Balloon Popped: The Multiple Purposes of the Editing "Pin"

Faye Progress:
67915 / 90000 words. 75% done!

The cuts continue. Recently I posted that I cut a total of 31 pages from Faye to move the story along. It had gotten off the rails, and I needed to go back to the point where things jumped track and start again. Today, I realized that my derailment happened a lot farther back. To be exact, it happened 66 pages before those 31 pages I cut!

Getting Crafty

Urg. Work has slammed me this week, which means that when I finish the long hours in front of the computer, I haven't had any energy left for blogging. (I've still been writing first thing in the morning, though—keeping that commitment to myself is one of the things in the day that gives me energy...and a great deal of happiness.)

Perception Is Everything

I'm repeatedly amazed how very little value facts—hard, cold, scientific truths—have on life and how much more our perceptions of facts (or falsehoods) shapes our realities. Today, while world building and jotting notes on characters, I spent a great deal of time contemplating this question: How would I view life were I to believe that I was inherently evil rather than inherently good?

The World Is My Novel

Faye Progress:
79988 / 90000 words. 89% done!

One of the facets of being an author that has always appealed to me is that every experience I have and every tidbit of information I learn can potentially be useful later in a story. This factoid has saved me from mind-numbing boredom in endless checkout lines (where better to study my fellow humans, pick up odd snippets of conversations, or glean details to make those secondary characters come alive?), it has made long road trips interesting (endless vistas out bug-splattered windshields are great for getting setting ideas, and great just for letting the mind wander and the muse create without pressure, too), and it has encouraged me to try experiences I might otherwise have said no to.

Moving Backward, Making Progress

I wrote myself into a corner a week ago.

It didn't stop me, though. I plowed on, adding to the scene, deepening it, changing and tweaking it. I followed it down a dark, halting path that grew progressively harder to continue. The scene had gained a life of its own, independent of the story.

As NON Is My Guide

Faye Progress
79163 / 90000 words. 88% done!

Not having a book to read is a certain kind of torture, as I've lamented more than once on this blog. Not having a book to read is not the same as not having any books on my shelf that I've not yet read. It's not having a book that I want to read. I have three different TBR piles (categorized by genre), and not a single book out of those 29 appealed to me.

What's a girl to do? Go to the Official Number One Novels Amazon Bookstore, of course.

Getting Away for a Day

I've had my nose to the grindstone, or more accurately, my fingers to the keyboard and my nose to the screen, for several weeks. They've been glorious, productive weeks (11 pages yesterday alone!), but they've left me and my muse a little deflated.

Happy NaNo WriMo Day!

Faye Progress:
72965 / 90000 words. 81% done!

Congratulations to all the people participating in NaNo WriMo! Today is the first day of your mad-dash adventure to 50,000 words in the month of November and, hopefully, a novel you can polish up and sell afterward.

After three years of being an active participant, I'm not taking part in NaNo this year a reason I feel everyone in the NaNo community would support: I couldn't wait until November to start this next novel.