Tag: editing

The Death of an Orange Pen

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Yesterday I spent the day with my mother and going through some genealogy stuff.  It was good to look through family memories and mysteries.  We discovered invitations and thank you cards sent to my grandmother that we think come from some cousins but we can’t quite place them.  It will be fun to see how it all shakes out.

My sister and uncle came to pick up my mother and stayed to chat.  It was a good time.  Ken and I watched some tv, ate supper, and chatted with the Georgia girls.

I got alone time.  Ken went off to bed.  I tackled a manuscript that needed editing.  My orange pen got put to work as I read through a two hundred page manuscript.  My intention was to go to bed early.  That didn’t happen.  I was up until after 12:30 editing.  I looked at my pen and realized it was nearly half gone for ink.  I just got it out in the last month.

Even after I was done editing, I crashed but woke up at 1:30 with a headache.  Yes, the headache woke me up.  I shifted position, took Tylenol and tried to go back to sleep.  I must have slept because I woke up around 6:30 when Ken went out to gas up the two vehicles.

Today I’m not sure what I’m going to do.  I may work on writing, crocheting, or sleeping.  It’s Sunday so it is supposed to be a relaxing day.  I’ve already got a headache with my ears ringing.  It might be a good day to just shut down and do nothing.

Those who know me – stop laughing – I can to do nothing.  It just takes a lot for me to do it.  Doing nothing is hard work.

Take Two

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

Last week I wrote a scene for one of my stories.  I was pleased with it, planned to go through to the next step in the manuscript.

I went to my other computer (the one in my office) and shifted files, saved the files from my flash drive to my hard drive.  I thought I’d got all of them.  As is my habit, I deleted the files on my flash drive and copied over my big main file.  I use the flash drive as a portable back up of most files.

I opened my story expecting to move forward and realized I had copied over the file with the scene I’d written.  I was annoyed with myself.  I’ve been saying I need a better way to keep track of the files I change but hadn’t done anything about it.  I have now.

In wandering around looking at other files, I discovered a copy of the story with the scene I thought I’d lost.  This left me with a dilemma – which of the two scenes I’d written did I like better.  I read them both and liked parts of both.

I read both version several times and couldn’t decide.  Instead I combined the two versions.  Going through the scene I cut a little from each and found a nice combined version of the scene.  It is probably a little heavy in parts but when I edit the whole story I’ll catch it and cut the fat from the scene. Hopefully I can now move on to the next scene.

As for my issue of saving files, I’ve opted to put files I’ve worked on in a different folder.  It is a little cumbersome but for now it works.

Completely Unproductive

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

My evening was completely unproductive.  I meant to work on editing and writing.  I planned to get a chapter or two written on the next Wayfarer novel. 

None of that happened.  I talked to all three of my daughters and one of my sisters.  I spent the night on the phone and video chatting.  It was an interesting change of pace.  By the end of the evening, I was tired and ready for bed. 

The lack of writing last night just felt odd.  I’m so used to having my time to myself and editing or writing that to be engaged in other ways just felt odd.  Not good or bad, just different.  I spent a lot of time talking with my two daughters in Georgia.  We video chatted, I got to see one of the grand fur babies – the other was camera shy. 

I like video chatting because I get to see my girls rather than texting or talking.  I get to see their faces and their place.  It is always a good thing for me.  I feel more connected with them. 

Tonight I plan to write and edit but you just never know what will happen…

Four Down, One to Go

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Friday I promised myself I’d get the five manuscripts in my bag edited over the weekend.  It totaled nearly a thousand words.  I got through three and a half.  I finished the fourth one tonight.

The one I worked on tonight was a first edit of a rough draft.  I thought I might have to do some pretty serious editing but discovered I liked the story just as much as when I wrote it.  There were scenes where I got goose bumps, teared up, and laughed.

The main character is strong but not overbearing and the main couple are loving, funny, fierce, and flawed.  I like it.

I read this one out loud.  No idea why, I just did.  It helped the editing go faster and the dialog be edited more smoothly I think.

One more to go and I’ll have my pile done.  At least with this round.  The last one I have to edit, I just finished on Thursday so it may need to sit for a little longer.  I have three that will move into my done pile for editing (I think).  Then it is all about production for them.

Hopefully with getting this manuscript edited, I’ll be able to get some sleep tonight.  Last night I slept a total of two hours.  The bad part of that is it wasn’t even a consecutive two hours.  I got a little here and there.  It was a rough night.  I’m hoping tonight will be better.

What a Week

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

Pain on Thursday kept me home.  The weather turned cooler which is probably why my pain level went up.  This meant I stayed at work later on Friday to make up some of the hours.

It’s been a good week for writing.  I finished the second Wayfarer manuscript and did edits on two other stories.  This weekend I have five manuscripts on my couch waiting for me to edit them.  I’m hoping to finish the edits on the second Defenders book.  I’m also hoping to publish the first Defenders book in the next few days.

