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Posts Tagged ‘editing’

ROW80 Update 7/19/15

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 19, 2015| 6 Comments »

ROW80Logocopy

Well, I finally broke down and got a new iPhone. I got the iPhone 6, and I’m pleased that it’s much bigger than my 4 (I skipped the 5). I didn’t want one as big as the 6 Plus, though. I got the 16 GB one, which was the least expensive one. My 4 only had 8 GB, so I think 16 is plenty for me. Verizon has stopped doing the two year contracts. What you do now is pay full price for your phone in 24 months. Then they give you a credit on your phone bill each month. I also lowered my data plan to 2 GB since we had 4 GB of data and usually only use a half GB. So doing it this way, my phone bill will only be $2 more more month, and I have a brand new phone. Yay, me.

Wow, I’m sure you all skimmed that part of the post. How boring!

So onto ROW80. Here were my goals for the round:

1. Make my monthly word count goal of 12,739 for July, 12,740 for August, and 12,329 for September. (Based on 150,000 words for the year.) So far, I’m pretty much on track with this.

 2. Finish writing the second in the mystery series written under my other pen name. It looks like this is going to happen unless I get swamped with editing jobs. I have one going and three coming up, but as long as they don’t all send them to me at once, I’m good.

3. Write at least 250 words a day on the sequel to Soul of a Vampire until I’m finished with the mystery, then readjust the goal when I’m writing ONLY that. (I have trouble writing two stories at once, but I’m going to try to write a LITTLE on that second story.) I’m behind on this one. I’m still trying to adjust to writing more than one story at a time. I did write 346 words on it today, so I’m getting there.

How did the rest of you do last week?

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ROW80 Update 6/14/15

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 14, 2015| 11 Comments »

caffè caldo e aromi

I usually don’t get a chance to relax on a Sunday morning with my coffee and my laptop. But I got up early this morning, so breakfast was made and eaten early. And here I am with a little time to kill before church. 🙂

I realized I didn’t get all my sponsor duties done last week, and I apologize for that. I had Vacation Bible School all week, plus I’m doing a beta read/edit, so I was swamped. Things have calmed down now.

Because of aforementioned VBS and beta read, I hadn’t touched my WIP for two weeks until yesterday. I’m way behind on my monthly word count, but I managed to get over 1300 words in yesterday. Since that’s 3 times the amount of daily words I need to meet my monthly goals, it helped me gain a little. So now I have to average a little over 600 words per day to meet the goal, which should be doable.

My vacation is coming up in three weeks, and I’m really looking forward to that!

I guess that’s all!

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ROW80 Update 5/31/15

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 31, 2015| 8 Comments »

I was a cleaning machine yesterday! Since I’ve been drinking Shakeology, I have all KINDS of energy. Oh, wow, I just sounded like a commercial. It’s true, though! 🙂 I got so much done yesterday, some of it stuff I’ve been putting off.

Oh, and I got some good words in yesterday, too! I’ve been neglecting that since I had two editing jobs that needed to get done fairly quickly. Now, in order to make my word count quota for May, I have to write over 1400 words today. I usually don’t write on Sundays. But I WANT to make that quota. Can I do it? Maybe….

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ROW80 Update 3/22/15

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2015| 10 Comments »

I almost didn’t post because I didn’t have a whole lot to say. I already talked about my sub-plot issue on my Friday post.I haven’t been writing because 1) I’m proofreading for a client and 2) I’m still plotting another book. I feel like plotting, planning, etc. is still part of writing, so I’m okay with that. I have a novella written under my other pen name almost ready to publish. The cover is almost done, and I have just a few corrections to make. But I can’t think of a TITLE!!! I have the title for the series this starts, but not the actual book. Titles are so hard for me unless the title comes to me, and I write the story around the title. That’s happened a couple of times, once with Soul of a Vampire and again with Fire Wizard. But most of the time, I’m struggling with that title. And since it’s my first mystery, it’s more of a challenge than my paranormal romances. It’ll come to me. I must have patience!

