Posted in Uncategorized, tagged goals, ROW80, word count on April 27, 2011| 10 Comments »
I’m over 1600 words ahead! That means that I’m more than three days ahead of my cumulative goal right now. I keep being afraid I’m going to suddenly get stalled. There’s going to have to be a lot of detail in parts of this story and I just hope I’m up to the challenge. I’ve got to figure some stuff out, so even though I’m a pantser, I may have to plot just a tad on this one.
How is everyone else doing?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged accomplishments, check in, goals, ROW80, word count on April 24, 2011| 27 Comments »
I’m just sitting here on a Sunday morning before church, drinking a cup of coffee, and reflecting on yesterday. I got so much accomplished…house cleaning, laundry, using my new steamer on the floor…and writing. I’m now ahead of my goal by 640 words. I like being ahead so that when something happens that I don’t get to write one day, I don’t get behind. Being ahead is a great feeling. And I’m really getting into the story. Sometimes that takes awhile, and I think it has to do with getting to know my characters.
How is everyone else doing?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged check in, goal, pantser, ROW80, shoes, word count on April 20, 2011| 13 Comments »
Okay, so I’m doing two posts today. I never do that, but I HAD to show everyone my awesome new shoes. They might be a little over the top for some people but…. Anyway, check out my previous post if you want to see a picture.
Now, back to ROW80. I’m a little bit behind again (not too bad), but my friend wanted me to go shopping with her last night. Shopping? When was the last time I really did that? So I thought about how I had worked so hard on my books and how I deserved to use a little of that money on JUST ME. So I did. :0) Anyway, I’m moving along pretty well on the novella. Part of the beauty of being a pantser (shut up Kait and Susan, LOL) is that I was going along writing what came to me, and I suddenly thought of a perfect reason WHY what was happening was happening. I had no idea when I started writing. So sometimes I’m as surprised as the reader would be. And that’s really fun. :0)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged shoes on April 20, 2011| 10 Comments »
My new shoes. That’s all.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged check in, goals, ROW80, word count on April 18, 2011| 9 Comments »
I don’t have a lot to tell. I’m a little bit behind on word count due to getting in so late last night, but I’m not going to tell friends no when they want to go out to eat. I have a life. But I’ve got a scene in mind that’s good for at least 1,000 words, so that will catch me up, I think. Some days I get on a roll and write more than my goal of 500, so I don’t worry about getting behind a day or two from time to time. I always catch up and go over my goal. Until, of course, something really drastic happens. And I don’t want anymore “drastic” this year!
Happy writing, everyone!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged business trip, Castle, Michael Connelly, NYC, squee on April 14, 2011| 6 Comments »
The other night I DVR’d the last 15 minutes of Castle (a show I’ve never watched but wish I had) just so I could see one of my favorite authors. Michael Connelly had a guest appearance as himself. That was just so awesome!
Also, I’m going to NYC in June! I’ve never been there. I was supposed to go there on a New England bus tour back in 2001, but 9-11 happened a month before my trip and they, of course, wouldn’t let us go. The good thing is that this is a business trip, so it’s not costing me anything. :0)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged check in, goals, horrible book, ROW80, word count on April 13, 2011| 24 Comments »
After all the problems with my laptop, I’m now only two words behind on my goal. Two words! You would think I would have thought of just two more words to write. LOL.
In other news…I’m reading a book where the writing is so awful, I can’t believe I’m still reading it. The thing is, the story is interesting enough to make me want to know what’s happening next. I keep wondering if I’m EVER going to finish this! Ugh. I actually downloaded a sample and it wasn’t bad. But the writing just kept getting worse. I can’t wait to start on something else so I can purge my mind of this book. I’m usually very easy to please, so if I don’t like it, most people won’t. It even switched from 1st person to 3rd person a few chapters into the book, which felt very strange. I know now how I can torture “The Pink Hammer”. Make her read this book. Hahahahahaha,
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged check in, goals, ROW80, word count on April 11, 2011| 13 Comments »
Ok, ok, I know. I’m a day late checking in. Sunday was just a whirlwind of STUFF. Anyway, I’m a couple of days behind on my word count, but I finally have my computer back. Yay! So no excuses now. I see no reason why I can’t catch up to my goal word count in a few days. I’ve got the next scene in my head. :0)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged editing, grammar, guardian vampire, proofreading, punctuation, review, typos on April 7, 2011| 17 Comments »
I usually don’t show my book reviews in my posts. But I found this review on Goodreads for Guardian Vampire and I think it points out what’s wrong with a lot of indie published books. Here is an excerpt (the review was much longer, but I just wanted to show the pertinent parts).
“Whenever I buy a PubIt! ebook, the quality is going to be hit or miss. Guardian Vampire surprised me in a way no other PubIt! ebook has ever done before: it was well edited both in grammar and content. This is rarer than you might imagine.
I read this little 192 page novella in one night of insomnia. It was quick, action packed, and enjoyable. So I’m surprised it doesn’t have higher rating especially when compared to othe PubIt! ebooks like ****** which made me want to rip my hair out with the lack of content editing and flat characters.”
I blanked out the name of the book the reader mentioned out of respect for a fellow author. But this just shows what people are expecting out of indie authors. That’s why it’s so important to have good editing. I know that people have found a typo or two in some of my books, but I agree with the author of this review. There are very few indie books I’ve read that had good editing. A lot of them have so many typos that I can’t believe more of them weren’t caught. Professional indies like Zoe Winters, Susan Bischoff, and Kait Nolan (I know I’m leaving some awesome authors out, but I’m just giving three examples of authors with well edited books) always make sure their books are as good as they can be before putting them out there. But I’ve found that this is a rare exception. I know not everyone can afford a good editor at the beginning, but if you have several sets of eyes on your book, the chances of bad grammar, typos, and incorrect punctuation get slimmer and slimmer. So let other people read your books before you publish them. Have both beta readers and proofreaders. That will help you put out a better product. If there’s a typo or two, it’s not the end of the world. But when there’s 20 (or about 50, like a couple I’ve read), that’s just not good.
I know the reviewer mentioned editing for “grammar and content”, but I know she probably also has experience with typos and bad punctuation in indie books (I have). So this post really encompasses all of it.
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Pet Peeve
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blogs, comments, pet peeve, posts on April 21, 2011| 2 Comments »
I’ve said this before…one of my big pet peeves is people having blogs that are hard to comment on. I tried to post a comment to a blog today (it was one of the ones I was supposed to post to as a sponsor) and they had the open id option disabled. So if you didn’t use FB, Twitter, LJ, or some others I never heard of, you couldn’t post. I couldn’t post from my WordPress ID. I have a LJ account, but I never use it anymore. I wondered why no one else had commented on the post, and that’s apparently why.
Yesterday, I wanted to comment on a blog where I would have received a free ebook (it was that IBC indie author cage match). The author’s site thought I was spam. I answered the question that proved I wasn’t (math problem, 13+2), but when I submitted the comment I got this message “Sorry, but your comment appears to be spam.” What? Really? I tried several times because I REALLY wanted the book, and I wanted to comment on this blog (it’s a contest for the most comments). My friend didn’t have any problems commenting. Why didn’t it like me??? I promise, I answered that 13+2 was 15. 😦 I wouldn’t mind just buying the book, but I’m aggravated enough that I just won’t.
I’ve tried to make my site easy to comment on. The first time you comment, it has to be approved (to weed out the spammers), but after that, you should have no problems. But if anybody EVER has problems posting to my blog, PLEASE email me at lauralynnelliott@yahoo.com! I never want to make it hard for people to talk to me.
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