Last night I was grumbling at Vicki because I felt like I was behind schedule on the editing.  I have the five manuscripts which totals nearly a thousand pages.  I wasn’t even done with one.  I had to stop yesterday because I had a headache.  I felt this put me behind.  Vicki reminded me that I was grumbling about a self-imposed deadline and I needed to be more realistic.

She was right.  I worked on one of the longer manuscripts yesterday.  I have about 75 pages left, I think.  I’ll finish it today.  This will be the last edit on the manuscript before I start developing the production pieces I need for it.

I’ll probably pick up the next longest manuscript which will be more intense as it is a first edit.  There aren’t even chapters in this one so it will be a lot of work to go through the first edit.  One thing I decided was that I should go through and search out key words I tend to overuse when I write the rough draft.

Unfortunately, I woke with a headache several times in the night and this morning I still have one.  Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on business end of writing – updating spreadsheets for income and expenses.  I also submitted some paperwork to start blogging for Pagan Square.  I’ll have to start thinking about what I want my next post on there to be.

Today Ken will watch football.  I will probably work.  I uncovered my crochet basket yesterday and saw a project that has just been sitting there waiting on me.  It isn’t screaming at me but it is tempting.  Perhaps if the editing is too hard on my head today, I’ll watch movies and crochet.

Pain is still a problem but it is daily so I’ll just cope because what else can I do.  A warm blanket and a good manuscript to edit should keep me from being in too much pain.

To Do … What Should I Do?

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing

It is errand weekend.  This means I have a list of things to get done that is somewhat extensive.  It also means I should not be staying up until 5:00 am writing.

Yesterday I was on track.  I came home, paid bills, took care of all the payroll stuff I needed to.  I was tired and cranky so I tried taking a nap.  It didn’t work.  Ken and I watched a movie – Erased – it was pretty good.  He went to bed and I started writing.

I wrote until 10:30, coming to the end of a scene.  I figured okay good place to stop.  I turned out the light and couldn’t sleep.  The next scene I wanted to write kept playing in my head to the point where after 45 minutes I gave up trying to sleep.

Of course the next scene needed prep, this meant of course additional scenes.  I worked on it until almost 5:00 am this morning.  I came to the end of the scene and knew EXACTLY what the next couple of scenes were going to be.  I did not write them, they are still bouncing around in my head.  The problem is I couldn’t sleep.  I’d been up almost 24 hours and still my brain would not shut down.

I forced myself to sleep through sheer willpower I think.  It took a while but I eventually got to sleep.  I slept for an hour or two and woke up.  I took one look at the clock and made myself go back to sleep.  I dozed for an hour before I fell asleep again.

I’m freaking ridiculous.  I got up a little after 10 this morning and I’m trying to get a pile of tasks done including getting the coupons organized.  I have a novel ready for production including cover.  I still have to settle on a title which is driving me crazy.  I have ideas but none of them click really for me.  It is going to be a series and ironically I already know the title for the second book (it’s the one I worked on all night).

I’m setting aside my urge to write in order to get a few of the business type things done.  Coupons, grocery list, and errand list all need to be made up.  Ken is being amazing and running the errands this weekend so I can work on production.  When I get all of those practical things done I’ll see what I work on.  Being tired, my brain will have to dictate what I’m capable of doing.  There are three strong contenders with a fourth possibility.  I could clear the table (it is clearer than it has been in months) in my office and finish organizing.  I could work on production of two novels I have ready for production.  I could write.

As tired as I am all three sound appealing because they all accomplish different things I’ve been working on.  I have the feeling it is going to be a weekend of little sleep and lots of stuff done.  At least I hope so.

A Dozen Projects

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

My daughter read on of my stories on Sunday.  I worked on editing the story this week.  She has been nagging me about getting her the next installment with these characters.  She enjoyed the story that much. 

I told her she had to wait as I had eleven projects in the works (different stages of writing, editing, production).  She of course was insistent that I do the next installment, there was even mention of bribing with cookies and from scratch pumpkin pie. 

As I’m editing the first book, all the ideas I had for more in the story keep coming up and a theme of sorts starts to come clear.  It was 11:00 pm when I finished editing the manuscript for the first book.  I was going to go to bed but I couldn’t sleep so I took a few moments and jotted down outline like ideas for the next book. 

I woke up yesterday with the first three scenes in my head just dying to get put on paper.  Yesterday, I put the edits for the first book on the computer and started the second book.  I have 6100 words and about five scenes done.  This morning I woke up with the next series of scenes in my head.  I wrote the first book in ten days (or so).  I’m hoping the second book works up as quickly.  Classes started this week at my job so the work has picked up.  It will be interesting to see how well the writing goes while I’m busy at work. 

Unusual for me, I have a cover in mind for the first book.  I’m going to play with my idea and see if I can get something I like.  I have so many aspects of all projects to work on it is sort of crazy and I feel a bit schizophrenic with jumping between projects.  At the same time when I need a break from a project, I’m able to move to a different one while the one stews in my head. 

