I continued reading book #3 (“Power”) out loud this past week, managing to get 20 minutes in every day. It continues to be a huge benefit—necessity, even—as I wait for my sisters to read it and give me their feedback as well. Hopefully this will be the last intensive revision the book needs before it’s ready to be published, but we’ll see what they say when they get through it too.
After an entire week of no writing (3/11-3/17) due to extra work demands and an urgent deadline for VBS prep, I picked it up a bit last week. Though I still didn’t write 20 minutes every day, I did extra some days to at least be able to average it out to 20 minutes every day. I’m continuing with reading book #3 (“Power”) out loud, which helps me notice dialog that is awkward, prose that could use adjusting, or even errors and typos that I had missed. It’s turning out that I missed a lot on what I thought was a really comprehensive revision, which is awkward, since I printed a copy before this read-through for one of my sisters to read and give me feedback. And now I know that there are a lot of mistakes or clumsy-sounding areas…
Last week was a much more intentional, productive week, in regards to working on my writing. I’ve hit a bit of a stride, which comes more easily when the work I’m doing is more enjoyable or just otherwise flowing smoothly. I spent all week reading more of book #3 (“Power”) out loud, because that helps me notice dialog that is awkward, prose that could use adjusting, or even errors and typos that I had missed (which has turned out to be more than I would have hoped, since I thought I caught a lot on the previous revision. I’ve been really getting into the story again, which I take as a good thing, because it means that I, at least, enjoy it. Hopefully others will too!
Last week was messy, with a last-minute, all-day babysitting stint for my sister, a meeting for work, and other uncommon situations that leave me looking back and wondering how the time got away from me. I did work 20 minutes a few days out of the week, but I couldn’t even tell you how many days or which ones. I’m going to try to be a lot more intentional about getting at least 20 minutes work in every day this week.
I’ve paused the character interview I’ve been working on for weeks now, which is part of my brainstorming process to work out part of the plot of book #4 in the Pithea series (currently titled “Morano”), to go back and do a little more work on book #3 (“Power”), which is currently waiting for my sisters to read it and give me their feedback. A conversation with my 13-year-old daughter early in the week led me to remember that a vital revision step near the end of the process for me in the past has been reading through the near-final draft out loud, because that helps me notice dialog that is awkward, prose that could use adjusting, or even errors and typos. So that’s what I’m in the middle of right now, and it has already produced some very important adjustments.
This last week was a slightly rougher one for my goal of writing 20 minutes per day, though I did manage it for 5 out of 7 days. I did not do any extra to make up for those lost days and have actually decided not to force myself to make up for lost days (unless I miss a lot, maybe). The idea here isn’t to be stressed or risk burning out but to work steadily toward an end goal (get the next book in the series ready to publish).
My work this last week was more working out one arc of the plot for book #4 in the Pithea series (currently titled “Morano”) by means of a character interview with one of the major characters from that arc. It has really shed some light on that plot and motivations for some of the characters.
I’ve mostly stuck to my goal of writing 20 minutes per day, though I did skip Friday. However, I made up for it with an extra 20 minutes on Saturday, so I didn’t get behind.
I’m still working on the character interview with one of the major characters from book #4 in the Pithea series (currently titled “Morano”). in the section of the story I’m most uncertain about. I can’t pretend that it’s not starting to feel like I’m stalling with this interview, dragging it out so I don’t have to figure out what do to next, but I’m still walking through the storyline and getting some great insight, so I’d definitely call it productive. I also use the double session yesterday to do some freewriting (something I haven’t done in a while), which started out rocky but ended up being a peek at the later life of a character in Outcast (book #2) that I really enjoyed getting out.
While I wait for my beta-reading sisters to read “Power,” book #3 in the Pithea series, I’m starting to work on book #4. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo in 2020 and haven’t touched it since then, so first I have to figure out what major changes need to be made and how to go about making them. I spent all of this week doing a character interview with one of the major characters in the section of the story I’m most uncertain about. It has been very helpful so far, and I’ll continue it this week.
I’ve stuck to my goal of writing 20 minutes per day, even with a few days this last week where I didn’t feel much like doing any work. It’s easier to push myself when the work ahead of me is a character interview, though, because it really doesn’t feel much like work.
I won’t say too much as an introduction, since I posted about this same thing only last Saturday. In this post you will find 4 more recent additions to my notebook collection, and if you want to see more, you can click on the links directly below this.
