Ahhh!

I sent off Chapter One to my Beta readers. yay!!! Nervous. Queasy. Relieved.

From Writer Unboxed–A spousal handling guide for writing widows

http://writerunboxed.com/2012/12/21/on-the-care-and-feeding-of-your-writer/

Thank you, WU! Writer Unboxed » A Simple Approach to Revisions

http://writerunboxed.com/2012/12/08/a-simple-approach-to-revisions/

From Stephen King’s On Writing- a Memoir of the Craft

There is a core simplicity to the English language and it’s American variant,  but it’s a slippery core.  All I ask is that you do as well as you  can,  and remember that, while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.

Writing in the Runaround

Just waiting for my little netbook to fire up…trying to fit in some work during the kid’s fencing class. Mr. Fred should get some sort of badge of honor for not throttling any of the 8 preteens with swords. 

Tuesdays are jump rope club and early dinner, fast and furious homework and Daddy waiting patiently to get picked up from work. 

Okay. Looks like Scrivener and my computer have kissed and made up….better get to it.

My Tail End Needs Plumping

Okay.  I must have been in some kind of hazy NaNoWriMo fever last November 30th when I clicked save and counted myself as “done” with the first draft.  The last third (more like the second half) of my novel has too many scanty placeholder pages instead of meaty chapters.

Pages like these: (I have inserted spoiler blockers where necessary.) 

This is the part where Jen & Michael ______ via ______.

This is the part where the truth about______ is revealed to ______.  Lots of tears, angst. Light bulbs.

MF’s Friends discover ________.

MF’s film opens in LA.  The see each other again?

Next time, I am writing my novel backwards.  I will fawn over the end first, feeding it enough to make it fat & happy while I still have enough brain cells.   Crap.

The plot’s there.  I just neet to fill it all out. I think I will pretend it’s a series and now I have to work in earnest on Book 2 and send Book 1 out for a Beta read……Ok, that’s what I’ll do.   Onward. Frick.

It Occurred to Me…

Just now while working on edits to my WIP Big in Britain, it occurred to me that when Jennifer and Michael have their first interview the reader doesn’t know how he knows who she is and frankly I don’t know either.  Scary.  How could I have missed that?  Eh, nobody’s perfect.   On the bright side (because that’s how I roll) this means I get to write a new scene which is fun because all I’ve been doing is edits lately…..Okay. That’s all.  Back to work.

This is where Jennifer & Michael meet for their first interview.

Em

Second Draft Mania!

 

Hi! And, welcome.

So, I also blog on Tumblr where I write about this & that and Big in Britain. 

I love Tumblr–I really do.  It is visual, visceral, sensual and sometimes downright sexy.  I find myself spending way too much time, however, ooohing and aaahing over tattoos, going cross-eyed looking at GIFs, coveting impossibly fit abs and drooling over men doing  yoga.  Mmmmm, Yoga Dudes. (That’s the name of the blog.)

But, here @ Word Press, I plan to buckle-down.  I will not be re-blogging any meme (is there a plural for that?) or following any sites unless they are directly related to writing or otherwise getting my book done.  I will do my best to post regularly and to whine infrequently about the trials of writing my first novel while holding down a job, raising two kids, two dogs and a husband.

Now that my kids are back in school I should have more time to work on BIB on a consistent basis, especially on my off days from work.   I would like to post some bits & pieces from my novel & hopefully, entertain you, the reader.

My goal for Big in Britain is to finish the 2nd draft by November, have an editor give it a look,  then I’ll make some more revisions and get to work on getting out query letters to Literary Agents. So, obviously, my plan is to go the ‘traditional” publishing path.  But, I am not opposed to exploring my options.  In fact, recently, I have been impressed with some of the self-published fiction out there, especially Elizabeth Hunter and her Elemental Mysteries series.  I follow her here on Word Press and on Twitter.  She’s awesome–check her out.

So, that’s it for now.

Emily