My current to read stack of books beside my bed. There’s only nine, but there are several more on my Kindle. And yes, that’s a Stephanie Meyer’s book on top of the stack. Don’t judge me.
P.S. My birthday’s coming up. Just saying.
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Tag Archives: books
Fixing Gwyn
I’m currently at the Georgia St. Roasters, a coffee shop in Amarillo. I’m still working on my rewrites, struggling to fix one of my characters. I haven’t been as diligent on my writing as I should have been, but I’m back on track, again, and I hope to keep up my momentum.
I just finished Chapter Three and oddly enough I’m about to tackle Chapter Four. I’ve lost a few scenes, ones that just didn’t fit with the story. While I liked what I had written, it served no other purpose than to add to my word count. With no function in furthering the story, I had to make the decision to cut it out. Deciding to do it was harder than actually cutting it out.
This whole process feels like a surgical procedure. Snipping away the excess while keeping the integrity of the whole intact. What makes it all the harder is that I don’t want the whole thing to unravel. I just need to stitch it back together seamlessly so that the reader won’t miss what I cut away. So far, so good.
But the trouble lies ahead with my character Gwyn. Who is she? What’s her motivation? Is she crazy? (Yes!) Does she suffer from Dissociative Personality Disorder? (I don’t think so.) So if not, what then? I know she suffers from social anxiety, but what else? I don’t know.
It’s this question that has me stalled. It’s driving me crazy, all the more because I have another story that’s brewing in my mind that I would love to turn my attention towards. I have to get this one done.
I don’t know when I’ll be able to finish this and walk away. Maybe it’s not worth trying to fix, but if I give up on every story that has problems I’ll never finish anything. This is my line in the sand! I will get this one finished or die trying!
For now I’m going to get off and let my brain rest. I have a meeting to attend at work, which should only last an hour. Then I’ll go home, get out my red pen and start editing the next chapter. It’s not an easy task, but anything worth doing is worth suffering for. At least that’s what I’ve been led to believe.
Tangled mess
As I try to rewrite this tangled mess that I laughably call a book, I’ve come to realize that writers are a masochistic bunch. Luckily I am indeed a masochist, or at least that’s what I took away from the tangled mess of what once was my love life.
It’s not as bad as I thought
It bleeds! It hurts! It – it’s not that bad. Huh! I expected it to be harder to cut things out, but one I started, it was quite easy. I’ve just now started chapter three, and there’s one section that I want to move until later, but there’s a chance I’ll cut the scene completely. It’s seven pages showing the reason my protagonist left her ex many years before. I’m still not sure about that. I’ll see where the story leads me, and if it’s necessary, I’ll find the right place.
I’m glad I chose to print it out, for the umpteenth time. It’s so much easier when I have an actual document in my hands. It makes it real somehow, more real than the glow of a computer screen can manage. I get a thrill seeing my words on paper. It’s magical and euphoric. I can’t wait until it’s printed and bound in an actual book, ready to be read by the masses. I hope it finds an audience.
But I’ll try not to get ahead of myself, which I really have a bad habit of doing. I want to finish chapter three before bed. I want to do at least two chapters a day, more if time allows. A two-hour round trip to work sure makes life harder, but I’ll do what I have to in order to move on to the next phase. I wonder what the next phase will be.
Window shopping for an editor
Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post! It’s nice to know I have friends who I can count on to give me advice. This has been a learning process, and there is a lot to learn. Come to find out that I’m really ignorant about what’s involved to get something published. It’s ironic how the more you learn, the more you come to realize that you really don’t know anything. The best that can be said is that I do enjoy learning about new things. I love knowledge.
At least now I have a clearer picture of what I want, what I need, and what I should look for in an editor. What I’m looking for is someone to proofread for me, to catch my spelling and grammatical errors. I’m always finding more, but I know I’m missing most of them. I need a fresh set of eyes, preferably eyes that are attached to a well-trained mind!
I would also love to hire someone to do some content editing for me. It may be a luxury I can’t afford, but I have questions that need to be answered. Is my story coherent? Are there any continuity errors? Where are my weaknesses and what parts should be pruned in order to strengthen the rest of the book?
Part of the problem I’m having is strictly financial. I can’t afford an experienced editor, and it’s an all too common problem, especially for those of us who are getting started. The risk of going cheap, however, is that you find someone out to make a quick buck, who has no understanding of spelling and grammar that they do a lousy job. It would be a waste of money that I can ill-afford to spend!
I have been sent a few resources to peruse. A few friends have also volunteered to lend a hand, which is probably the way I’ll go. I’ll have to be creative, lean on the expertise of those who have been in my position, and accept all the help I can get. Of course, I don’t expect something for nothing. I believe people’s time and skills should be adequately compensated. It’s finding the fair price I can afford which will be the challenge.
Then there’s the issue of finding someone to design a cover, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
Joe Hinojosa 