Tag: amwriting

Wednesday Words 8.9

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

Has this ever happened to you? You finish writing, editing, and fine tuning a piece…all that is left is the last double checking, whatever your process for that might be. And then while you’re walking your dog (running on your tread mill) thinking about the next piece you are about to write that day….you realize you forgot to wrap up a thread in your story. Maybe it’s a minor thread. Maybe the fact that it is dangling has no baring on the any of the plots. Maybe no one would even notice but you….but somehow the idea that a character of yours is walking around with duct tape holding a knife wound closed rubs you the wrong way.

Oh well. There’s still time to bring in a doctor.

I spent a bit of time with my old mystery this week. I had planned to cut a chapter and reword it as an entry for the SIWC competition but I can’t tell if it’s working.

I wrote a new short for the scary anthology. I have no idea if it’s even scary. LOL.

Sigh. At least I’m working forward.

Wednesday Words 8.2

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Greetings and Salutations!

I finished editing my spy novel last week. So I took a bit of time off writing this week and handled some other things.

I did decide to try to come up with something for the anthology. It’s supposed to be a scary/spooky type story which is not my usual but I’m trying for the stretch. Can’t grow if you don’t stretch.

I actually got an idea last night, that might work. Maybe. I pitched it to the hubs and he wasn’t all that sure. shrug.

I am off to 4 days in Portland with the in laws. Record breaking heat here we come.

wednesday words 7.26

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

Thanks in large part to a baby sitter who didn’t go away for the summer this year, I am done editing my spy novel. Woot!

Next steps:

Oral read through with the hubs. I do this with every novel. It’s pain staking and time consuming but I know from experience it’s worth every minute.

But that means: new projects!! First up is to take a left over scene from that murder mystery I wrote and then hated a few years back and work it up into a fun short for the convention that’s coming up.

But Dan Alatorre is putting together an anthology, a scary/spooky/creepy anthology he wants to publish October 1st. Ouch. I told I would tell him yes or no by Friday. I need a new idea and a story written and edited by end of August to make that time line. Essentially working both shorts at the same time with the same due date.

Realistically I manage to scrape together 5 hours a week to write.

Is that really enough time?? What say you dear readers?

Wednesday Words 7.19

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I have friends in town. That usually makes for very little writing time. But….

The hubs is working on his dissertation. The wife is getting yet another Masters. And the son is doing camp nano.

Woot. Off to write in we went. 7 chapters in 3 hours. I love the pressure of a group write. Everyone head down and pressure on.

I can still see the join between the chapters I wrote several years ago and the ones I wrote last year. There is such a quality difference, which equals a real difference in the number of hours each chapter takes to be made amusing. But I’m moving forward.

Wednesday Words 7.12

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Hello my fellow writers. It is camp Nano time. I usually don’t do the camp ones but they have really changed up the process. So this year I joined a private cabin with my local writing mates and set my goal to the number of minutes spent editing. Yup, you can set goals different from words written. Love this camp thing.

Despite a mad amount of work I got done this last week, I readjusted my camp goal down. Yeah, they let you adjust your camp nano goal. Shocking right? I just lost too much time when the kiddo and then the husband got the grunge that was going around.

Anyway, 7 more chapters edited. I’ve been cleaning up all my justs and buts. Weaving in little bits I had left dangling. For example, in one chapter while Talon is on his way to Moscow Penelope tells him not to drink Siberian Siren vodka, he won’t like how it’s made. I realized I never followed that up. It’s only funny if you know how it’s made. So I found the perfect place to weave it into the story so the reader gets the joke.

How is it made you ask? snort. You’ll just have to wait to get your hands on my novel. Release date in December…..

Wednesday Words 6/29

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This as been a seriously productive week despite a few set backs. The kiddo has a summer cold. Grrr. Really screws with my timing. Especially since he has camp this week. There went 12 hours of expected alone time down the drain. LOL

On the plus side, I did get ten chapters edited. Having a sitter just a few extra hours a week is making a huge difference for me. Of course I am finding little issues. Things I left hanging and I need to decide if it matters or if I should circle the wagon to clean it up. Some are a definite yes. And I need to figure out some solutions. Other are still up the air. And I think I rush Talon’s emotional growth, so I’ve been editing that back. I need to give him a new arc. Good thing I watch a lot of house rehab shows. I know all about building a new set of stairs with a better run/rise proportion. LOL

I also gave up on 5 AM. It’s just not happening for me and the effort to do so makes me sad and tired. I don’t even need an alarm to get up between 630 and 7. That’s just going to have to be good enough for now. I’d have to get way more analytical, but I think I’m actually more productive sleeping in an extra hour and a half. hrm…..

