Finished with Nook editing!!

Today I finished putting my Nook edits into the computer! That's one big hurdle jumped. I'll have to go back to the halfway point and start reading out loud, but at least that's nearing the final stage. Now I have about 290 pages to read out loud and edit (hopefully trimming down excess words too). For my Nook edits I cut 4,200 words (rounding up a bit) and I think that's around 10 pages. [However, I just realized that I've actually cut 100 pages total from the first draft. I forgot that I reorganized it to end in a different spot. So, that's actually tons of progress.] I'm trying to remind myself not worry too much about length. I just want a tight story. So, yay! I'm one step closer now.

I'm on a roll so far...

I just reached chapter 29 (of 40) on my Nook. And a lot of that happened in the past few days [this new computer rocks!] I'm entering these edits like a crazy woman, let me tell you. Unfortunately I still need to go back to chapter 16 where I stopped reading aloud (which is often my final round of editing for most stories). After that, I feel like it's be pretty close to being done. I'm still a bit worried about a few large-level things, but I don't think there will be any plot-crushing gaps. We'll see, I suppose. I've "killed most of my babies" as writing advisers say--but one still remains. I do not want to kill him at this stage. Sure he plays a bigger role in book 2 and 3, but I feel that it's important to introduce him here. My worry is that he doesn't show up enough for people to care. Oh, Colin. *sigh*

Sadly, I know that this novel will have more edits to come in the future. The important thing right now is to get it down and to move on to something new. It's really time for me to start writing book 2. It'll be good to start something new I think. My mind needs a bit of a break--I feel like I've got a bit of cabin fever going on. Too bad I can't multitask and write and edit at the same time. It just doesn't work for me.

MODEL LAND update: I'm on page 73 (I think) and I'm pretty positive I'm going to set the book aside for now (maybe forever). I mean it took me 10 days to read 73 pages! Some of the craziness is thinning out, but there's still a lot of.... I don't even know what to call it. It's just too much at times. Too Tyra. I don't think it's poorly written. I'd say it's about down the middle in regard to most YA writers that I read. It's taking me too long to get into it. I'll try again tonight, but if something doesn't grab me about this main character then I'm likely done with the book. I guess I'm just not really into modeling culture. At this point, I'm not sure if Tyra really deserves some of the negative comments I've seen from people.

I'm not sure what to read next, although THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER is calling to me. I'm not sure what it is about this book that's draws me. The cover is pretty nice. It may have something to do with how the main character wakes up in the hospital with no memories. Anyway, this book may be my first Nook purchase over .99 cents. All I know is that I'm ready to be lost in something. I need a page turner. Maybe it's finally time to read HUNGER GAMES. I don't know why I've waited so long to read that series. I hear nothing but amazing things about it. I'm sure I'll love it. Still, I feel like I want to wait a little longer. Maybe until I'm done with SURRENDER. I'm not worried that they're the same, only that I'll feel discouraged with my own writing.

New Computer!!!

I'm typing this post from my brand new laptop! I've been in the market for one for about a month (with a lot of disappointments along the way). I'm writing this post from my bed. (Gosh, I've missed the portability!) The best thing about this is that I'll be able to write from wherever now. AND I'VE GOT SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED! I'm hoping that this means an increase in productivity in regard to my novel(s). We'll see though. Now it's a lot like playing with a new toy.

In other news, my copy of Tyra Banks' MODEL LAND (it's supposed to be one word, but the double L makes me crazy for some reason) came in to the library today. I placed a hold on this book not because I was excited for it to come out; no, this is more about curiosity. There seems to be an onslaught of celebrities jumping into the YA field. Starting with that girl from The Hills (her clothing line at Kohl's is nice), then Hilary Duff, and now Tyra. Hilary supposedly had "assistance" and Tyra's claiming to have done it on her own (says that it took five years from conception to final draft; and that it was initially 1000 pages. I guess I need to stop worrying about my page length for SURRENDER). She's been getting slammed in reviews (both Barnes and Noble and Goodreads) and I'm curious in how much of it comes from haters (who are put out that she probably used her celebrity to get published. I'll admit that I've got my toe in this pool of thought.) and how much of it is legitimate gripes about poor storytelling/writing. I'm scared of what I'll find in the pages of this book. I secretly want to love it and cheer her on (cause it's gotta be hard to be taken seriously), but I'm already finding things to dislike. And then....... the main character is named Tookie de la Creme (not lying) and the first seven pages is told from some unseen narrator who says "dahling" a lot. It could be good and it could be very bad. I'll try to make it through the first chapter at least and will report back. I have my doubts... and I'm a little bothered that she has six pages of acknowledgements in the back of the book (it's in small font so it could be more). I always read the ackloweledgments to learn a little more about the authors (and to see if they drop agent names!). Six pages seems a bit self involved (especially since she's thanking Greece at one point). Sigh.

Oh well, I still love Top Model. I don't watch it for Tyra... the girls are always interesting.

@Jammi: What did you think of Supernatural this week? Let's discuss!

Oh geeez

Since I'm done with the Nook editing, I decided to take the first four chapters (including the prologue) to work with me today. These are the pages that I need to tighten up because they'll be the first ones any agent/publisher reads and should be the strongest. I started editing and BOOM... look what happens! (And this is edit number 6 or something). I'm not feeling discouraged--well, maybe a tad. I just have to wonder if it'll ever be perfect to me. At some point I'm going to have to stop picking at it and be satisfied. I refuse to believe that it might not happen. After work I went to Target to read the first paragraphs of some of the YA books on the shelf and there are a mix of openings: dramatic, action-packed, detailed. It didn't really help me very much. At any rate, I've decided that this edit I'm working on (about 50 pages away from the middle) will be the last one. I really need to start writing something else and too much editing can destroy a story. I want to pick up the speed of the first four chapters, so I may look at trimming some of it out, and I may re-post here for some feedback (if anyone's willing to give it).

