Tag Archives: editing

A Big Push

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The stars are aligning and things are happening and I’m caught in the middle!

First of all, on the 30th September, I have to get the edits for Finding Faith, my first Racing Harts novel to my editor. I’m working my way through these at the moment, and have 9 days to get through about ten chapters, which isn’t too bad. And I’ve already started editing Gaining Grace. If I can do at least two a day, I’ll be happy, except I have work on Saturday and Sunday, which doesn’t allow me to do those two days, so I have to try and sneak in 4 extra edits somewhere into my calendar.

And then on the first of October, I have the launch of Carol’s Christmas, my breast cancer story. I can’t wait to get this out into the world, and start raising some funds for Breast Cancer New Zealand. $5 from every paperback and $1 from all ebooks will go to the foundation for all books sold throughout the month of October. I’m really looking forward to being able to send the money to Breast Cancer New Zealand and tell them that there are lots of lovely caring people out there who contributed towards the donation.

So, I had better knuckle down and crack through these edits so I can focus on selling as many books as I can.

Sickness and Writing

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I’ve been sick this week, and as a result, very little has been done.

You’d think with having time off work because of sickness would allow me more time to get jobs done, which yes, I did clean the house, do the laundry, the multitude of dishes etc, but writing…nothing was done.

This is it takes a certain energy to write, edit, process when I’m writing, and when I’m sick, it’s like my brain is scrambled eggs. It can’t quite comprehend what I am supposed to be doing without trying to figure out who is chasing who, who is using what weapon, and weather cold spaghetti is worth eating…and that’s in my writing.

As I have two stories on the go at the same time, it’s hard enough keeping storylines straight without being sick. Being sick adds a whole new dimension of “what was I thinking” to the entire endeavour.

But never fear, I’m feeling much better. Better enough to get out for a walk and clear my head.

The End is Nigh

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I’m working through the edits for a book that is due with my editor on 25 July, and I could very easily just blast through the last few pages, and just send it.

But I’m not like that. I prefer to take my time and make sure that I have everything done.

Of course, I’ve already read through the manuscript and altered it, added or deleted from it countless number of times That can often take me a few times before I’m happy to proceed with the final edit.

So what do I do when I’m running a final edit?

The first thing I do is read through it and add in or take anything that does make sense. This might be taking out words because I got over wordy trying to explain something, or used too many words in a sentence.

The next step is to use ProWriting Aid to go through it and make sure that things make sense. I sometimes accept the changes it recommends, and sometimes  I don’t, because it will change my voice if I go with their suggestions.

Then I like to run it through a text to speech to hear it. This is invaluable in picking up those errors that you miss because you’ve already read it forty times. It will pick up those ‘is, if, it, in, of’ that you’ve misspelled. Sometimes it misreads words like retrain (ret rain)???

My last step is to spellcheck before I format and get it ready to send through to my editor.

Excitement is building

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After what seems like forever, I’m finally back writing. I think it was only two weeks, but when you’re a writer, two weeks can seem like two years. And because I write when I have a spare moment, and before I go to work, an hour a day feels like a lifetime ago. But I managed to get in three writing days, and a couple of days editing.

I have Finding Sam Healey up for pre-order, and I’m working out what my next projects will be. I have a little bit of writing to go on my last Racing Harts story, and then I think I will write my Cinderella retelling. Editing-wise, I’m working on Carol’s Christmas, and hope to have that out, maybe October or November. But it could be earlier than that. It’s still all up in the air.

What isn’t up in the air is wanting to sell my books myself. From my own website. With my ebooks, that means I’ll make 90% of the costs, rather than 70% (or as low as 60% with an aggregator). It means that I can also provide paperback copies to New Zealand readers at a more reasonable cost as well. I already sell my books for $15, but I’m looking at increasing the costs, mostly due to the fact that it is costing me more to getting them in, but it would still be reasonable. $25 plus $5 postage.

With selling on my own website, I can offer more merchandise as well, like bookmarks, and other publications that aren’t available through any other platform. It also means I can offer discounts on my eBooks, and currently I’m looking at selling them at US$2.99 through my website, while increasing the costs to $4.99 through the other book places (Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Google, Smashwords and other online retailers.

I want to get serious about selling my books, and this is one way I can do it. I would love to sell more paperbacks, but I’m still working out the nuts and bolts of advertising.

So watch this space…something big is happening here soon…

Formatting Lessons Learned

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When I was home full time, I used a notebook as a ‘To Do list’, and I always felt like I’d accomplished something when I got things crossed off that list. Lately I’ve been wondering why I haven’t been as productive with my To Do list, and it’s taken me until now to work it out.

