Tag Archives: writing

ROW80: Making it a Book You Want to Read

by Jennette,

I am late posting today’s ROW80 update because, well, there isn’t much to update. After the early part of the week’s quick success getting Chapter 12 marked up, things slowed down. A lot. In revising Chapter 13, I ran into a bottleneck. One new scene needed to be added, but before I could write it, I needed to firm up the characters’ motivations for doing the (otherwise stupid) things they were doing. That took a while. I also forgot to take into account that yesterday was RWA chapter meeting day, and for me, that’s a good 6-7 hour chunk of time, including the drive to and from which is an hour each way.

I got about half of the new scene written yesterday, and finished it up today. I still need to write a new beginning to the following scene, needed due to the prior new scene, and the aforementioned character motivations.

So, less progress than I would have liked. I’m not making excuses, but here are the reasons:

  • Failure to take other time commitments into account
  • Failure to gauge the difficulty (and time requirements) of the task
  • Time spent playing video games when the plot solutions weren’t forthcoming

The reason for all this? As I told one reader who didn’t want to wait until December for Time’s Fugitive: “Believe me, you don’t want to read this book now. It’s full of plot holes, confusion, and characters doing stupid things. I’m making it into a book you will want to read.” Hopefully!

For this week, I’d like to get revised through Chapter 15. I’m hesitant to commit to that, as both 14 and 15 are going to require a lot of work. But I’m through the block on 13, and think the rest of it won’t be too bad. So just that and 14 doesn’t seem like quite enough. Also, I don’t have a ton of other stuff going on this week, so… maybe!

Do you find yourself setting goals without taking other commitments and the difficult of the task into account? How does it work out for you?

ROW80: So Far, So Good

by Jennette,

When you have a big task, it helps to break it down into smaller tasks, which eventually add up to getting it all done. This week, my ROW80 goal was to get Chapters 12-14 of Time’s Fugitive revised. Three days into the week, I have already accomplished 1/3 of my goal! (I typically don’t write on Monday – that’s paperwork day.)

If you’re a ROW80’er, how are you doing? Any tips for getting at that big task?

ROW80: Too Ambitious

by Jennette,

The title pretty much sums up my ROW80 goals for this week. I’m still having trouble getting this Sunday – Saturday week down: once again, if it was Monday – Sunday, I’d make my goals. Or at least one of them.

I made the remnants of last week’s goals on Sunday. For the rest of this week, my goals were to get Chapters 9-11 of Time’s Fugitive revised, and to get the first half of the book typed-in and sent to the beta readers. In actuality, I got about halfway through Chapter 11 revising. Didn’t touch the type-in, as you might guess. I’m rethinking that part of the goal anyway – if I sent the first half of the book to the beta readers now, they’ll be done with it before I have the second half ready. So that can wait a week or so. Worse, the second half of the book needs a LOT more work than the first, so my revision speed isn’t likely to improve. So for this week, I’m going to try to be realistic, and shoot for one simple goal: Finish revisions through Chapter 14. As a bonus, I’ll either plow on through Chapter 15, or start on the type-in.

So here’s to being realistic! How did you do on your goals this week, whether or not you’re a writer, and whether or not you’re participating in ROW80?

Good Stories: “The Spelling Error” by Athena Grayson

by Jennette,

I just finished re-reading another good short story: “The Spelling Error,” by Athena Grayson. Athena is a writer friend of mine, and “The Spelling Error” appeared in an anthology, Words of the Witches, several years ago.  It was as good last night as it was then!

What I really liked about “The Spelling Error” was how it breaks a stereotype held by many of us regarding people of pagan faiths. Many of us who grew up in conservative Christian homes probably have heard that pagans were “evil,” or at least, woo-woo new-agey types. While there may be some truth the later, the first couldn’t be further from it.

Lucy Dane is the 12-year-old daughter of a single dad – who also happens to practice pagan worship and the occasional bit of magick. So when her best friend blackmails her into casting a love spell for her, Lucy complies, even though her dad has warned her of the dangers of inexperience and magick, and forbidden its use until she’s older. For herself, Lucy wishes for someone to love her just the way she is.