And since this post is pretty boring, for your viewing pleasure, here’s Willow. 🙂

willow 3-22-15

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ROW80 Update and Southern Stuff

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 18, 2015| 17 Comments »

I’ve written a few words here and there, but I’m behind my goal for the year. I like to get my proofreading jobs behind me first. Sometimes I can write some words during that time, but I don’t want to take away from my client’s time. I should be done in about a week, then I’m going to try to catch up on word count until the next job.

I’ve gotten feedback from my five beta readers and editor on my mystery written under the other pen name. I’ve gotten everything from “I LOVED it!” to “Mystery isn’t my thing, but I liked the romance in it”. The feedback was mostly good with very few changes suggested. I’m waiting mostly on the cover.

About the Southern stuff. I’ve noticed from time to time that my editor makes changes in my manuscript that I don’t quite understand. And, occasionally, so will a beta reader. And I try to figure out WHY it’s wrong. And it finally occurred to me that some of the words and phrases I write are used a lot here in my area but probably aren’t where they’re from. I’ve tried to take some of the southern stuff out of my speech and writing, but some of it I refuse to let go of. I’m Southern, and I’m proud of that heritage. But when it’s REALLY local, I have to decide whether to keep it or ditch it. One such phrase I remember writing is “sick at my stomach”. My editor changed it to “sick to my stomach”. I fixed this one because I assumed the way I say it is probably localized in this area. But I have NEVER said “sick to my stomach”. I’ve always used “at”. So then, hubby and I talked and decided if you were physically ill, “at” is used, but if you were appalled at something, “to” is used. “I’m sick at my stomach.” “That just makes me sick to my stomach.” So what do you think? Which way do you say it? And are there things that are local to your area or your region that editors or betas call you on? I’d love to hear them!

By the way, when I proofread, there are sometimes things that must be local to where those authors are from since I’ve never heard some of the phrases, or they sound wrong to me. So it’s not just the South. 🙂

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ROW80 Update 3/8/15

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 8, 2015| 11 Comments »

You know, I used to blog all the time. Fun posts. Interesting posts. Now, it seems all I do is ROW80 updates. Not that those aren’t important! They are. But if that’s all I blog about, then I’m reaching only authors and not non-author readers. I need to change that. I don’t know what happened along the way to make me stop. Probably just too much stuff to do and not enough time. Hopefully, the full time job will slow down a bit in the next week or two.

Now…about that ROW80 update. I haven’t written any words yet, except for edits on my mystery. I just finished that, and I need to get it to beta readers. (I haven’t asked any of them yet.) I had a name picked out for my little town, but unfortunately, Kait found a series by the same name (Pine Hollow). And I want this to be a series about this town. I would LOVE to hear some ideas for a small town name. Throw some at me! Even if you want to be silly and give me goofy names, it will still be fun. 🙂 I should have had this name decided before I started writing, but it just wouldn’t come to me, and I didn’t want my zeal for the story to run out while I was piddling around thinking of a name.

Hopefully, when I get the proofreading jobs done, I can get back to some serious word count on my WIP.

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ROW80 Update – A Day Late

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 2, 2015| 8 Comments »

forge badgeThings have been going along smoothly, but I’ve suddenly found myself with three proofreading jobs coming up (already working on one). I always sort of have a dilemma with this as pertains to my actual writing, but I have to look at my client jobs first because that brings in more money that my writing at the moment. That might change someday, but right now I have to be practical. I can easily work on 2-3 proofreading jobs simultaneously (or back to back depending on their deadlines), but to do that AND write is tricky. However, I have a goal of 150,000 words for this year, which averages out to 12,500 per month, and I intend to make that goal. I made the January goal, but fell a little short (by about 1100 words) on February. I can still make that up later. In order to make the goal of 150K, I have to write 411 words per day. I usually write more than that, and I take a couple days a week off. So my plan is to just try to make the 411 (15-30 minutes) a day while I’m proofing for others, then when I have no proofing jobs, I can write more and try to get ahead. That’s the plan right now.

So…my lunch hours and my after work hours will be spent proofreading. I’ll be a busy bee. 🙂 And I’m very thankful for the jobs.