It will be fun to see what adventures my characters get up to.  I’ve been enjoying writing about them again.  It’ like sitting with old friends and hearing about their lives – except that I’m the puppet master of their lives. 

Slush Pile and Editing

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

I’ve been rereading starts to stories I’ve done in the past.  After I got the poetry book back in shape, I ended up working on one of those stories and it is now a short novella.  It will go in the edit pile.

It was such a good night for me.  I listened to music.  I wrote.  I edited.  I got through several chapters of the Defenders second book.  I have two more to finish the first round of edits.  It will have to sit for a bit and I made a couple of notes of larger changes I may want to make.  I have to think about them and let them mull.  My biggest question is if I add these proposed scenes how will it add to the story?

I also have another story idea grumbling at me.  It thinks it wants to be a grown up full fledged story but there are too many questions in my head for it to be a story yet.  I’m making it work its way into a story.  I have two characters and several scenes but no overall plot.  Also it would involve world building as it is a science fiction story.  It takes a lot of effort to do that, if the idea wants to become a story, I need more of the world to become clear to me before I settle into writing the characters and scenes, no matter how much they entertain me.

Sleep was nearly non-existent last night.  As I edited I discovered two things.  If I write a scene that makes me cry, when I edit it I will probably cry too.  This makes it difficult to edit.  They were good scenes though and I’ll have to figure out a way to get over the emotion of the scene to get to the nitty gritty of it.  The other thing I learned is that once my eyes start giving out, editing become difficult.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t guarantee sleep.

I put the editing up about 1:30 and fell asleep fairly quickly.  Ken came home about 2:45 from the game.  At 3:30 my eyes popped open.  I tried dozing for a couple of hours but no success.  Ken is still asleep and I’ll work on production of the poetry book.  Hopefully I’m more successful in getting it done today than I have been for the last two weeks.

Recurring Words

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing

There are words which have very little function in our language but we use them a lot – or at least I seem to.  I just finished editing a manuscript of mine and discovered several I should not be allowed to use.

Well, so, then, now, are all words that I should ban from my writing.  I seem to use them a lot in dialogue.  I also don’t like to use contractions.  When writing dialogue, it is easy to forget that we don’t talk as formally as we write.  We also tend to not speak in full sentences.  This means contractions, fragments, and all the things your teachers tell you not to do – you usually end up doing. 

At one point, I looked at my edits and realized they were all words like “well, so, then, etc”.  These are filler words really – like say “uh” when you are giving a speech.  Of course I had to take them all out.  I hope I got them all.  I might have to do a search just to make sure. 

The problem with having these words in there is they don’t sound like real conversation.  Unless of course your person says “Soooo…” a lot. 

As for contractions – in formal writing almost never use them.  In dialogue though we all talk in contractions and not always the ones we commonly use like can’t or won’t.  There are contractions like “Go get ’em” or “Whacha doin?”  All of these are things I look at when I’m doing editing because my tendency is to write the more formal usage – “Go get them”.  It isn’t wrong but it makes the character different from the person who would speak more casually. 

One of the biggest pieces of advice I’ve been given for writing dialogue is to read it out loud.  People may think you are strange but it helps with the way you think a person will talk naturally.

When I’m done with a manuscript, I guess I’ll have to make a point of searching out these words I use repetitively.  It is one very important step in my editing process when I’ve finished a manuscript.

The Frustration of the Neverending Afghan

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Writing

Last night I worked on Vicki’s afghan.  I made good progress with getting a row and a half done.  I went to start the next row and discovered that I didn’t have enough yarn to complete the row.  This is the one variegated skein I didn’t get over the weekend.  I was all set to keep crocheting but unfortunately I didn’t have the yarn to do it.  I was very annoyed. 

Tonight after work I’ll be stopping to get the skein of yarn.  Hopefully they have the variegated I need to do this one freaking row.  I grumbled at Vicki about it and she said to just skip the color.  However, it would look odd if I just skipped it – it would ruin the whole pattern. 

There I was last night in the mood to work on it and I couldn’t.  The yarn failed me.  In most cases I typically buy extra yarn so I don’t have this problem but with this afghan we didn’t buy extra – probably because the yarn was sort of pricey.  It is beautiful yarn but a little pricey.

Once I have the yarn, I’m hoping to get that row done and start on another of the rows.  I’m to the point in the afghan where I just want it done.  For most normal rectangular afghans if I had five rows left, I would just finish it.  I’m frustrated because I can’t just rush through the end of it to have it done and because I ran out of yarn. 

I’ll have to be patient because there is nothing I can do about it – that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.

On the writing front, I’ve been working on editing.  I finished editing a fantasy novel.  I need to get the changes into the computer now.  I also have a poetry book edited.  I’m going to work on production of both of these so I can work on getting them out soon.  Then I will look at the third poetry book and the second fantasy novel.  They both have a lot of editing to go on them. 

With all of these I have to work on artwork / covers as part of the production.  I have wonderful people who help me create beautiful covers.  I’m looking forward to working on these covers and other artwork for the fantasy novels. 

Secret Past

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