Her dad, Paul, already does, which is why he’s determined to make his small coffee shop a success – or else Lucy will be sent to live with her grandparents. But things aren’t going so well, until business consultant Mira Taggart shows up to help Paul get his business on the right track. Things quickly heat up between them, and it’s up to Lucy to figure out if it’s the spell she miscast… or something more.

Rather than being the stereotypical expectation, Paul, Lucy, and Mira are well-drawn people so realistic it wouldn’t be a surprise to run into them at the grocery store, kids’ sports, or – of course! – at a coffee shop. Their values are the same as those practiced by those of more “mainstream” American faiths: family first, do no harm, and leave things as you found them – or better. Lucy’s point of view is exactly what we’d expect from an almost-thirteen-year-old who only wants to do what’s best for her friend and family, even if it means going behind Dad’s back.

As a side note, I designed the cover for Athena – a fun project, with the Egyptian influence! (Paul’s particular brand of paganism stems from ancient Egyptian deities and faith.)

If you’re looking for an entertaining and engaging way to spend a half hour or so, check out The Spelling Error! It’s available in e-book form from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

Read any good short stories lately? Let me know in the comments!

ROW80: Getting Stuff Done

by Jennette,

Yay! I managed to finish off last week’s hanging tasks on Sunday as planned! Even better, Athena is thrilled with the cover I designed for her upcoming release, and Sheri’s anthology is available on Amazon (see a couple posts down). I also completed the critique for my other writing friend. Caught up on other tasks Monday and yesterday, so back to the revision tonight.

If you’re doing ROW80, good luck!

ROW80: Half Met, and a Good Book

by Jennette,

I met half of my goals this week, and plan (hope) to hit the other two today. The fact that my husband is out hunting today helps. I love hunting season. 😀

Here’s a recap:

  • Edit Chapters 7 & 8 of my RIP (revision in progress) – Done
  • Format anthology for Kindle, for my copy editor – Done
  • Design book cover for my beta reader – halfway done
  • Critique a chapter for my critique partner – halfway done

The formatting threw me off the other two goals, as I’d forgotten several gotchas I encountered the last time I did formatting for Kindle (in August, with Time’s Enemy). This time I wrote up a cheat sheet, so I will have that to refer to, and next time formatting should go much more quickly! What annoys me the most is I am a technical person, I can write HTML in my sleep (literally!), and this stuff is supposed to be easy!

My editing was more a matter of getting to it – once I did that, it wasn’t that difficult.

The next few chapters of my RIP aren’t too badly wrecked, so hopefully they will go faster. I also want to get the first half of the book to betas, so they can get started. So this week’s goals are to get Chapters 9-11 marked up, which will be the first half of the book. Then I’ll need to do the type-in for all so far, and go over it a second time for style, typos, etc.

My copy editor’s book is a good one for this week! If you’d like a slightly-spooky read for Halloween, check out Ghostly Tales by Sheri L. McGathy. It’s also available at Smashwords, and will soon be on Barnes and Noble and Apple’s iBookstore.

If you’re a goal-setter, how did you do last week? And good luck this week!

Wacky Words: Alas, I Digress

by Jennette,

Another place you'll see ALAS and DIGRESS

Today’s going to be a short one, folks, but something that’s made me go “huh” for a long time: Are there certain words and phrases we only use in writing?

Of course, there’s jargon and the occasional formal term (especially legal) that don’t typically occur in spoken conversation, but I’m talking about ordinary, everyday English, and not words that have simply fallen out of use – they’re just not used verbally.

One such word is alas. I can’t remember the last time I heard someone say “alas,” or even if I’ve ever heard it. It’s not obsolescent; I’ve seen it in written form far more than I’d like. The same is probably true for any writer who’s tried the query-coaster of submitting work to publishers, agents or magazines, as the most common use for “alas” seems to be on the lines of, “Alas, we regret that this doesn’t meet our current needs.” Which is probably why “alas” is a word I’m not particularly fond of. 🙂

Another word – or phrase, rather – that I see written often, but seldom hear, is “but I digress.” Bloggers digress a lot! I try not to, but I’m sure I do. I just don’t tell you about it. 😀 Digression happens on a regular basis while eating lunch with my coworkers. No one ever acknowledges it.