All right, let me get back to entering another chapter of Nook edits. Sixteen chapters down, twenty-four to go. My page count is still under 500 pages, but it slips back up a little. So far I've cut out 2,000 words (give or take). An old tip for final drafts is to trim about 10%. That means I'll need to cut 16,000 words. I'm really note sure if that's going to be possible, but my goal is to cut the fat (and a lot of the fat may be in the beginning). We'll see. Tyra Bank's book was well over 500 pages, but then she's a celebrity and I'm sure publishing houses were willing to gamble a bit more. Has anyone read that book yet? I've got it on hold at the library--I'm curious, but my expectations are somewhat low. We'll see.

Updates!

I like updating my blog, but I'm not sure if I'm feeling this background. Thoughts?

In the past two days I've probably edited about 25-30 pages of SURRENDER. Yay! I need to start thinking of a new titles because this one worked well when I still had the original ending. But since I removed the last 100 pages, it kinda fails. Just something else I need to work on/think about. It feels good to be back in a groove. I just hope that I can keep it up!

And then a year passes...

Today is the year mark of when I began SURRENDER. I'm not finished, sadly. I did finish my Nook edits today though, but now I just have to put them in to the computer. I'm having a hard time finding a rhythm to my editing. I used to come home and set up shop on the downstairs computer for a few hours. Now I can't really do that because the computer I was using belonged to my brother-in-law and my personal computer sucks... it takes about 20 minutes for it to really get going and I don't have the patience for that. I'm looking into a new laptop, but that's taking forever too. Ugh. The stupid hurricane really threw me off and that was like a month ago. There's no excuse. Wait... can I blame the new fall TV?! :)

I never did finish MISFIT. I didn't even read beyond what I wrote about last time. In fact, I haven't read much of anything lately. This isn't much of a blog post, but there you have it.

After the earthquake (oh, and hurricane)

So, the past two weeks have been a little bonkers for me. First we were hit with an earthquake (well, we felt the tremors of an earthquake that hit some place in Virginia) at the beginning of the week and ended the week with Hurricane Irene, which knocked out our power for 5.5 days. I'm used to blackouts like this (I used to live in New Hampshire where one winter we had an ice storm and lost power for at least 4 days, and the next winter we had a wind storm that knocked out power for 3 days), but by the end of the week I was ready to pull my hair out. Reading by candlelight is very 1800s, but it can get extremely boring. No wonder they sat around and sang to each other! And besides, I can only go so long with out a full hot shower (instead I had the equivalent of cold sponge baths. NOT fun)... not to mention I was running out of clean clothes.

So, I spent the long Labor Day weekend enjoying the splendors of electricity. The most exciting thing I did was watch the 8 episodes of Vampire Diaries that I had saved to our DVR. I don't know why I held off so long! This was a great season (lots of death, betrayal, and cliffhangers). Actually, I'm glad that I saved them up because there's nothing worse than waiting an entire week for the next episode. I'm also glad I stuck with the series because at first I didn't like the actress who plays Elena (I'm used to her now and she's getting better). I'll never get enough of Ian Somerhalder (drooooool!). But here's my question to all VD fans out there. Are the books similar to the show? Are they worth reading? I started with the show and now I'm worried that if I read the books I'll be disappointed one way or the other. Ooo, I just saw that the new season of VD starts next week (even better!).

Needless to say, the last few weeks have been horrible for my editing. I've managed to edit on my Nook (which is progress), but I really need to get these edits into the computer. I need to find a rhythm again. What I really need is a laptop. I did start hand-writing ARABELLE WILD (the short novella that I was working on earlier this year) while the power was out. I may try to finish that one by hand and then type it all up later (again, it's progress). I also read several books: THE SEASON (a YA, regency England novel; it was decent), DIE FOR ME (a YA, zombie/dead immortals novel; it was decent too), and THE GODDESS TEST (a YA, Greek mythology retelling; it was good). I have not finished SUPERNATURALLY and I might not. I made it halfway through and I feel like nothing's really happening--there's not really a plot that I can see. I gave it to my sister to read and she finished it and basically said that it didn't get much better. This is kind of a let down since I liked PARANORMALCY so much. I may give it a chance... I don't know (I'll still read Kirsten White's stuff, but I might have to get it from the library).

I'm currently reading: MISFIT by Jon Skovron. I almost stopped reading this one because the story is told in present tense (Janie says this. Janie takes her socks off) and feels a little awkward. I'm so rooted in past tense writing/reading that I actually really don't like it. But then I skimmed ahead and saw that there are some past tense sections, which is weird, and now, looking at it from a writer's POV, I want to see if Skovron can pull it off. Still... the present tense really bothers me. (Here's one reviewer who thought the same thing about the tense switches). We'll see how far I get in this one. There are a few books (I found them while browsing at Barnes and Noble) that I need to get my hands on: POSSESS and WILDEFIRE. I need to wait until the library has them (or until I have enough money to buy random books). I did buy THE FALLEN: END OF DAYS by Sniegoski. He's one of my favorite authors in the "fallen angels" genre. Side note: the actor who plays "Stefan" on VD also played the lead role in "The Fallen" TV miniseries.

That's all the news from me for now!