009 at 3:41 PM
Hey Belinda,
Nice to know you’re still alive and that grad school is working out well for you. I can’t say I miss it :D Since you’ve been gone, I finished up the plotting phase of my current WIP and am hovering around 30k into it. I’ve gotten back into a daily writing routine, and trained myself to write in 5 minute microbursts during the work day–spewing out as many un-self-edited words as I can before the timer goes off. It’s worked out pretty well for me so far.
Welcome Back.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:47 PM
Belinda! You live!
You’ll be happy to know that I’ve finished the third draft of my book, and am now working on the revision/crit stage. Almost done! :D You know. Before I start something new.
Good luck with grad school!
June 11th, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Thanks Kait!
That’s wonderful that you’re able to schedule writing throughout your day, and unedited, too! You’ve reached the first hurdle of 30k, for some reason, I always falter around that number and have a hard time getting past it. Good luck, and thanks for sticking around.
June 11th, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Eliza – I live! It’s a miracle! Haha though really, sometimes I wonder if it isn’t a miracle. Grad school is intense.
3rd draft status! That’s excellent. Do you have sequels in the works, or do you have other ideas brewing?
June 12th, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Other ideas, yes. Sequels, no. This really is a one-shot story. I’ve finished over a quarter of revisions now. After that, I edit based on my test reader’s input, then, agent-hunting.
I’ve an idea for my next project, that said. Clockwork angels, mad scientists… very ’steampunk’. We’ll see.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:15 AM
I did like Trentwood… and I’ve had the same thing happen with the people who read my WIP and then suggested changes. Take them all with a grain of salt… I don’t read historical fiction very much!
I’ve been trying to improve my WIP, but I’ve been awfully busy with work work…
June 16th, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Good to hear from you! :) Sounds like things are going well.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:08 PM
@Eliza – Excellent. I love the idea of one-shot scifi and fantasy… I don’t think they happen often enough in today’s publishing world. And I’m very into steampunk, so it’ll be awesome to watch your progress with the new idea, if you stick with it.
@Word Nerd – Oh I definitely got the impression that you liked it, so no worries. But going back through, I can see why it was confusing. So I’m trying to be very explicit in describing the characters and the relationships between them. And sure, you may not read historical fiction much, but I find my best critics are from outside of my genre. They question what others wouldn’t think to question, making the story more robust.
Definitely know what you mean though, about work-work-work. It’s exhausting.
@Jill – Thanks. It’s good to be back.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:36 AM
Glad to see you’ve made the progress you’ve made! Welcome back!
June 18th, 2009 at 7:43 PM
@Evangeline – Thanks!