This is one of the very few notebooks in my collection that came from a thrift store, because as you can imagine, used notebooks aren’t particularly helpful. But now and then apparently someone donates a notebook that they never wrote in. This is actually more of a notebook cover, with a magnetic clasp. Inside is a plain spiral notebook that can be replaced, along with a slot for papers, a clear slot that looks like it’s for a business or ID card, and a pen holder. I like simple covers like this so that I can put my own notebooks in them and keep them safe when they travel in my purse or luggage. Also, it only cost 50¢, so you can’t go wrong with that!
In a nearby city, there’s a store that is only open during Christmas shopping time. They spend the rest of the year gathering things to sell, like overstock from other businesses, things like that, and they sell most of their inventory really cheap. So what they have is very hit-or-miss from year to year. I was a little sad at their selection of notebooks this year–a lot of very plain things, repeats from last year, or oddball notebooks like one with Benjamin Franklin quotes all through it. The notebook above, however, was an immediate grab for me, because I knew it would be absolutely perfect for me to write my character interviews in. After all, what says “split personality” more than talking to myself as a writing exercise?
I watched Jurassic Park in the theater as a teenager. My parents took our whole family, thinking it was going to be more of a light-hearted comedy (what trailer did they see?!). I don’t remember what I thought about it then, but I do remember watching it at my friends house shortly after it came out on VHS. We watched it at least 2-3 times into the night, determined to watch until it didn’t scare us anymore. Maybe that’s why I’m such a huge fan of the whole franchise now. I love them all, even the cheesy ones. I have also read both books, though it’s been a while, which is why I will be reading them again sometime soon.
This was a Christmas gift from my husband last month, a leather journal cover that he had custom-made for me. It’s the name of my first full-length book, as well as the name of the book series, and also the name of the country most of the series takes place in. As you can see from the spine of the book on the left, it’s in the same font as the title on the book, too. It’s basically a refillable travel journal, which means that there are multiple smaller notebooks inside, held in by elastic bands, that can be replaced as needed. It looks beautiful, smells wonderful, will hold up to all sorts of use and abuse, and can be reused forever. Words cannot express how this cover makes me feel.
Stay tuned for one more post with 4 more notebooks, at which point I will be caught up (for now).
Do you collect anything related to reading or writing? Feel free to share!
I’m not even going to pretend that I did much work on book #3 in the series this last week. I put the new order of scenes that I came up with the week before into Scrivener, and then I started writing one of the new scenes I have planned. I didn’t even get that scene finished, as various things, mostly related to preparing for Christmas, took up much more of my time than I’d expected. Plus, I’ve been having headaches more often lately, which makes focusing on writing difficult.
This coming week, of course, will hold even more Christmas prep, plus the day itself. I will attempt to spend at least a little time in Pithea, even if it’s not official revision. I have a character interview in mind, so maybe I’ll do that in little snatches of time throughout the week.
My first proof copy of “Pithea” came last Monday. Not gonna lie, it brought tears to my eyes to see the story I’ve worked on for over 6 years as a tangible, full-length book for the first time. Then I couldn’t see well enough to examine the cover, so my husband looked at it, and sadly informed me that it didn’t look good.
It’s really blurry, which was disappointing, but I’ve already identified a possible reason for this issue and remade the cover. Unfortunately, there’s no real way to know if it’s good enough until I get another proof copy. I’ll chalk this up to a learning experience, because if the next cover comes out good, I know how to make the cover from the get-go next time. If it’s still blurry…I’ll have to troubleshoot further.
I’ve been working furiously on the final full revision of “Pithea”, most of what I’m changing being awkward wording that I discover by reading the text out loud. I am 2/3 of the way through this revision, after which I’ll put changes into the computer, make sure the formatting is still good, and order another proof copy.
Blurry or not, it looks great on the shelf with other books!
I haven’t done much more prep for NaNoWriMo. I keep carrying around the notebook in which I wrote some character interviews in preparation of writing the outline for the book I plan to write, thinking reading back through those interviews will help get prepared for writing the story. But “Pithea” has taken all of my free time. If I keep the pace I’ve been on, I’ll be done with the final revision of “Pithea by Wednesday, and then I’ll be waiting for another proof copy. Hopefully that will give me the last week of Preptober to focus on my NaNoNovel (working title: “Ophaela”).
A Journey of Words 