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Posts Tagged ‘proofreading’

ROW80 Check-In 9/21/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 21, 2014| 6 Comments »

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There’s been some progress this past week. I finished the beta read and got it back to the author. I’ve made a lot of progress on my paid proofreading job, which is due the end of this month. Once that’s done, I’ll get the other proofing job started, because it’s also due by the end of the month.

Now, for my own stuff. I can’t believe it’s only nine days until my Facebook release party! That means I better get those edits done quickly! The major thing that needs to be done is adding the scene a beta reader suggested. I also got some writing done on my cozy mystery.

Okay, so here’s why I actually got some of my own writing stuff done. Kait told me I HAD to work on my own stuff for 30 minutes four days a week BEFORE I worked on anyone else’s stuff. And she sent a little animated pic of Dean Winchester watching me, so I have to do it. Kait and Dean say so.

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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 Check-In 9/7/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 7, 2014| 11 Comments »

Things are moving right along. I’m waiting on one more beta reader to get done with Fire Wizard. The good thing is, two of my betas pretty much read it in one sitting because they said they couldn’t put it down. 🙂 I might be having a FB party for the release. I’m looking at an end of September release.

I’ve written one scene of my cozy mystery (title to be determined later), and have worked a little on a couple more scenes. I have a love/hate relationship with Scrivener, but I think I’ve worked out most of the bugs, so it’s mostly love. I was having problems losing the formatting, but I think I got it worked out. I’m a linear writer, but I like how when I think of something that could go in a scene later, I can just go to that scene (I have outlines, so I can tell where that scene is) and write it before I forget. Then I can go back to the scene I was working on.

I’m still trying to decide whether or not to write this book under this name or another pen name. I have reasons (that some of you know) to write under two pen names. This brings up another question of whether or not to start writing under a publishing company name or not.

Which brings up another problem. I want to get a federal ID number, but I found out from two different author friends that when trying to change from a SS# to a EIN, or from one EIN to another one, Barnes & Noble made them delete their account and republish all their books under the new number. Which means, they lost their reviews and ranking. If Amazon can just let them change the number, why in the world can’t B & N do the same thing? That’s made me rethink the EIN number. I have some decent reviews on B & N, and I would hate to lose those. This makes my eye twitch.

I’m also proofing a new book for a client, so that business is going well.

So, how are the rest of you 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 8/6/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 6, 2014| 14 Comments »

You know, I used to blog more than I do. Now it seems it’s mostly for my ROW80 check-ins. I must remedy this!

I still haven’t touched my WIP. I was going to last night, but the time got away from me. I am making progress on the book I’m proofreading, though. 🙂

Since my update is so short, I’m going to mention something not related to ROW80. I did something that might be construed as kind of stalkerly. I met this poet on the airplane, and we started talking about writing. She was delighted to have met a fellow author and she said she learned some things by talking to me. She said she almost never talks to people on airplanes, and I told her I didn’t, either. I got the impression she was definitely an introvert, maybe a little shy. We exchanged names. So, the other day, I started looking for her online and found her email address at the university where she teaches. I hesitated a little, but in my usual “go for it” manner, I emailed her and told her how happy I was to meet her and gave her a little encouragement with her writing. I was a little apprehensive, wondering if I came off like a stalker. To my delight, she emailed me back and was really happy that I had contacted her. So I was glad I did.

How about you? Have you ever done anything “stalkerly”? (I probably won’t user “stalker” as a tag for this post because that would bring interesting people out of the woodwork.)

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ROW80 Update 7/30/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 30, 2014| 12 Comments »

Is anyone else having cooler than usual temperatures for July?

I was really wanting to get Fire Wizard done by the end of this round, but I don’t guess that’s going to happen. I’m working on two line editing jobs for other people right now, so I haven’t had time to even touch my manuscript. Once I get done with one of them, I think I’ll be able to find some time to pick back up on the book. It’s in the middle of the climax of the story right now, so I’ll have to read back over the last 2-3 chapters to get the momentum back. My cover artist, Anya Kelleye, isn’t done with the cover, anyway. So I guess that works out for both of us. LOL

So, were my goals met? My proofing goals, yes. My writing goals, a world of no. 50% is better than nothing. 🙂

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ROW80 Check In 7/16/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 16, 2014| 11 Comments »

Since I was in Vegas for a conference last week, there was no way I could make my weekly time goal for writing and proofreading. While I was there, I did work on two line editing jobs I have. And I took Virginia Nelson’s sprinting class twice while I was there, so I got a little work done on my WIP. I actually took her class at Buildin’ the Dream, too, so I’ve done it three times. Such a great class!

