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Insights into the writing life of an exhausted mom of three 5 and under. |
Hey! You! Yeah, you! Could you bring this momma some coffee?  I'll be sharing my struggles and triumphs as I try to pin down inspiration while juggling an 2 year old, 3 year old, and 5 year old (oh, and also navigating my chronic illness). There'll be lots of humor, probably more than a little complaining, and just all around good times. I hope you'll come along for the journey! (Don't forget the coffee; I'm serious about that!  ) AlyCatAuthor
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| So... I'm scheduled to finish edits on my debut novel in just two short weeks. TWO WEEKS. Meanwhile, I'm using every spare moment I have to get some semblance of creative fun into my day. I've been working on some drawings featuring my characters and my writing bestie's characters in comic strips. It's been quite fun, and a nice way to relax at the end of a long morning of editing, freelancing, and laundry. I like getting away from the computer, getting my hands OFF the keyboard, and getting the blood moving in my fingers again, getting my hands and my pencil moving across the page. As a matter of fact, I'd like to go do some of that now, before the Hubby comes home and dinner must be made. I might make a cup of coffee to go with it.  In the future I'd love to upload some of my finished drawings of my characters to give a visual reference to the reader. With WDC, just about anything is made possible--one reason I love it so much here!  I'll keep posting updates on my editing (and believe me, I'm throwing a party when it's all said and done), but in the meantime, how are YOU guys coming along with your writing goals? I'd love to hear about your triumphs and struggles in the comments. See you guys around, and thanks for stopping by my little blog! Updates will be somewhat slow and not too organized until I can get edits done and focus more time on being consistent, so I apologize in advance. AlyCatAuthor |
| +J.M.J.+ 9.15.16 +Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows+ Editing Struggles This past month, I've been frantically working on edits for my upcoming release of "Kingdom." This is a book I've had floating around in my head for about 7 or 8 years. It's gone through about as many changes and cast cuts and character name switches in that time span. I finally completed the first draft of it about a year ago. The writing came easy. The editing? Not so much. This being technically my sophomore novel, that might be contributing to the problem. I'll contrast this present editing experience to the one before it. The first novel I finished left me on a high, so when I dove into edits a month after it finished, I was still flying on that energy. And I completed it around the holiday season, so those spirits of warmth (and lots of Starbucks coffee from the gift cards I got) helped me plow through the first round of edits in about a month and a half. It had taken me from August of that year to about February of the next to draft and edit a book. A whole book, and not just any book--the very first one I'd ever contemplated writing, which at that point had gone through dozens of changes and plot twists and world-building exercises to try to get it just right. It had taken me just about 8 years to get that one nailed down enough to complete a draft, and how amazing it was to finish it after all that time! Contrast that with this experience. I had about the same experience with the actual drafting of this novel. It was a shorter novel and a bit of a simpler one, as I wasn't juggling 2 different protagonist's POVs every other chapter. I had one main character and several important side characters that VERY occasionally had their own POV snippet to let the readers in on the background plot. It was fairly easy to map out their character arcs, and as I'd lived with these characters for about 8 years, their voices were already clear to me. I didn't have to hunt for what they'd do in certain situations. I knew what they looked like. I knew what they sounded like. I knew what they all wanted and how things worked in their kingdom. Then...another minor character slipped in unannounced. She was well-liked by beta readers, and I do love her dearly, but she has created quite the stumbling block as far as going back and strengthening her role in the story. I've had to rework her entire relationship to the protagonist in order to bring her more to the forefront (as she may very well star in the sequel). There was also the matter of the minitagonist in the story, the protagonist's father, who starts off well-meaning and responsible but ends up crazed for power and in despair by the end of the story. I had to try to include more snippets of his fall from grace throughout the story (and I still need to go back and add some of these even now), as betas complained that his transformation by the end of the novel seemed sudden. I do have to say this is my first editing process that has been under a deadline, and my first multiple-round edit. Many rewrites were done within the past several months, including a complete rewrite of the last several chapters (which I'm almost afraid to look at, as they were written hurriedly and may be somewhat skeletal). I've got 2 more weeks until my self-imposed end-of-September deadline for completing edits and cleaning up my manuscript (though after reviewing what I still have left to do I've allowed myself the first week of October to format and do proofreading/compiling on the whole thing). I've got the whole of the third and final act left to edit, and perhaps a scene or two to add in. I'm sad that I can't give it another thorough read-through before I submit it, especially since I've been so close to it these last few weeks. I might be able to sneak one in before sending it off, but honestly, it would probably do more harm than good at this point. The week that I format it, I'm going to put it into a text-to-speech program to catch typos and that'll probably be the last I see of it before it goes off to the presses. All that being said, I do feel that my story is much stronger since drafting it. I only hope that this deadline hasn't forced me to leave anything half-baked, but there's only so much tweaking and editing I can do before it starts to become unhealthy to look at it anymore. Besides, I'm revving to go on my other projects I've sidelined because of this editing. It'll free up some creative energy and help me feel like I have more time in my schedule to spend on working up my drawing skills and brainstorming the second book in my epic fantasy trilogy (the follow-up to the very first novel I finished). I'm looking forward to being done with it, although I'll miss working on these characters. I won't stop visiting them though--my alpha reader and I write cross-over stories between our characters, so that keeps us in touch with old friends who we would otherwise not get to interact with once their stories are published. That's been my editing process over the past few weeks. 2 weeks until the finish line, and then one more week of final formatting and technical tweaks, and my sophomore novel will be sent off to the publisher to await formatting, a lovely cover, and launch day in December! Thanks for stopping by and reading my humble blog! I love being able to share my experiences with other writers. AlyCatAuthorTell me about your editing process. Any woes or troubles you'd like to share? |
| Hi guys! Aly here. I just wanted to make a quick post about how excited I am to be back in the swing of things here at WDC. Boy, I've missed this place. In the space of less than a week, I've come back and gotten myself all situated and ready to jump back into posting my novel chapters, updating my blog, and reviewing like crazy to get all of you wonderful writers some feedback! I think reviewing is one of my very favorite things to do on this site, so it only makes sense that I'm hunting around for review groups to join. So far I'm a member of the Simply Positive Group and have asked to be a Power Reviewer, and one day I'm hoping to jump on board with the PDG Rockin' Reviewers Group and the Novel Workshop Group. I've also joined the Fantasy Science Fiction Society and am looking forward to getting involved there.  Speaking of fantasy, I've just published my first updated item on WDC, the first chapter of my novel ("Invalid Item"  ) which pays 251 GPs for reviews (don't ask me why it rounded it up to 1... ). Be sure to check it out, and I'm sure I'll be looking at some of your lovely pieces very soon! AlyCatAuthor |
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