Yes, call me blond if you want, but the reason I haven’t been as productive is…wait for it… because I’m working again, so I don’t have all day to get tasks done. It was kind of a bolt out of the blue to come to this conclusion, then I chastised myself for not realising it sooner.

I’m very tough on myself, I try to hold myself in high esteem, but I also have to remember that I am only one person, trying to make my writing work for me, and not against me. Writing is something I love to do, and I don’t mind doing formatting etc to make my book look pretty. I used to follow India Drummond’s helpful tutorial on YouTube on how to format my print book, but when I went in there recently…It’s gone! And instead of an hour that it normally took me to do formatting, I spent six days nutting it out myself, with help from a couple of downloaded templates. The thing is, I don’t want to cut and paste my book into a template. I’ve just spent a massive amount of time setting up the mirror margins and the type font etc. I don’t have time to cut and paste, but you know what? It would have been quicker.

One lesson I did learn, was to not use page breaks when I finish a chapter. Use a scene break. Have odd and even numbered page numbers, and learn how to break the pairing with the previous scene break. I have to say that I am pleased with the overall result, but it took me days of yelling at my laptop and cursing the internet for being dodgy at crucial moments, because it would decide that it needed to think before it would allow me to do something, and I was already five steps ahead. So I would have to be patient (something I don’t have a lot of) and let things do it’s thing, then try again.

The good news is, the ebook was a lot easier to format and was done in about an hour, and now, Finding Sam Healey is up for pre-order. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see how people find it. If you want a copy of the paperback, or ebook, let me know, you might get an early copy so that you can spread the word about this book.

Being In Tune With Your Body

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This week has been busy. My mum has been over from Blenheim, I’ve worked during the day and at night, and it’s all been rather busy. I’ve also been trying not to have a cold.

And I woke up Saturday morning, made a coffee and went back to bed to read. I got up about 9am, had breakfast, and went back to bed. Because I was physically tired. I got up yesterday afternoon and lazed on the couch all day, watching YouTube videos of people who remake dolls into something special, cos-players creating new costumes, and various archeological programs. It wasn’t a sickness ache, it was a bone-weary ache. And yes, I know the difference.

When I’m sick, I start immediately taking chili tea – and it isn’t as nasty as you think. You put a teaspoon or two of the chili tea into what you’re drinking and it will help clear your throat of any mucus and generally make me feel better.

Yesterday morning, it was a tiredness that I get when I’ve done too much physically. I get it a lot, and often when I’m over-peopled or been overly physical, mostly in the garden. I’m guessing that I pushed myself a little too much with work and my body was letting me know that I needed a break.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling more refreshed and ready to go, and I was able to spend some time on my computer editing, because I need to get that book out! When I’m tired, I start to lose concentration and I make silly mistakes, and that’s when I know I need to quit what I’m doing and give myself a break. I ache in the back of the head, and around my sinus’s (I also did a nasal flush). Bone-weary tiredness is an ache in all of my joints, like they are heavy and I can’t lift them up. People with Chronic Fatigue will understand that tiredness and the lack of energy that comes with that.

It’s only since I was diagnosed with depression about ten years ago that I started to become more aware of my gut instinct and my body, and what my body was telling me. It knows what it needs, and to start with it was hard when I lived with somebody who was too busy gaslighting me to help me. I had stopped trusting my gut, but I knew that I needed to do what was right for me.

I still have hang up’s about resting because of that person, but as the years roll on, I’ve learnt that my body is more aware of what it needs than I give it credit for. And the bone-weary tiredness is a way my body tells me that I’ve been pushing things too hard.

I urge you to listen to your body. It knows what is right for you and what you need. Don’t ignore it when it’s telling you something.

A Moment in the life of a writer

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My mental health has been discussed here a lot, but lately it has been on the up and up. I have the occasional day when things don’t quite go to plan, but that is normal whether you have a mental health issue or not.

Yesterday (Saturday), I had a bit of a blip. I’d written about 5000 words over various stories, and while that is normally something I’m extremely happy with, I told myself that it would probably all be deleted when it comes to editing.

I was tired and on my drive home, I managed to convince myself that I was a completely pathetic writer and that none of my stories were any good, and no wonder I didn’t have sales, etc.

By the time I got home, had dinner and ruminated some more, I was at the point of tears. I knew that it was wrong, and that I was over-reacting, but I couldn’t seem to shake myself out of the melancholy.

I was so upset and wound up about my writing. My partner, very attuned to my moods asked me if I was okay. When I told him, he told me that 5000 words was impressive, and if I wasn’t a successful writer, then I wouldn’t have so many books published (7 books) (Yes, he is a keeper). I had a cry, snuggled with him and then went to bed.

