well, they do me!
read about it and leave comments—if you’re so inclined…
I love seeing if what happens to me during the writing process happens to other writers, as well
xx
(again, sorry for my absence. i think i’m good now as far as getting settled and i’m back to writing, so i should be back to posting at least once a day—sometimes more! i’ve missed y’all!!)
I apologize—I’ve taken more than a day off.. Oops! But I did just move 500 miles away and I’ve been sick, so it’s sort of justified..
Anyway, last week (I think), I posted a quote and said I’d expand on how I felt about it. Here’s the update….
Sorry about the link. It’s pretty sad—I woke up this morning and realized it was suddenly Friday…my day to post for giveagirlapen.com. The week has flown by so I had to quickly come up with an idea and since this one was already brewing, I used it…
Check it out and please leave comments if you have thoughts!!
It’s good to be back and, again, I’m sorry for the lapse here…
I usually post every day!!!
xx
I’m writing this post Wednesday night and it’s scheduled to post Friday morning – early.
OK, I’m gonna pretend it’s already Friday.
Last night, I drove seven hours with a car full of stuff. Lots of stuff. Things I need to live for two or three weeks before I can move the rest of the house. And, being a girl, this is always a task to pack the least bit possible and be sure you won’t hate yourself sometime next week for not bringing that one shirt or pair of shoes that would have been just perfect that day..
So, along with having a bunch of girlie stuff in the car, and toys and clothes galore for the four year old child, said child is also in the car. Next to two large dogs on the two-thirds of the seat that folds down. Fun times.
Today I’m relaxing. I slept as soon as I got in (I’m assuming I did—if everyone lets me go upstairs and ignore the five crazy dogs and the child and everyone else).
Maybe tomorrow I’ll be up to writing another post. Probably not. If anything, I’ll just lie around and read. Or go and get reacquainted with the city I had to leave a few years ago and am thrilled to be back in.
I might even get some ‘real’ writing done.
Sundays aren’t worth my time posting, as I never get any views (well, not any, but…) since people are usually with family and not spending all their time online.
So I suppose I’ll be back Monday with something fun and exciting to say. I’ll have a weekend of great experiences that I can turn into a story or advice of some sort. Heck, maybe I’ll learn something and be more than thrilled to share it.
Have a fantastic weekend and I’ll talk to you all soon!!
xx
here she is. if you want to read about how i found her and how i generally feel about what characters in my books/stories look like, click right here. (but not til friday *7.17* after midnight as that’s when the other post is scheduled to publish.)
the reason this girl stood out to me is because..well, there are just so many reasons::
*her hair. perfect length and it’s straightened, as alexis likes it. her hair’s curly, but she rarely wears it as such. also, her hair isn’t pulled back. alexis always makes sure her ears are covered, even if some of her hair is pulled back..
*skin tone. she’s dark, but not ‘tanning bed’ dark. it looks like she could be half-italian/half-spanish.
*her eyes. not too much makeup, but enough to bring them out. it’s pretty much the only makeup alexis wears. can’t see this girl’s eyes, but alexis’ are green.
*eyebrows. well-groomed. in keeping with bringing out her eyes.
*her tattoo. she has one that the reader knows of on her foot. one single star. but she’s the type to have something like this and hide it. maybe the top would peek out of a tank on a warm day, but most people would have no clue it exists.
*the belt. just her style.
*age. at least the age this girl looks to be… alexis is twenty, and this girlie seems to be around the same age, give or take (or give) a few years.
*the pose. alexis is uncomfortable in her skin and with her peers, but she would so take a picture like this just to keep for herself. i could see her taking myspace pictures (although i don’t think she’s the type to have a page) and throwing some random poses like this in there that she would never have any intention of posting, let alone seeing the light of day. they’d be locked away – password protected – on her laptop somewhere. even better, on a memory stick that requires a password and encrypts all files. i could so see her with her lips to the camera—trying to portray her inner minx lol
*final note: this just is a perfect example of who alexis thinks she is (and actually really is—well, other than the faery part 
) but is too afraid to show her true self to others. for many reasons, mostly fear of rejection or being shunned for being a freak.
this is alexis hodge. period. and i love everything about her!
found these on a poster…
* * *
1. If you write every day, you get better at writing every day.
2. If it’s boring to you, it’s boring to your reader.
3. Get a writing routine, and stick with it.
4. Poetry does NOT have to rhyme. Poetry does NOT have to rhyme.
5. Resist stereotypes, in real life and in your writing.
6. Writers read. Writers read a lot. Writers read all the time.
7. Make lists of your favourite words and books and places and things.
8. There doesn’t always have to be a moral to the story.
9. Always bring your notebook. Always bring a spare pen.
10. Go for walks. Dance. Pull weeds. Do the dishes. Write about it.
11. Don’t settle on just one style. Try something new!
12. Learn to tell both sides of the story.
12 1/2. Stop looking at this list. Write something!
I came across this quote the other day::
This goes perfectly with something I plan to write and post here, but I’ve not the time at the moment.
So I figured I’d throw this part out there and see what people think of it.
———I believe it to be true.———
—Can’t really say why until I write and post, but I’m curious to know if other writers agree.
