Tonight I sat down and finished going through Chapter Six with a pencil. I cut two and a half pages involving the "leaf subplot" that I'm trying to remove, but I don't know if this is just going to screw everything up in the end.

I don't think I have the hang of "edit for content first before doing any line editing, because what you fine-tune might not even be there later". I want to make it all better, while doing the content at the same time -- multi-tasking. Hey, maybe I can do it this way.

I'm going to be rewriting one page to make the characters active rather than reactive, and I've changed some of their attitudes towards the little things to make Saera (I hope) more likeable.

Dialogue has been chopped so interjections that don't really add anything don't slow it down.

At some point I'm going to have to make reference to the two horses they just casually left behind at the stables.

It looks to me like this draft will be the "cutting and clarification draft", where the next one will be the "deepen (add) and line-edit draft".
______________________________

I hate maths, but I love using numbers to predict when a project is going to be finished. If I do a chapter a week from now, this draft would be finished about halfway through December. That means I really want to be doing more like 3 chapters a week, so I have time to go through that next draft and read it a few times before releasing it around Christmas.

I can't wait for that moment when I transfer the book to a .mobi file and read it in that other form -- the form in which it will be read by others.

Is this rushing it? I don't know, but I need to get it out there.

I need to get it out there.
_______

UPDATE: I've now edited the digital document, and have trimmed the chapter of an estimated 1,000 words after taking into account the few paragraphs and the  transition that I still have to write.

Hi!

I've been very busy lately with Uni assessments, but I've come back to revisions now and am currently halfway through Chapter Six. I'd love to release the book around Christmas time, but I can't be sure if that's going to happen.

To make up for the words I'm cutting with these revisions, I'm considering how I can work in this love interest subplot that was originally going to be in the book, but I cut it short. Anything that can add to the length and depth at the same time would be much appreciated.

In Other Life News
Apart from studying (an Advanced Diploma of Music), I've released a single called "That Silence" on iTunes for 99c and Bandcamp for 20c. I'm currently writing and recording an EP.

I've been building my Twitter followers for my music @RyanLeeSulMusic. I'm working up a setlist of covers and original songs that I'll use for gigs and busking.

I've moved out of home, now renting a place with two housemates that's a 20 minute tram ride to Uni.

Being about 10 months since I've had a French class (after finishing Year 12), I've been thinking lately that I really don't want to forget what I know. So I bought a self-published Kindle book called Andéhir: la prophétie, the first of two French fantasy books for 11 - 13-year-olds. I don't understand every word, but I do understand what's happening in each scene, the general flow of action, and most of what's being said between the characters. A friend made the point that even if I don't understand all of it, reading it is probably helping me avoid forgetting what I already know. Now if only I could use a French-English dictionary within my Kindle app!

Subtitle: Chapter Two Sucked

Phew! I need a beer.

Okay, it wasn't all bad. I think I managed to make something engaging and exciting while hinting at a couple of cool things as well that weren't there in the first draft. The scene with Eoin, Saera and Faine in the cart is much more tense, hopefully. I finally got rid of that weird conversation. I don't think people have conversations like that.

Thankfully, my longest chapter is now out of the way. I think I worked on it for 6 hours straight! Minus the time it took me to get Macca's in between. And I'd been so good with my eating this week!

Now getting a beer.

Mmm.

I've also gotten rid of that horrid "fortifying the leaf" scene with alchemist, and I've begun unweaving the leaf thing from the story entirely. I just didn't find it convincing enough. I might always use the concept in another Chronicle.

So here's what the first page looked like:

I'll probably continue to be rather inactive while I work through revisions, but I'll keep you updated as I move through the chapters.

Through the last several chapters of the first draft, Chapter One was going to be completely rewritten, but I wouldn't allow myself to work on it until the first draft was completely done.

Now Chapter One's finished, and I like it a lot more than the original version.

From here on in it shouldn't be too hard to delete scenes, change details and rewrite parts of scenes as needed. I'd like to get through four to six chapters every week while I'm focusing on just the content.

See you soon!

As of last night, I've officially finished the first draft of Aundes Aura.

I still have some things to do before I start the real revisions; I have to rewrite the first chapter with my new vision for the beginning.

Time to copy my file and save it as "draft one", rename this one "draft two" and get to work.
______________________________

Disclaimer: The following process was suggested by Marie over at Critique Circle.

Once your novel's first draft is complete, it is essential that you revise it if you want to [give readers a good impression and improve your chances of selling].

1.
Edit for storyline. This is the round where you go through and make sure the plot makes sense and follows through the story. That the subplots wrap up. That you haven't forgotten, lost or dropped anything while working your way through the book. Make as many passes as needed to fix any and all plot issues and oopsies.

2.
Edit for character. Everything from behaviour to appearance. Make sure names are spelled consistently throughout the book. Also, make sure that characters don't mysteriously vanish without concluding their plotline or even more mysteriously reappear after death.
[Yes, I have a vanishing character. I either have to take her out or include her more.]

3.
Edit for description. By now things should be getting better, but make sure that you are describing things effectively, using all five senses. Also, this is a good time to make sure physical items don't unexpectedly change colour, shape or location.

4.
Edit for genre elements. For fantasy you might double check on world building. Since you've already done three passes through the novel, things really should be fairly solid but this gives you one more chance to spot a problem.
[I think I'll be cleaning up all the intricacies of what's really going on between the Gods, the Naeveri and the characters, and how all the complicated events are linked.]

5.
Edit for grammar, punctuation and spelling. By now you should be able to run through and focus just on the clean up details. If you spot other problems, back up and give the earlier steps another pass. Don't rush things. You're not ready for the polishing up unless you've already fixed the plot. Take your time.

Repeat as needed.

