Becoming the writer I want to be

I plan out the entire story ahead of time, so I more or less know exactly what I need to write before I do it. My editing process operates in phases. My first edit is just to fix errors and make small changes. My second edit is after the book is done, where I basically do that again but with the benefit of some time having passed since I wrote what I'm looking at. When all three books are done, that is when I will go back and make larger changes. The actual plot will not change, but I will likely reword a lot of dialogue (but not change the flow of the conversation, just make it sound better) as well as improve descriptions and things like that.

 

I look for the sun
and feel myself finally
in control of life.

Is this any good or should it be revised a bit?

 

Hmm, I feel like perhaps it can be reworded to have a better flow, but I cannot think of a rewording at the moment.

 

I'm struggling to find time.

Synopsis... Shoot for 700 words or less. They seem to like that as the standard.

 

Btw I was just thinking about DS9. I saw some episodes and liked it. I was trying to figure out why I never watched it and just realized I was dodging the family at the time lol.

I'll check it out. I'm sure I'll love it. Once I get the queries out I'd like to see if I can find next generation and DS9.

 

DS9 is my favourite show. I really hope you enjoy it, I dont know many people who have also seen it.

 

That's what I'm thinking but I'm struggling to figure it out too. Let me see if I can think of anything this morning.

 

One chapter planned out today. I am very close to 500 pages and honestly, when looking at what chapters remain, (there are about 9 of them) most of them are on the shorter side. Said that already I know, but probably even shorter than previously assumed. I think the challenge here will be having the chapters not feel too slight, while not padding them out either. 10-15 pages for most chapters seems like a reasonable goal/expectation.

 

@AtomicTango I rewrote it and how does this work now?

In control of life,
I look to the rising sun
and find myself free.

 

Yeah that's a lot smoother.

 

I'm glad that it's much better in this context.

 

Have you guys happened to read Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata? Probably gonna start reading it in a day or two, as a refreshment. Because I've been reading quite similar fiction books (all medieval-themed historical fiction or fantasy) and need to read a book with a very different setting which is easy to read too. I was unable to decide which Japanese novel I should read but I chose to try it.

 

My query letter and synopsis suck. As I work them over I'm starting to be able to name why. That's a start lol. If I had it to do over, I'd start writing the letter much earlier in the process. I thought I could knock it out.

I'm watching DS9 season 1. I'm really liking it.

 

I have not, what is it about?

 

And it just gets better from there.

 

Got a chapter planned yesterday and forgot to note it here, just got a chapter planned today too.

 

Finished some research for a side essay I'm gonna be working on over the summer beginning at some point in June and I hope it's the foundational stone for a collection of essays I intend to write and hopefully will one day be published. I'm gonna prepare my haikus for editing today and maybe do that over the weekend.

 

8355 words this past week and a half, up to 497 pages. Excited to be able to pick up the pace somewhat now with the rest of the chapters being shorter and simpler.

 

Sometimes I know something I write is wrong but I can't name why. It makes me feel very uneasy and makes me want to procrastinate writing.

The other night I figured out what I wanted the letter to look like and today I fixed it in twenty minutes. I have agonized over it and avoided it for weeks, so it feels good to have it done.

Now I need to crank out a new synopsis that makes me happy and I can query with a "let the chips fall where they may" happiness.

I'm excited to continue wrapping this up. Once the letters go out I still have lots of tabs to delete lol.

 

@Hadrian3 you ever get around to making that book thread? It kinda seems like there are others still active if you look around for them.