Totally off topic, but I recently purchased the first two seasons of King of the Hill and Dale mentioned ‘Hard Copy.’ Do you remember that show? I’d totally forgotten about it. Crazy.
But, what’s even crazier is what became apparent to me in black and white (and green). Black and white being ink & paper, obviously. Green is thrown in the mix because my black printer cartridge is empy and apparently green is the only color I can use to print. I’m not about to spend $35 (or whatever outrageous price those dang cartridges are) until I absolutely have to.
OK — on to what I learned. Exhibit A ————> 
Well, I don’t have an Exhibit B, but this is more than enough!!
It’s been forever since I’ve printed a hard copy and done the edits from there. I need to send a ten page submission for a workshop I’m joining in a couple weeks, so I decided to print out a chapter and edit it on paper as the computer screen is killing my eyes…
It’s amazing how many edits I make. Normally I just do them on the computer, so I don’t get to see how much i’m changing. But this is just one page and I’m not even finished with it.
Maybe y’all do this all the time, but I don’t and I’m practically in shock.
Granted, I haven’t visited this particular chapter in months, so I’m not surprised at the edits—I’m just surprised at the amount of edits. And like I said, I’m not even done with the first page. Mostly, but not quite.
Nine more pages to go.
Craziness!!!
Maybe my man is right—the world really is black and white….
So I just spent a couple minutes coming up with a Twitter pitch.
Once my character count became 0, I stopped.
I’ll rewrite it soon—spruce it up a bit.
But this is what I have as of now::
Visionary dreams show Alexis she’s a faery and must join with a Depraved one to defeat true evil. But will she succumb to that evil herself?
Have any of you tried this yet? If not, you should.
I thought that my one-hundred-word pitch was difficult. I had to work quite a while to make it right. But only 140 characters to tell an entire novel….
more platform info.
i know, i know.
this one’s not bad. just more of a reiteration that it is important. i, of course, was reading nathan bransford’s blog (link is on the sidebar), and the guest blogger yesterday, eric (no last name–he has no blog he’d like to make public), said this::
(i added the bold & brackets…)
—”In summary: sales of your previous books, sales of “comp” titles, your platform as an author (as described on the fact sheets), the book’s cover, the current economic climate, events in the news, &c all contribute to how many copies of your book a given account [bookstore] will buy.”
so there you have it. i haven’t been babbling away about nothing, as i thought i might be…
the article was informative, if a bit disheartening. but hey, that’s how it is. and the more we know, the further ahead we can get!!!
now, i just need to figure out how to become wonderful friends with an agent, a publisher, and a buyer. i’ll let you know how that’s going
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obvious solution! July 11, 2009
Tags: derailment, eden tyler, editing, floggingthequill.com, ms word, ray rhamey, revising, the abandoned edge of avalon, word comments, writing, writing solutions
Ever since I changed my book to what I was told it should be like, I’ve been having problems. I chunked five chapters and totally redid the beginning only to realize that having so much action only led to less tension. Everything happened and was answered right away. Well, not everything—of course there’s more to the book, but…
Anyway, I put four of the five chapters back in and rewrote the beginning. I wrote it how it was originally. It’s better now because I’ve had ridiculous amounts of revising practice, but it took a few months to get it back to where I feel the story is how it should be.
The problem is that I was thrown off track. Big time. And I’m pretty much back, but the wheels aren’t sliding into the rails exactly right. (or however trains work…idk)
I have had to leave where I’d stopped writing before the crazy revision—about chapter 14 or so—and jump ahead to write later chapters. Those were the only ones that were working themselves out in my head. I was struggling with ch14…it’s still only half done. But I have 4 or 5 later chapters completely finished. One towards the middle, and the rest fit in between the middle and the end somewhere.
I guess it’s perfectly fine to write this way, but I was doing so well writing sequentially and then…Nothing. Nada. No words came out. And if they did, they were all wrong.
Of course I have an idea of what I want to do with the chapter. I know what needs to happen, I just don’t know how to do it.
Then here comes Ray Rhamey, giving me the answer that’s been right in front of my face. Duh, Eden!
Comments. Yes, Word Comments. All I have to do is highlight the last bit of text and add some notes to the side to briefly outline what will happen in that chapter and subsequent ones.
Now, I’m not an outline type of gal, so the really obvious answer won’t work for me. Not at all.
But comments… These will work.
See, if I write down something, then it’s out of my head and I can move on. I’m that way with anything. I’m actually that way with speaking, as well. If something’s on my mind, I just have to get it out and then it’s done and over with. Resolved.
So, if I write down the bones of the chapters that have been in my head for months, it will trick my mind into thinking I’ve written the chapters. Part of the trick is that these ideas and such need to be in the document. Which is why outlines don’t work for me.
Once I’ve made notes in a few comments, I can move on. I know I’m capable of writing later chapters, as I’ve already done so.
Once I’m back in my rhythm, I can go back and fill in the details and really write the action, dialogue, and such.
Yay for MS Word and Ray Rhamey.
Read what gave me hope!
And read other articles of his, as he has great insights into the editing/revising process. Heck, even the basic, beginning writing process. I’ve bookmarked many of his individual pages, on top of bookmarking the main page for daily updates.
This will be the third time I’ve linked to his article in this one of mine, so go check it out!