Building an Author Platform That Can Launch Anything: a Social Media Minibook


This concise ebook . . . oh, just read the reviews. All 14 of them are 5 stars. You want to buy this book. It's usually 99c. It's currently free.
(This isn't my book.)

I believe that my writing style is affected by every different fiction author whose books I read. It's affected even more so by fantasy writers, which isn't surprising because the main genre I read and write is fantasy. In Grade One, when I was seven years old and writing stories that lasted anywhere up to 100 words, I had no particular influences. The stories I wrote were generally accounts of true events hidden (very badly) behind a creative guise.
I don't remember where all the magic in my stories came from. Maybe films and cartoons, or fairytales. But when I wrote my first "longer" story (A Whole New World, or something very similar), it seemed set in stone the kinds of stories I would be writing.

I'm on holidays now. (That's vacation for you Americans.) I've said many times in the past how my writing would benefit from a break from studies. Don't believe these lies. Holidays lull you into a false sense of security. They tell you you'll have all this time to write, but really you won't -- unless you make it happen.
That's where my problem often lies. I'm really bad at making things happen. One of those things is writing. If I were to write whenever I felt like it, I'd never write because as much as I love having written, writing isn't easy.
I hate it when people say, "The only reason you should be writing is that you can't not write." Because that's totally not true. Writing is more than a need. It's an ambition. Footballers don't play football because they can't not play football. They do it because they want to, becuse they love it, or because they want to get somewhere with it.
I'm not a needy writer, I'm an ambitious writer. I've spent two years writing this book not because I need to, but because I want to. It's a journey that I want to see to the end.
April is just about to begin, and with only two chapters left to write, I want to see this book finished and edited in the next two weeks, while I've got this break.
I've moved the release date back from Q1 to Q2 2012. No one should ever realease a rushed product. But is that what I'm doing? I don't know, I'm just doing what feels right.

So forgetting my mysterious and untimely disappearance, here's where we left off.

Order of Front Matter

To form my front matter I'm going to take my example from my copy of A Game of Thrones.

(Note that when you view two pages together in Word, the right pages are on the left and the left pages are on the right -- this is opposite to a book because when you open a book, the first page is on the right.)

Don't start creating the front matter pages until you've read up to the end of the third paragraph after this list to make your life a little easier.

The order goes thus:

1. Author Bio or Commendations - will be on the right side in the physical copy
(1.) (Alternatively, you might like to put the "by the same author" page here instead)

2. by the same author (could also be a blank page) - left side

3. Title Page - right side

4. Copyright - left side

5. Dedication or Quote - right side

6. Map pt. 1 (or could be blank)

7. Map pt. 2

8. Blank page
__________

9. Start Chapter One

Hopefully you understand the above well enough to form your front matter to suit your book (if you don't, let me know and I will clarify and edit this post with the clarification), but try to closely imitate the presentation of a traditionally published book.

As far as the copyright pages and all, apart from actually acquiring copyright, which I know nothing about, again, try to imitate what you see in a traditionally published book.

Before you create all the above, you need to know about Section Breaks. What's a Section Break? No one cares, all we care about is what they do. They are related to the presentation of page numbers and headers so it's important that you get it right.

Section Breaks

Section breaks will allow you to withold the header, footer and page number on the first page of every "section", and to have different odd and even pages (author name on one side, book title on the other).

Monkey see, monkey do. Be the monkey.

I'm using justified 11pt Garamond as my main text. Please don't use Times New Roman, as it's never used in traditionally published books (and remember to select the text position "justify"). Garamond is used in Harry Potter. You can do a Google search for fonts used in books.

Here is your awesome Author Bio on the first page:

(Note: This walkthrough will be done in Word 2007 only. If you have another version, you may be able to find the corresponding menus and still follow these steps.)

Page Size

1. Go here to see a list of page sizes available for CreateSpace and choose one. (You might want to take a ruler and see how these compare with the books on your shelf.)
2. Open your Word Document and save it as [Title] - Formatted or whatever you wish. (Always keep this document separate from your manuscript.)

Your page should look like this:

The aim with this series of posts will be to provide you all with a step-by-step guide for how to get from this:

I've been gone for a while. From this blog, I mean. Yes, I've had some trouble writing the last few days. Five, to be exact. I should have jumped back on the ball after the first day I missed, but I kept getting distracted. Not by anything important, just stuff that's easier than writing.

"I hate writing. I love having written." -- Dorothy Parker

While I do love the actual construction of sentences and all that micro stuff, it is an intense and generally slow-going process for me, and it's certainly not easy.

Today I wanted to make up for the days I've missed. I'm sure it's okay to do this once in a while, but I don't want to get into the habit of writing big chunks sporadically. That's just not productive for me.

For this next bit I'll let the graph do the talking.

When school returned for the last half of October, I lost it. Writing fell to the wayside once more. School's tiring, and it always seems to have this effect on me. Well, not anymore. You know why?

NO MORE SCHOOL.

I'll savour this feeling while it lasts. I have a few exams left, but they're nothing.

This couldn't have come at a better time for my writing. I'm on the cusp of hitting 60,000 words, which I've now decided is my bare minimum goal. I'm really shooting for the end now. It's not exactly in sight; I have many grand events clouding the way. But those events are clear to me. The path is laid out and now I just have to follow it.

The beginning of each new month repeatedly gives me new resolve. I consciously think: it's the 1st tomorrow -- I can start writing again! I don't know why this makes it easier, but at least I can rely on it. The only catch is that I need to make the effort.

The writing's going well so far. I've written all three days. I could show the graph but I'll just tell you, I'm above the line.

Good luck and good speed to all the NoNoers. The least I can do to support you is to attack my own measley daily goals.