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Busy, Busy! ROW80 Check-In 9/18/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 18, 2014| 6 Comments »

Yeah, I’m a day late.

In my last post, I had listed four things I had going on. Well, I’ve added another proofreading job, but this one is a second pass-through, so it shouldn’t take too long. I have to get one job done because I’ve been paid already. 🙂 I need to get the beta read done, too. So I’m focusing on those two things first.

I just want to say I will strangle anyone who suggests I go somewhere or do something Saturday. My whole day last Saturday was filled with a church function, so I NEED this Saturday to get things done. If I really work hard, I can get the beta read AND the proofing job almost done. Then I’ll just have the one other one, so I can work on my own stuff. Hubby wants to watch Captain America: Winter Soldier tonight, so that will take up a couple of hours. But I need recreation and I need to spend time with hubby. We shall have popcorn.

And speaking of my own stuff. I’m still working on getting some suggested edits done on Fire Wizard. I HAVE to get these done soon because I’m releasing this book on October 2, and I’m celebrating with a Facebook release party. You are all invited.
Fire Wizard Release Party.

How are the rest of y’all doing?

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ROW80 Update 8/27/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 27, 2014| 14 Comments »

Is September almost here? Wow, where did the summer go? But I’m really looking forward to fall. The cool breezes, the colorful leaves, Halloween.

I’ve been hard at work, reading through Fire Wizard before I send it out to beta readers. Here’s the problem. I’m finding little typos and places where I want to reword stuff. But I’m not finding any major changes that need to be made yet. I know when the love scenes (NOT sex scenes) come up, I’ll need to expand a bit on those. But the actual story up to this point seems pretty tight. I always worry about this because everyone always talks about revisions and rewrites, etc., so I think I’m supposed to do those, too. But I rarely have to do any major overhauls. Which makes me wonder if I just don’t see those things. And, yet, my two MAIN beta readers are VERY good authors, and they don’t usually suggest anything TOO major, either. And I respect their opinions a LOT. Have I just been doing this so long that my first draft is already pretty tight? Is it because I’m an “edit as I go” writer? We are told not to do that, but here’s what I usually do. I don’t edit the chapter I’m working on. But before I start a new chapter, I always go back to the chapter before and make changes that need to be made, while that part of the story is still fresh on my mind. Maybe that’s why the first draft is close to ready. Because I’m already tweaking it while I’m writing it. I just don’t know. Maybe experience plus continual tweaking is the reason. I hope that’s it instead of me just being too clueless to see I need to fix stuff. Again, I trust my beta readers, and they would tell me. And who knows, maybe they WILL find something that needs major overhauling in this one. (I hope not, LOL.) We’ll see. I can’t wait to see what they think.

What about you? Do you just spit out words as fast as you can and THEN do revisions, or do you constantly tweak as you go like I do? (That doesn’t mean I don’t sprint sometimes, but I would go back and fix everything the next day, LOL.) I would love to know if there’s anyone out there like me or if I’m just weird. Really, really weird. LOL

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ROW80 Update 8/24/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 24, 2014| 10 Comments »

I said in my last post I was finally finished with Fire Wizard. Now I’m in edits. It’s weird, but I’m loving this story. That never guarantees everyone else will, but I keep thinking, if I like it this much, if it entertains me even though I know what happens next, surely someone will like it. 🙂 It’s been a long time since I wrote the part I’m editing right now, so it’s almost like reading something new.

I hope I can get this published in about 3 weeks. It depends on my beta readers and also on my cover artist. Anya said this cover is kicking her butt. LOL. But that’s because she wants it to be GOOD. And when you’re dealing with FIRE….

Soon, I want to start on my mystery. I still can’t decide if I want to publish that one under another name. There are reasons I want to, but everyone already knows Lauralynn. I would have to sort of start over. I’m not sure that’s necessarily a bad thing since I’m not selling squat right now. I guess I’ll decide after publishing Fire Wizard and seeing how that goes.

I hope everyone is having a happy Sunday!

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