I got home Monday night and got no sleep, so I didn’t work on anything last night, either, since I was so sleepy. Tonight is Wednesday, my usual day off from doing any work, but I might make an exception to make up for Monday and Tuesday. Maybe I can get my goals met that way.

How are ya’ll doing?

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ROW80 Un-Update

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 15, 2014| 14 Comments »

My mom told me today I’m spreading myself too thin. I know I am. I’m putting everything before my writing and taking in too many jobs, but to tell the truth, those other things are making me more money than my writing at the moment. I have no desire to be a “starving artist”. Writing is something I love to do, but I need to make money. Hubby’s been out of work, and now we have to have a new heat pump.

So here’s the thing. I need to organize and prioritize. Since I took Virginia Nelson’s class on sprinting, I need to dedicate at LEAST 15 minutes per day on MY book. With the sprinting method, I can do about 500 words in that time. I think I’m going to have a little breathing room through June and July, because I’m going to be working on books that will be easy to proofread. I just tried to do too many things in May and the first part of June. The fact that I had five nights of teaching Vacation Bible School didn’t help. It put me behind. But I’m seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

That brings me to something else. I feel like I’m neglecting ROW80 and the people who make up this wonderful group. What really made me think about this is that my last post was the revealing of who my next cover model will be, and I had very few comments. I was SO excited about this, and not many people came by. And that made me realize I hadn’t really visited many ROWers in awhile. I should be checking up on some of you, even if it isn’t a ROW80 post. All of you have blog posts you write besides those twice weekly ones. So how can I expect anyone to visit my blog when I haven’t been visiting theirs? So I want to apologize for that. It’s just been a time thing, but I need to make time. And we need to visit each other on other days besides Wednesdays and Sundays. We’re friends, right? I know all of us can’t visit everyone. But shouldn’t we pop in on one or two a week besides the check in days? What do you all think? Am I just being weird? LOL

I’m going to try to do better!!!

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Scheduling My Time

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 30, 2014| 15 Comments »

I only got 2205 words written this week. But I’m soooo close to the goal I set on my Supernatural (Sam & Dean!) spreadsheet. So close. It said last night I needed to write 2561 words per day to meet my goal. I have only one day left. Today. It’s church night, so I really don’t think I can do it. But I WANT to so badly! What should I do? Could I handle an after church writing marathon???

I think one of the biggest problems I’ve had with writing is I’m not really scheduling my time. Yes, I have an idea in my head about what I want to do but…look, there’s another cool Big Fish Game. And I have a free credit, so I can download it! Um, where was I? Oh yeah. Anyway, I think schedules need to be WRITTEN DOWN. And then adhered to as best one can. It’s especially important that I get my schedule worked out because I have four proofreading jobs from now until the end of July. I’m just glad they didn’t all come in at once. LOL.

So here’s what I’m thinking for May:

Monday-Tuesday: Work on a cozy mystery I’m thinking of writing under a different pen name
Thursday-Saturday: Work on whatever my WIP is under Lauralynn Elliott
Sunday & Wednesday: No writing
Monday-Friday during lunch (and possibly Saturday): Work on my proofreading jobs

What do you think? Does this schedule make sense? Do YOU make schedules for yourself?

And don’t forget…if you need content editing, line editing (proofreading), formatting for ebooks, or all of these, check out The Forge: Affordable Book Finishing

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ROW80 Update 4/9/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 9, 2014| 20 Comments »

My Supernatural Spreadsheet says I’m on track to meet my goal for April. 🙂 It tracks your daily word count average and your goals based on what you have entered, and it will tell you how you’re doing. Like after I keyed in my progress for Jan-Mar, it said in each month “This month is over. Better luck next month”. Since I want my spreadsheet to be proud of me, I must meet my April goal. Hey, it’s Sam and Dean, ya know?

I’m still working on Fire Wizard, although I would like to set aside a little time for my cozy mystery. We’ll see how that goes. I’m working on a proofreading job for an author, too, and that’s always fun because I get to READ. I just have to read more carefully and slowly. And make red marks. I’m thinking of changing to purple…. 🙂

I’m also preparing for a trip to Asheville, NC for a work trip. I think I’ll enjoy that one.

Busy, busy. How about the rest of you?

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