Timelines

          Its going to be a very quick update today, and since I'm Canadian, I'll apologize in advance. I have a day job that buys 8.5 hrs of my life on a near-to-daily schedule and I was running a pathfinder game when I got home. Finally, I have a sick husband to take care of and while I married a wonderfully competent husband, it is that little bit extra to put a cherry on an already busy day. 

          Anyways,  I have now finished my excel chapter-by-chapter run down on Monday morning. I spent the next day and a half working on the timeline for my novel. Once again, technology saved me! I have always had trouble making them on paper and despite its many uses, Scrivener is just not my thing. I find it distracts rather than enhances my working environment. Fortunately, Excel was able to come to my rescue yet again. 

          Most of my issue with paper is that I always end up wanting to move what I've come up with and on paper, it just isn't possible without scissors. On the other hand, Excel allows you to pick up cells and move them wherever you want them to go, you can create a new line wherever you want...  overall, it works really well. In addition to figuring out a timeline from a century prior up to present day in my novel, I was able to name characters and figure out what my characters names will be. 

          I still have the timeline during the space of my novel to work on, but I think that I will add those in as I actually work on the chapters, which will also allow me to change it as needed. 

          I'm going to cut today's post of here though. I had a wicked idea for where to start the first chapter and I'd like to get some of this work edited today. 

Finished (or Close Enough)

          Good eve on this fine Sunday, Readers!

          If I seem a little excited, I do have a reason. I have been working myself to the bone and finally finished the developmental part of my edit today! Or at least, mostly. I finished reading the book and taking down page upon page of notes (around 20 pages both sides), but I have two other tasks to do.

          The first one (otherwise known as the easy one), is just putting all the pertinent information from those notes into an excel program. By that I don't mean my notes like, "general tightening of scene needed". I'm putting in each chapter, including ones I've realized I need and deleting the ones I know are disappearing in the correct order. I'm also putting in who the POV character is, what other characters share the stage for that scene, and the ones that are mentioned but aren't there. This way I can try and consolidate characters (do my noble sisters really need three named servants? Probably not) and I can check at a glance whether I am having one character getting way too much air time (one character is the POV for five chapters in a row and its only her and one other guy? Can I add in a chapter of what's happening elsewhere? Time doesn't stop for everyone else just because two characters are in trouble, after all) or not enough.

          Its my hope that, along with the problems I've already found story-wise, I will find a way to make the pacing and pov parts of my novel invisible but much more satisfying to my eventual readers.

          I'm about half way through this part now and then I'll be able to start going through and doing chapter/line edits.

          Developmental edits are less than fun, but I love taking something that isn't good and making it so. Signing off for now. I have to back to it.

Grateful

          Today, I received the loveliest compliment today from a fellow writer. Kate Larking on Anxiety Ink was talking about feeling thankful for all the great people she knows, specifically today, the writers. She included me in that list, with the one of the nicest compliments that I have received. Seriously, I've included the link just above for her page and I suggest you go check it out. I know at least a few of the other writers she thanks on there and they are all great people (with links to all their sites as well).

          Also, I totally squee'd when I saw that she thanks CE Murphy. I have read her urban shaman series and it completely rocks (that series is also why I now own a white leather jacket). The writer community is reasonably tight so as you make friends, you'll find you are able to meet and greet with authors that you may find squee-worthy and are way above your pay-grade (meaning, usually, that they can make a living off this). Sorta cherry-topped that awesome feeling, especially since I started reading her Urban Shaman series again (in fact, I started Coyote Dreams yesterday).

          The other absolutely awesome thing that happened today is that I ordered my business cards. I've been working on their design for a few weeks now, to the point of actually designing a logo for my "press" when I start publishing. I'll have more on that after I've registered my company name and its officially mine (I needed to update some of my identification before I can finish putting the register through). I can't wait to receive them! The estimated shipping time said 7 days, so with a bit of luck I'll be able to do a full reveal of both sometime next week.

          As a final note, I picked up Isuna Hasekura's final novel in the Spice & Wolf light novel series yesterday. Volume 17: Epilogue. Due to that, I did not work on my editing much when I got home yesterday or today. I am 40% of the way through the read through so far, with one character deleted and two to three chapters I'll need to write in so far and I'll definitely be working on it more tonight or, at the latest, tomorrow, depending on how late my company stays tonight. Here's hoping that I can have the read-through finished for my next post on Sunday.

The Road Not Taken

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less travelled by, 

And that has made all the difference

-Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

          I don't know if I could honestly say this is my favourite poem by Robert Frost, though he is hands down my favourite poet. Fire & Ice, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Take Something Like a Star, even the old fan favourite, Nothing Gold Can Stay... these are epic poems; beautiful, simple and powerful. Still, the one above is the one that I'm resonating with today.

          As a writer, you want the passion and power seen in Fire & Ice. However for editing... you want something calming and The Road Not Taken has that in spades, as well as the feeling of discovery and that unnameable (or at least, that I know of) feeling that we may have missed out on something great due to our choices, while still being happy with our choices.

          Editing is that feeling intensified. 

          Its my favourite part of the process actually, taking something that sucks and making it great. Though I am left sometimes wondering at the roads I didn't take, the paths I didn't follow. Would they still be there if I went back? The words would be, but I don't know if the same burst would come to me, wavering my conviction. 

          In the end, as Linkin Park says, it doesn't really matter.  You need to choose a path and follow it to the end. Going back to the beginning just to see could-have-beens may be interesting, but you can't live there (though I feel a short story burgeoning through me with that line).