What makes you feel more productive? And do you care if you actually are more productive or is the feeling itself enough?

Wednesday Words 6/21

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Woot, Summer is here. At least according to the calendar. We actually breached the 70s once this past week. LOL

I managed to get 2 chapters edited but I seem to just be removing cruddy words. If my novel gets any shorter I’ll have to call it a novella. LOL

So question of protocol. I write under a pseudonym. When I sit down with agents and editors do I introduce myself as my pseudonym or my real name? Inquiring minds want to know….

Wednesday Words 6/14

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With the editing of others:

Not editing. Quiet peace right now, although three of my students tell me I will have reading to do soon. In the mean time, I’m reading a lot of other books, like 5 of them right now. The 3AM Epiphany, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, Tyranny-Lessons from the 20th Century, Barking Up The Wrong Tree, The House of Spirits(gift from my SIL, might as well try to read it).

With my own writing:

Editing is going ok. I keep going back and forth a bit. I sent out my new first chapter for a read through. Two liked it, one thought I needed to add more back from the original version to up the tension. sigh. I’ll get it right at some point. LOL. Maybe.

Emotionally: I got this email this week:

I just wanted to let you know that I got a kindle for my graduation this year, and I hooked it up to my family account.  I was scrolling through the my books section and I found your book, scripting the truth.  As of this morning at 6, I haven’t been able to put my kindle down.  I’m on chapter 36, 73% through the book.  It is truly a work of art, and I’m sad not a lot of people know about it.
 I cried.
Topic for debate on my writing:

Hrm, I’m not sure I have anything to debate. I registered for that conference. I booked a sit down with an agent and an editor. I can book more when arrive if they have slots left open. I’m ridiculously nervous about it. But it’s on the line now, I need to get this book done or I will have nothing to discuss in my appointments. I am an excellent pressure player. My sitter has not found a summer job yet, so I added a couple of mid days each week to my regular sitting schedule, more time to write.

Wednesday Words 5/31

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

It’s Sunday afternoon. We’ve had the neighbor kids over for breakfast and cartoons which allowed me lots of time to take care of things. That’s my preferred way to function. If I was outlining the perfect day it would go like this.

Sleep in till 7-730.

Enjoy two cups of coffee while reading a good book. Breakfast, dishes, a few chores.

Maybe a little more reading.

An hour or so on reading and responding to emails and social media.

A nice long work out.

A healthy lunch and then, bam sit down to the computer. Two hours easy of productive writing before nap time creeps up on me.

I am right on track, and the hubs even volunteers to take the kiddo for a bike ride and to run an errand we need ran. Awesome. Thank you, I love you, you are amazing. I am going to work on my book.

Then they come back after 45 minutes because they forgot the bike helmets, ok, it happens. But then they decide on lunch and to accompany the consumption of said lunch the hubs starts blasting metal. sigh. Color me fully distracted and on my way to a headache. So I stop trying to work, I play with the hubs and son for a while. They finally leave, all is peaceful.

I sit back down at the damn spy novel, thinking where was I? When a thought strikes me, a cruise missile out of the blue, a bit of feedback someone gave me months ago, that I still haven’t addressed. Agh. Do I finish the chapter I am currently cleaning up? Or stop and fix it the other problem because it will surely interfere with the changes I am making now. And then I think, this damn thing is so not salvageable. I should just drop it and move on to the next thing.

Seriously, is there anything more irritating?

Wednesday Words 5/24

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

Ok this will be the short version of Wed Words. I am slammed with edits to my spy novel and updating the blog site. I hope you are enjoying some of the changes, more are coming but….

New names for Gareth (his name is too close to another). Spy. Hard core, been in the biz long term, compartmentalizes his personal life to be the coldest, most efficient guy on the job.

Ash

Finn

Turk

Dacre

Ace

VOTE!