Alyssa Drake's Blog, page 10

Day 19 - Who hit the shuffle button?

I kicked off the weekend with a bit of good news, and a bit of added pressure to the speed of my plan. The Most Important Activity list is meant to keep me on track, but with this new opportunity, I need to reshuffle the order to hit a mid-September deadline. There are a lot of steps which need to be completed by then, and I don't want to rush, so I'm debating whether to wait on redesigning my Wiltshire covers until next year. This keeps percolating in my brain as I'm working on the realignment edit for my historical co-write, and it is pulling my focus.

After reading four chapters, the mental noise became too distracting, and I switched to my admin side to randomly select the reader whose name will be one of the characters in my next Paranormal Tales from Firefly Island release (which I'll announce in Thursday's newsletter).

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, and I may not be able to sneak any edits in (it's much easier to write on my phone than to edit), but I do get to have birthday cake and that's almost as good as getting to write.

Day 20 - A small inconsistency

The most peaceful time in my household is after 11pm. Everyone has gone to bed, including the dog, and the only sounds I can hear are the fan (white noise) and the waves (sound machine to trick my brain into believing I'm at the beach). It also happens to be the most productive time because there are very few distractions.

After tucking everyone into bed, I fired up my laptop to complete a few more chapters of the historical co-write realignment edit, and found a consistency error. This is exactly what I'm searching for, and, although it was a minor discrepancy in location, I'm happy to catch it prior to finishing the story. Correcting the discrepancy took more time than I anticipated, since I had to scroll backward to edit previous chapters. I ended up leaving myself with the last quarter of the story to complete Monday.

Day 18 - My favorite place to be...

I had no intention-NONE-of looking at the first chapter edits that I received back for the Secrets, Scandals, and Seduction boxed set until I completed the co-write. But, I was still feeling at little raw from the previous day, so I opened the document.

You would think a document filled with corrections would make me feel worse, except for two things. One, grammar isn't my strong suit, and getting a document back with corrections only shows my editor is doing her job. Two, there were no comments on the side questioning plot or noting unclear areas.

Whew.

So, I spent my Friday in Wiltshire editing the first chapter. I'll return to my co-write tomorrow with fresh eyes, and kinder heart.

Day 17 - The dark side of writing

I debating posting Thursday's blog because this is the first time since I've started recording my progress that I hit the dark side.

There's a meme that's been floating around for a while that uses Rapunzel to depict the mental stages of an author during the writing progress. It usually makes me chuckle, but this time it feel a little too real. Instead of celebrating by reaching the halfway point of the realignment edit, I was overcome by a thickening melancholy that caused me to shut off my laptop.

This concept, historical blending paranormal, is something I truly enjoy, but I ended the night thinking I just wasn't doing my characters or the story justice. When that happens, I stop working, because the inner criticizing voice drowns out the muse. So, I wrapped birthday presents instead.

Day 16 - Amusing the Muse

Sometimes I can't explain why the music playing in the background is the genre my muse picks, however, today's station is Halloween music.

First, I had no idea there was a full station dedicated to Halloween songs. Second, I'm frightened by the number of songs to which I actually know the words. Third, I started adding song to the station because I wanted to hear them. You'd think I would be really great at naming that tune, but I'm terrible at remembering names (and yes, that can be a detriment when writing).

I created a condensed character bible for easy reference when writing. It's organized by series, and then by book, since my characters have a tendency to pop up in each other's stories.

Wednesday finds me one-third of the way through my realignment edit of the historical co-write. That's not where I'd like to be, but tomorrow is another day.

Day 15 - A math problem

Tuesday has been brought to you by a math problem.

I read roughly 1 page per minute, however, when editing/revising, it takes me twice as long to read the same words. The current page count on this historical adventure is 243. Therefore, 243 pages x 2 minutes per page = roughly 8 hours. That is assuming I don't hit any weird snags that slow me down. Theoretically, I should be finished in five days (which is Friday night, not Thursday, like I originally intended).

However, my time is being pulled by obligations, and now I'm juggling again. But (and I did type this without crying) because some of the most amazing acts of kindness, I was able to meet those obligations.

Four chapters edited, which is an okay start. Slow and steady wins the race (however, sometimes it helps to have running shoes, or at least a beat to keep you dancing).

Day 14 - Necessary evils

 Editing (def.) - When you hand over your soul (be it a chapter or a full book) to someone whose sole purpose is to point out every single minute flaw, and you pay them to do it.

 

Editors are a necessity (and not evil, at least not that I've seen). While it can be quite disheartening to receive work back coated in notations (and sometimes it takes me a few days to get over it), it really is my pride that is most offended.

To catch some of the easier errors, every chapter goes through an overall edit, a spell/grammar check on Word, then a 2nd spell/grammar check on Docs (because they pick up different mistakes). Once that is completed, then the story or chapter is sent forward.

Before I could begin the realignment reading of the historical co-write, I needed to work through the corrections that came back on chapters 27 and 28, which actually was a good thing, because of a note that requires me to check for an issue throughout the story (good things working together). The edit of those two chapters took longer than I expected, since the issues that arose were not simple grammar changes, but potential plot bunnies. With only two planned chapters left before the end of the story, the loose ends need to be tied up, or at least accounted for.

I had hoped to complete this by Thursday, but I'm rather enjoying the story, and I have to keep going backward because I forget I'm supposed to be editing.

Day 13 - The end of a Chapter

Every single day I've logged into my computer for the past week, the image on the background is a lighthouse. I'm not certain if it was just random luck, or something more, but it felt like a sign that I was working on the right project.

However, with the completion of chapter one, I struggled not to begin chapter two. As this story is in alternating POV's, I would be jumping into Sarah's mind, and because I know what's coming next, I physically had to close my laptop and walk away.

Sticking to the LIST!

The next task is a full edit of the first twenty-eight chapters of my historical co-write, then I'll write the last two chapters and finish the first book in this trilogy. I hate being so secretive about this project, but it will be worth the wait, I promise. And the covers... OMG! Gives me shivers.

Day 12 - The Set-up

When I reach the final third of a chapter (roughly 1000 words left), I start herding the characters toward the positions they need to be in for the beginning of the next chapter. In this case, I need to get Patrick out of his lighthouse and on the way toward town.

How did I do this... with a little help from the other lighthouse keepers, who've decided to break from their normal routine to discover why Miss Sarah Varner deigned to visit the lighthouse despite Patrick's surly reputation.

Tomorrow, I'll wrap this chapter up, edit one more time, and send it off to my wonderful editor (who will be the only one who gets to read this before the first chapters book is released). Such a tease :D

Day 11 - Friday Night fun

When beginning a story, I start the outline with the two main characters, then pull in minor characters as the plot is fleshed out, which has occurred with this current project. In the case of chapter one, it's impossible for Patrick to run the lighthouse by himself, he needs two co-workers minimum, which means, I'm adding two characters. Where do I them?

I have two options. First, I can invent new people, as I did with the innkeeper and his wife, or I could use previously mentioned characters...

With six completed stories, the Wiltshire Chronicles is my largest interlocking world (which, incidentally was also written out of order - this will be corrected to chronological order when the new covers are issued). Many of the minor characters appear on several books, they don't always get their own story, but this was the perfect opportunity to highlight one of them.

In "An Imperfect Introduction", which is releasing in "The Rogue Who Stole Christmas" boxed set, Wilhelmina's intended fiancé is Oliver Parrish (she ends up married to Edward Hastings). So what happened to Oliver? He popped up here, as a lighthouse keeper, but I'll get into his journey later because his story is now woven into this one. I won't tell you much about the other man, except his name isn't really Mr. King.