Sunday, February 28, 2016

A Month of Correcting Things


Now that February is coming to a close, it's time to get back into editing. I hate to admit that I hardly touched my manuscript in a few weeks - shame on me. So, it's going to be my main focus for the month. I've been working on my retelling of a fairy tale story and it's not even close to being done so I'll continue working on that in March. It shouldn't take me too long...I hope. It's getting pretty lengthy.

So, for the next month, all my posts will be about editing and the process I'm going through. I'm actually going to start that process today after I'm doing writing my chapter. I've been using Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel class because, while it is a long process, I noticed that my manuscript turns out far better than I anticipated it to be. So, I'm going to stick to it.

Thankfully, this week is my Spring Break from school. I'll have plenty of time to catch up since I only have six lessons to start with. I just need to find the best solution to doing the worksheets since printing them isn't an option right now.

Now with that said, off to finish up some writing and start working on my editing. There is a lot that I need to finish by the time March ends.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Tell A Fairy Tale Day

On Friday, February 26th, it's Tell a Fairy Tale day!

So naturally, what better time to re-write a fairy tale. Most of my day was spent plotting out the story I wanted to tell. It's a sci-fi version of Beauty and the Beast. I didn't intend for it to be Sci-fi but it kind of happened to be that way, which is fine because I can re-write it however I want. It should be interesting, I hope.

My goal is to have it finished by the 26th, if not, then the 28th. It will be a nice break from the novel I've been editing very slowly. I haven't been in the editing mood lately. All I want to do it write, so that's what I'm going to do. Maybe in the end, it will be something I actually share with someone.

...After editing it a few times, of course.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Making Connections

How do your characters connect with one another? What kind of connection do they have? How do you connect your characters to the reader? 


This is a bit difficult to answer. In my current novel, which I'm editing, my characters (my two main characters) are connected through their university. They are opposite in certain aspects but, in a way, they are very similar in their values. I'm hoping that people can connect to them because they both go through some real life struggles.

I think that when a character, no matter the setting, have similar or the same problems that real people go through, then they can form a connection with the readers. Though you can't expect to have that kind of connection with every reader.

Generally, I try to base connections off things that good portion of people go through, or even things that I've experienced before. Being able to relate to a character helps make them feel real to the readers.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Changing Things Up

After my computer stopped being reliable for school, I decided to get a new one. Now, it still works just fine, other than the battery being terrible but it's still functioning. For the time being, I'll be transferring my documents into an external hard drive until I get a new desktop.

For now, I have a little Netbook like computer. It has a terribly small memory but I'm making due with all my flash drives. It works. I've decided to try a new writing program as well. Since 2009, I used Liquid Story Binder and loved it but lately, I've been wanting to try Scrivener. Partially because LSB hasn't been updating and I need certain things that it doesn't have. I won't feel bad about not using it as my main writing tool because I think I used as much as I spent on it.

I told myself if I ever got a new computer, I would give Scrivener a try. So that's what I'm doing. I have 30 days before it expires and by then, I'll know if I want to use it or not. Not that it would cost me much. I'm still trying to understand it but I think I'm really liking it. It's simple and while it doesn't have everything that LSB has, it has enough to make writing easier.

I'm not getting rid of LSB at all. Heck no. There are certain things that the program has that Scrivener doesn't and I can use it for more than just writing. I could use it for lesson plans. Actually, I was considering using it to hold all of my lesson plans so I can recycle them from time to time.

Anyway, now that I have a slight grasp of what I'm doing, I'm going to put all of my notes for Dowsers into Scrivener and see how much I like it. I know I should start off by writing an actual novel in it, but that will have to wait for another time. I have several novels that need to be written. For now, I'm just focusing on editing.