Can you think of other ordinary words that you see often in written form, but hardly ever hear spoken? Curious minds want to know!

Dictionary photo by Dr. Marcus Gossler via wikipedia.org, Creative Commons license

#ROW80: As Expected

by Jennette,

…I have nothing, writing-wise. But I expected that, as we had dinner plans on Monday, plus Monday is paperwork day, so I often don’t get to writing on Mondays. And yesterday – also expected nothing. The past couple weeks have been one thing after another, and I have things promised to others that I haven’t even been able to get to. Now they’re to the point where I really need to.

When I can, I put off other stuff and make time to write. Sometimes the writing has to wait.

At least I accomplished one big task that’s been hanging for over a month now: reformat my daughter’s computer. (This should have been on the list I posted Sunday, but I forgot it.) It’s been slow and bogged down for a while, and eventually got so that software couldn’t be installed on it (a problem when that includes security updates and virus definitions!). We weren’t even able to copy her stuff off onto a flash drive, so I had to actually take the hard drive out of her computer, install it in mine, copy stuff off, and that added to the overall task. Also, that was when my graphics card decided to crap out – in the middle of copying! But all that is behind me now (hopefully!). So now it’s on to formatting, cover design, and critiques I owe!

If you’re doing ROW80, is your week going as expected, even if your expectations weren’t high?

ROW80: It’s 5:30PM

by Jennette,

And I just finished edits through Chapter 6. Does that tell you anything? More importantly, does it tell me something?

(Yeah, like I took on too much this week!)

Granted, yesterday was fun. I went on a “castles and caves” cruise through central Ohio, saw some lovely sights, spent time with some wonderful friends, not to mention my daughter. You know, doing that living life thing we writers often have to make a point to do. So it was well worth it.

I wanted to get through Chapter 8. Or ideally, Chapter 10. Reality? What’s that?

Sigh. Okay, time to get real. Thankfully, I don’t have any major plans today or this coming weekend, so that will help a lot. I also have several things I’ve committed to do for others that I can’t put off any longer, things I owe writer friends who do stuff for me like beta reading and copy editing. So I am going to commit to the following:

Format anthology for my copyeditor

Book cover design for my beta reader

Chapter critique for my critique partner

Edit Chapters 7 & 8

If you are participating in ROW80, good luck!

Row80: Midweek Modification

by Jennette,

Halfway through the week… and I only have half of a chapter revised. So I’m thinking, my goals of working through five or six chapters was, shall we say, a bit ambitious.

I could come up with a number of excuses – as noted on Sunday, we had dinner company, then the video card in my computer decided to go kaput, which took me two hours to diagnose. That in itself was annoying, but then I realized I had several things to be thankful for:

  1. I was able to work on the computer and figure it out myself, rather than take it somewhere, which would have not only taken more time, but cost more $$
  2. I didn’t lose any work – even though when the video card died, it spontaneously shut down the computer, but I use dropbox, so everything is backed up, as soon as I hit Save. Word’s autorecover worked quite well too.
  3. The video card that died was an add-on upgrade – meaning it was in addition to a built-in video interface, so I can still use the computer. It’s not powerful enough to run on my big monitor without looking stretched and fuzzy, but at least it works.
  4. I ordered a new video card and it’s due in tomorrow.
  5. The new video card cost $69.99 – then has a $15 mail in rebate. So it could’ve been so much worse on the wallet!

Still, the weekly goals need a little backing down, especially in light of the fact that I have a busy weekend coming up. So instead of working up through Chapter 10, I’m going to shoot for Chapter 8. It’ll still be a push, but hopefully doable!

If you’re doing ROW80 (or even if you’re not), how’s your week going?