Depressing Update

I would be writing... so much more...

If it wasn't for the 3 essays, 2 short story revisions, and 1 project presentation all due between now and May 1st.

Whoop-de-do.  I will be so much happier when school isn't getting in the way of things.

Character Development and Redevelopment

Trying to make Mrs. R less formal and more... motherly.
Trying to make Mr. R have more of a personality.
Tis fun.

Yay Revising

Which... looks a lot like rewording things at the moment.  There isn't much I can do on the first three pages except be a little more descriptive and fix typos.

My friend wants the next book.  I can't hand it to her because I split this one in half.  So, it's not like she'd make edits and I would go cry in a corner... it's more like she'd make edits that I'd just look at and say "Yeah, I know.  I just haven't gotten there yet."

Currently, I have until June 30th to get this polished.  That's when my five free copies expire.  I've got basically two-and-a-half months.

Here goes!

Picking up the rewrites again...

Dropped them 'cause school was crazy.
But the plan is to pick them up again.
1 hour a day.  At least.
Let's see how this goes.
*must be persistent*

Smells like revision...

I'm about halfway through my own readthrough and I've got full feedback from two readers and nearly full feedback from two more readers.  And all I can say is... another rewrite is in order.  Which... I knew.  And I'm pretty sure you all knew this too.

Version 5 is going to happen.

Who's reading?

A few weeks ago, I started sending out my story to my first-readers.  

I've gotten complete responses back from two out of the original 11 queries.

Rar (my sister) and Mitch (my roommate) have completely finished this draft and given me feedback. 

Bex (my good friend) is about 10 chapters  away from the ending and I wish she'd just finish it already! :P

Out of my fanfic-based readers, KKBeckett has gotten back to me through chapter 18 via emails every few chapters.  Flightfoot has gotten back to me through chapter 5 via emails ever chapter.  Cookie has gotten back to me through chapter 3.  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your read-through if you are reading this right now!

I believe my mother has not touched it as of yet due to no spare time... sadness.

My other good friend, Grim, didn't get the original PDF I sent him in a snafu with the emails.  I resent it to him...

My boyfriend hasn't made the time to read it and he feels bad.

The other two queries have not replied back to me after I initially sent it to them.  

Regardless, I, myself, am up through roughly chapter 20 of rereading it.  I am noticing the things other people have said to me and thinking of ways to make it better.  I had hoped that this would be the last major rewrite I would do for this book before I submitted it for publishing, but this is not the case.  I have at least one more ahead of me. 

I plan to start the next round of rewrites in mid-February.  I wish that everyone I initially queried would completely get back to me by that time, however, I understand that life gets crazy and school demands more of your time than you want it to.  (Coming from the girl who has been doing nonstop homework for the past two weeks, trust me... I know.)  

If nothing else, I have two complete feedbacks and I can pester Bex enough to get me a third before I start rewriting.

I don't entirely know why I'm posting this...

Maybe just for my own personal record.

Ciao for now!

Finished! But... not...

Why yes, the writing is all finished.  

But the editing has only just begun.  I have given a number of people this draft and they, alongside myself, are painstakingly going through it to find things that don't quite line up.  

Some things are easy edits "you have the word 'her' here when you really should have 'here'".  Those edits, honestly make me facepalm, because they're so easily missed until someone points them out and everyone's just like... 'oh duh...'

Then there are edits like "are you sure that's the word you're looking for there?" "maybe you need to make this two sentences..." or "just take that phrase out, it's completely unnecessary."  These are also relatively simple to work with.  A quick-enough fix. 

Then there are things like "you should rename that" or "you made this word up, so how is it pronounced."  Those are.... well, hard for the first one and easy for the second.  *I* know how everything is pronounced, so it's an easy answer (at least, out loud... one of my first-readers told me that maybe I should put in a phonetics pronunciation guide for the words I made up... and I'm considering it.) As for renaming things... ugh... I have a list of things that probably should be renamed because they're the names for things that I made up YEARS ago and they sound fine to me... but not to other people.  Murrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  

Of course, then there are the questions... "Why is this special? You better make sure it stays special!" "Why does this species have this?" "You have *this* (magikal function) so why does *this* happen?"  These don't necessarily even have to be discussed IN the text.  *I* however, should know the answers to each and every one of these questions so I can write based on those answers.

And then... there's things like "this person's characterization is off, I need to fix that" and "this character's relationship to this character just plain needs help because it's affecting the story in ways that it shouldn't be" and "i need to change that because it's affecting how the story is read and it shouldn't" --all that stuff.  Which is highly important... and a pain to fix.  

I have my work cut out for me.