Writing Update: Critique Partners

So this week has been interesting. I've been participating in a lot more Twitter chats and meeting other writers. Putting myself out there. It's strange, but I like being able to talk to other writers. They are fun to talk to and it interesting to see what everyone is writing. 

Earlier this week, I decided to post something on Goodreads about needing a critique partner. And I found two. I'm so excited to be able to do this. One of my CPs already sent back the chapters I sent him and gave me great advice. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous. I knew there were things that were lacking. I'm not a perfect writer, after all. I already see where I need to improve and I can't wait to get started on fixing my mistakes. Which I have a lot. 

Whenever I got back and edit a sentence, sometimes I forget to make sure it all fits right so my sentence ends up being a mess. Yeah. Well, that's something I need to be more aware of. Unfortunately, I can't go through and make my changes until after I finish with his work. It won't take me long but these last few days have been crazy. I need to get these to him by tomorrow. At least I started on them.

I did notice my use of filter words has increased. It's bad. Though, I do use them a lot in daily life, especially when working with kids. Small kids. I emphasis on certain things with the use of these filter words. I'm getting better - kind of. I'm making a conscious effort to not transfer it into my writing. That's easier said than done. Oh well, I'm working on it at least.

Next week, I'm hoping to have my first two chapters of Survival Agreement polished and ready. I'm planning on publishing one of them here on my website after I clean them up. 

Writing Update: Beta Readers

This week was pretty productive. I finished Survival Agreement. I'm actually pleased with the turn out and the changes I made to make it more logical. I have one person beta reading at the moment and giving me great feedback. I think I'm going to be looking for another beta reader or two before I schedule a time with my editor. Yay!

One of my goals it to have my brother illustrate parts of my novella. It would be a nice touch to the world and I know a few people who have read the novella would really like seeing parts of it. This is somethings I have to ask him about. He's a very busy man.

I'm currently working on some character development things for Hourglass. Which I plan on finishing the rewrite in July for Campnano. This is going to be a real pain in my ass when it's over and the edits will be awful but the novel will be where it needs to be for the most part. I won't have to do another overhaul. Just revisions and edits.

Well, that's all I have for my update. I'm hoping to have a very productive weekend...I probably won't.

Writing Update: Coming To An End

I've had a pretty productive week. I managed to fix the plot for Hourglass and I'm working on finishing up my edits for Survival Agreement. I'm actually pretty excited about this getting to the point where I need betas. Hopefully by Tuesday's post, I'll have it finished and I'll reveal the new cover I created for it as well as a link for becoming a beta reader. I'm pretty excited about getting this out there.

Another thing that has happened this week is that I contacted the people I want to edit my work. I'm going to send them Survival Agreement when I'm done with the beta process. The person I talked to was very friendly and I feel like I'm going to have a great time working with them.

I've also been in contact with the people who are going to create the cover for Hourglass and I'm excited to work with them as well. I'll be sure to leave a link to their website when I do my cover reveal for that.

Well, I'm going to continue on this these edits on Survival Agreement. So they will be finished by the end of tomorrow.

Writing Update: June Goals

May is gone and I managed to complete so many of my goals for May. I'm doing really well on my revisions for my novel, Hourglass. I'm hoping to call for beta readers by the end of next month. The one thing I'm struggling with is coming up with a back cover blurb. This might be due to the fact that I don't have everything figured out yet. I don't have an official outline (which I need to work on) and that's my goal for the weekend. I want to create a formal outline.

On top of the other things I need to work on, the formal outline will be key. I also realized that I was focusing on the wrong thing. Hourglass is my first character driven novel that I have ever written. Usually anything character driven is a subplot. This one is so heavily character focused. I overlooked that. This is all good to know for when create my outline and work on my blurb.

Another story I'll be working on is Survival Agreement. I'm giving the story an overhaul and hoping to polish it up a lot.

Well, I'd better mention my goals before I get a little bit ahead of myself. After this month, I'll only be posting goals bimonthly instead of every month.

June Goals

• Finish Editing Hourglass
• Finish Editing Survival Agreement
• Write the summary for Hourglass
• Look for Betas Readers for Survival Agreement
• Be more active on social media

Well, that looks like a good set of goals. I'll leave it at that for now.

Have a good month of June!