Confessions and Pledges

I can’t believe I haven’t written on here in over a month!

Well I have been really busy with my new job, which leads me to the bad news that I’ve been a naughty editor for not doing any editing for quite some time. Maybe three chapters since last time I wrote on here maybe more.

I have a new novel in the works, a zombie dystopian books which I’ve been dying to get started on which means pushing editing back again. I’m okay with this though as I need to work on the zombie novel while my mind, heart and soul are inspired. If I wait then the idea might fizzle.

Now for the pledge part of this post. I’m excited to write about this one.

I, Laura Pfundt,  pledge to have my first novel published next year (2013).

Are you excited too? Sometime next year I will be releasing my first ever novel!

So keep an eye on this page for all the details as they come.

 

Editing Djinn Update #2

Been awhile since I posted so I thought I’d give a quick update. I’m about half way through editing Djinn, started off really strong but I recently got a full-time job and have been busy working and adjusting to the new experience. I edit where I can and plan on doing a whole heap of edits tomorrow to catch up.

I hope to have it edited by the end of October so I can do the November NaNo. Not entirely sure I will be participating. Depends on work and how well I’ve adjusted. It’s hard not having all the free time I used to, but we shall see.

Haven’t decided what I’ll be writing about for November NaNo if I do it. Probably not the third in the Djinn series. I was thinking about doing something new, but again well shall see.

That’s all for the update at the moment.

Editing Djinn Update #1

It’s been awhile since I started editing Djinn and it’s been going pretty well so far. I’ve been through the whole story outline and made notes of things that need to be added to chapters and whole chapters that need to be added in. I some character work and created some consistency sheets to help remember everything (As I was writing Djinn and Blooders I forgot some of the minor characters names so there are a lot people called Frank in my novels).

Next I started the actually physical editing. I’ve done about six chapters. Gone through and made the changes from my hard copy edits and adding in some new scenes and a truck load more detail. I feel like the story is becoming more rounded now and things flow a lot better. I will admit it’s slow going. It took me almost 5 hours to get through 2 chapters the other day, but it really is worth it and the more I edit the less work I’ll have to do the next time around.

On another note, I’ve been doing a lot of reading this month, already finished five books and I just keep wanting more. You can read reviews of the books I’ve read on my other blog Quill Wielder.

It was my birthday recently too and now I’m 22 years old . I mention this because my birthday presents from my mum and my uncle were The Walking Dead graphic novels. They are hardcover comics of the series and I love them so much. There are seven in total and I have four at the moment while the other three are being delivered about next week from Book Depository.

Anyway I better get back to editing. I got a new job, a full-time job, at Zara and I start in a few weeks. I want to get as much editing done before I’m too busy.

Editing Djinn

Gosh I’ve been so busy over the last few weeks with writing Blooders, but I’ve had a week off to relax my mind and I’m ready to get stuck into editing Djinn. I’m actually looking forward to editing, not sure how long it will last. My next post will probably be me bitching about how much I hate editing my novel, but for now I’m happy.

I’ve been planning out how best to go about editing my novel. I fell like it’s going to be a lot more work than usual because it was a NaNoWriMo novel and it was about quantity over quality. There will be a lot to change and add before I even get started. So I’ve broken it down into steps that I want to take to getting Djinn from where it is now to something that I can give to Beta readers.

 

1. Check story for overall plot. Making sure that I’m happy with the flow of the novel from start to finish. This will be broken down in to 2 parts

a) Make sure the chapters are the way I want them set out. Maybe try moving chapters around and see what happens.

b) Look at individual chapters to make sure the events in each are set out the way I want them.

2. Go through and proofread, fixing grammar, spelling, consistency, etc. (Keep a notebook for consistency, ie. names, places, descriptions. This is so you can make sure you haven’t changed a character’s name or hair colour half way through the story, as well as the way you use words)

3. Use Text-to-speech function on Word and have the computer read my novel back to me, making changes as I go along. (I know this is going to be annoying and tedious as hell but hearing someone else read your novel helps you pick up more mistakes than reading it yourself will, as we tend to read what we think should be there instead of what is really there.) .

4. Give to others to read with a description of what I want them to look for such as spelling, grammar, character development, overall story. It all depends on how I feel about the story after I’ve done the first round of editing.

5. Go back and make changes depending on what these people have to say.

6. Read through again, looking for more mistakes.

Repeat until novel is perfect!

 

So that’s the plan. Do you have any suggestions about my plan? How do you go about editing?

I’d love to hear all about it. Editing is one of the those things that you can never have enough information on.

Blooders Update #3

Well Camp NaNoWriMo is over and I did manage to write 50,000 words, but I still have seven chapters still to write. Unfortunately I’m feeling unmotivated at the moment and just want to take a break and start editing Djinn.

I am hoping to finish the first draft of Blooders soon, take a week off and then get started in to editing Djinn. I’m really exciting about editing right now, though I suspect it won’t last long at all. I know it’s going to be a gruelling task getting it done, but if I keep up my motivation and remind myself that I am determined to get my novels out in the word, then I can do it, I can push through!

Blooders Update #2

I’m currently at about 43,000 words and hoping to hit 50k in the next few days, but there’s no way the story will be done when I get to my word count goal. So it looks like I’ll have more writing to do in order to finish.

I’m so excited to almost be finished. And even more excited to start properly editing Djinn next month. My goal is to have Djinn completely ready by the end of the year, like if I wanted to published it in December I could. That’s the plan, but I know a lot of things can come up in the time.

Well it back to writing for me. I’ll update again when I hit 50k and when I finish the book. Have a great day.

Blooders Update

I just realised that I hadn’t written anything on this blog since August 1st! Time for an update I think.

So I just over 30,000 words at the moment. Still above the word count, which I’m happy about after flailing a bit with a terrible flu in week two.

I’m really happy with a lot of the story that I’m producing, but then the other half I feel is really crap and will need to be rewritten. The main thing is that I’m getting it all out now. Once the basic story is done I’ll just have to work out what to change and do a major edit.

Though I plan on editing Book One: Djinn, next month so Blooders won’t be edited until after that.

At this rate I should hit 50k by about August 27th, not sure if the story will be finished so I’ll have to keep going.