          In my editing this week, I made a decision to delete a character. Inarguably important to the creation of my main character, he no longer had a place in my novel. I replaced him and felt almost fragmented. I will never, except in memory, in past writings, see that character again. 

          And I, I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.

          Lets go make a difference.

Read Through Editing: 30/110 or 28% completed

Finally Done!

          Yes, you read that right! Things are finally moving! I finished Kitsune-Ken, Book II on Tuesday and celebrated by having a bad movie night and dinner out with my husband. I'm sure that some of you want to know the exact details, so here they are. My final draft came out to 72k and after removing the obvious stuff (paragraphs and pages that needed to be written while I figured out where I was going but are obviously not going to be staying in the manuscript) that total came down to 68k. It is 127 pages in Microsoft Word, written in size 11 Calibri at 1.5 space between the lines. A bit shorter than my other novel, which I believe finished at 71k, but I know I'm missing a chapter or two so that total may get longer when I begin editing.

          Since finishing it, I've been taking time off from the books, instead working on more mundane things... designing business cards, registering my Press company name and such. As soon as I've purchased the cards, I'll save a picture and post them here! If I may say, they totally rock. It will probably be a week or two before I can post the picture. I'm holding off until I have registered my name and have created an email address.

          I can, at this point, let you guys know some of my good news. I will be attending When Words Collide in Calgary again this year. In fact, I may even be one of the presenters of a workshop dealing with uncommon world mythologies and how to incorporate them into your novels. Although nothing is set in stone just yet, my name is currently set with the workshop, barring limited interest or scheduling issues, I should be a presenter this year. I will also be attending the banquet this year! The theme is steampunk and if you haven't made a decision on whether the banquet is right for you, consider it!

          I think I'll have to stop here though and tell you more later. I can say that I have begun editing Kitsune-Ken, Book I and as soon as I have figured out how much work it should take, I'll update you on how long editing will be taking. If all goes according to plan, I may have it all finished for an early fall release date... Keep your fingers crossed!

Frazzled + Frustrated = Winning Combination (not)

          This week has been frustrating in a few ways for me. For one, I have not finished my novel yet. I have moved forward on it, but the scene that I though was only going to be one, turned out to be three scenes and one of them included a battle, which I admit, I sort of suck at. They are one of my banes right now, which means that I tend to stress out trying to write them in the first place and that I need to spend a lot more time trying to have them make sense. So I am on the third scene of that set, where they find out that the monster they fought had been carrying the items they had hoped not to find. I should have two scenes after this one (crosses fingers) and then I'll be done. I have finished nearly 8k worth of words this week so despite my appearance of doing nothing, I have accomplished something. 

          The other bit of very interesting news that has left me a bit frazzled this week is that I may be a presenter at When Words Collide 2016 (Calgary's biggest writer/reader convention that I know of). As in, I am listed on their website for a panel. I'll let you know when its been confirmed for sure and until then, I'll be preparing for it. Right now my big thing is creating a logo... something to put on a business card and my novels that will make you think you of me when you see it. My husband came up with a brilliant idea... I'm going to keep a lid on it until I've got it drawn though. Yes, I will most likely be drawing it myself. I took art all through school and actually considered going into animation professionally, so I should be able to handle this. If I can't, then I'll commission an actual artist to do it for me. Either way, keep an eye out for that!

          Since I generally suck at keeping everything straight in my head without a to-do list, I signed up for one. Habitica is a site where not finishing daily goals means that your avatar gets hurt... an actual issue since your avatar has hit points and equipment and can defeat bosses and take part in challenges. Basically, its like playing an rpg except that your quests are items on your to do list. When you accomplish a task you get in-game gold and silver to buy equipment, like better weapons so the tasks you complete will do more damage to monsters, or health potions for when you can't finish everything and you take damage. It seems pretty interesting, though this is only my second day using it... I'll give you a more detailed review later when I've used it for a month or so. 

This is my Avatar in Habitica. Her current equipment is a training sword and a set of mouse ears... until I find fox ears they will have to do. As you can see,  I took damage for not meeting a health goal. My XP is going up decently though!

          Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm running away. I have a list to finish working on!

So Close!

          Today's post will be short, because its 11:30 pm and I've worked hard. In the last two days(one of which was my wedding anniversary), I have managed to write 4,909 words. I have finished all of the climax scenes and I have only two epilogue scenes left. Probably another 2,000 to 4,000 more words to finish this. Since I'm already at 63,040 words, it means that I will hit 65,000 words on this rough draft, which is a more than reasonable total. Of course, I'll know the exact total after I've finished and gone back and deleted all the stuff that clearly wasn't working, which could be as much as 3k. Still, in the next few days I will be finished.

          Have no worries, I will post here when I have finished the book and totalled up all the numbers. Also, I should have a downright awesome surprise to share soon. I just need to confirm something, but after that I should have some very interesting news coming down the line!

          Lastly, since all work and no play is one of the fastest ways I know to kill my motivation, my hubby took me to see a movie I have been waiting to see for months now. Zootopia! The movie rocked it in my opinion. It dealt with big issues of gender and race in a way that made it easy to see ourselves in it, while also making us laugh, tear up or gasp at the danger. It was a wonderful movie, and I suggest everyone run out to see it. It will be going on my shelf when it comes out!

Poster is property of Disney. I'm just posting it because the movie was awesome.