This morning (Sunday), I woke up feeling a lot brighter and happier, and able to look on yesterday’s blip and recognise it for what it was. An overtired reaction to something that my brain ruminated over. knew

Everyone has moments where they overthink something, or over react to something that happened in their day. Sometimes it’s tiredness, it might be stress, or it could be something else altogether. Just remember, it is only a blip. It isn’t the end of the world, or the end of your mental health. It is just a day where you refer back to your earlier self, before you had the tools to help you cope with situation.

Recognising that I was over-reacting was a good thing, because I knew that I would come through the other side and still have my mental health intact.

If you have a bad day, remember it is only one moment in time. And sometimes we need the bad times to remember how far we’ve come on a good day.

Keeping up with Myself

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The last couple of weeks have been hectic. Learning a new job, writing two stories, editing Finding Sam Healey…

I have officially started into my normal roster, which means I’ve worked this weekend. Some of you are probably thinking – why would you work a weekend. Easy – I do it once a fortnight, and I get paid handsomely to do it. And you know what, there is plenty of time in each shift to do my own thing. So yesterday I started editing Carol’s Christmas! If this keeps up, I’ll run out of writing before I do editing!

But I have my regular roster, so I know when I have time for writing and when I’m working, so that gives me a clear idea of where I’m heading, because the last three weeks, I didn’t know when I was working half the time. But now it’s clear, I can set some boundaries around my writing time.

Because things have been so chaotic, I decided to focus on editing instead, and after missing my deadline, (and with agreement from my editor) I was able to get the document to her on Thursday. I will know how good, bad or ugly the story is by the beginning of April.

And now that is out of the way, I can crack back into writing. Which I have been itching to do, because I haven’t done it for a few days – maybe two weeks now. It will be good to get back into writing and I hope to have at least one of the stories finished by mid-April.

With all of the mess that has been going on, it is nice to finally be coming out the other side and starting to get back into normal and routine, because I cope better with that than chaos and crazy.

Steeping Learning Curves

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I’ve been at my new job for three weeks now, and it’s been a steep learning curve. I’m having to learn not just one CMS (Customer Management System), but also an outdated requisitions website, which I’m not allowed access too until I’ve done appropriate training.

I’m enjoying the new job; it is certainly an eye opener. I’m already aware that I’m not a keen ear when it comes to gossip, like my two cohorts are. They can tune into any conversation and follow along, no matter how noisy it is. I struggle to remember to open the door when the door chimes! Never mind answering the telephone. As a gardener, I didn’t need those skills.

I’m working in ICU (or ICCU – Intensive Coronary Care Unit), and it hasn’t been full on like it expected it to be, although that is probably a good thing because I don’t think I’m quick enough to get ahead of the eight ball if I need to be. I will be with time, but right now, not so much. I have to say that the staff are amazing, and really helpful. A couple of them have been able to answer any questions I’ve had or find answers if they can’t help. I also have the trainer on speed dial, and I might need her this week, as I am going it alone this week, on my first roster shift on my own.

As a result of the large learning curve, I haven’t had a lot of time for my writing, or editing, but I have today (Monday) off, so that will help me get ahead in my editing, because Finding Sam Healey is due to the editor at the end of today…eek!

Overfilling my Cups

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With Intellection and Learner being high on my Gallup Strengths, work has been filling my cups to overflowing at the moment. I’m learning so much about work, my work environment, my co-workers and understanding the place that I’m working in. There is the learning also, learning the new computer systems, which are probably slightly dated, but I’m coming to grips with them.

As a result of my tumultuous timetable, I’ve had little time for writing, and on the morning’s, I haven’t been working, I’ve managed to scramble around in Finding Sam Healey which I’ve promised my editor by the 10th of March.

I haven’t had a lot of time for writing because I’ve been focused on trying to get my edits done. And I haven’t had a lot of time to edit because I’ve been working erratic hours. It will be nice to finally get into my roster so that I can settle my routine and get my new routine working. I’ve also been incredibly brain tired as my brain tries to process what I’m learning.

I have worked out something important though in my writing. I started out this year, thinking that I didn’t have a job until now. I was going to focus on writing fulltime to get my books out there. But I realise now, that isn’t really a possibility. I need to have a job in order to give my brain a break from creativity. And while there are other things I could do in that time, because my writing only takes up about two hours of my day, marketing etc wouldn’t take up much more.

Listening to the Rebel Author Podcast with Sacha Black, made me realise that it’s okay to still have a job and write. Some popular writers find they need that stimulation to keep them writing. So. I’m looking at this as a win.

Until I get into a routine, my writing is going to be out of kilter for a little while. As long as I get my editing done by the 10th…