Revision Hell, Anyone?

If you remember, last year I rewrote the ENTIRE manuscript of Bleed For Me, my second suspense novel. I've learned a lot since that complete rewrite and I've just received the MS from two critique partners.

...sigh...

I'm back in Revision Hell, but this time, it's not so bad. I have some major elements to fix, mainly character development and it's a start. Up next, paranormal romance with angels and demons.

Craziness!

Wow, the past couple of weeks have been so busy around here. School is getting ridiculous, leaving me barely any time to write. My w.i.p. has suffered the past few weeks, but today I was actually able to get about 3,300 words in. I'm up to 80,000 with just a few thousand to go! Yay :) I seriously never thought this MS would make it, but now that I'm down to the last two chapters things are finally starting to fall into place. I've written the query (which will be posted on the Public Query Slushpile soon) and hope to get some advice from my loyal followers. I've kind of missed you guys and apologize for not being a better follower. I will be back to commenting soon!

In other writing news, I also started another short story. This was completely unexpected, but this morning, I just couldn't not write down my dream. And with a lot of my dreams, they turn into stories. I'm still not sure where it's going and this is my first Fantasy storyline I've followed onto paper (or laptop), but we'll see how it goes.

I'm supposed to be studying for a midterm, but I want to know what writing you've been getting to lately! Tell me what you're working on :)

Bring Me To Life

Between studying for an awful quiz for today, writing my little heart out this weekend and working on a paper for class, my brain is fried. But I thought I'd share a few musings with all of you.

Characters are the life blood of novel writing. Sure there is suspense, romance, humor, but what makes that all come together? Your characters. So consider this for me: What makes your characters come to life for you?

Is it their name? That photo you found on the internet? A scent? An encounter with a stranger or someone you know in reality?

Sometimes it's all of those for me, but mostly a photo. I will find my favorite actor/actress/celebrity at that point in time and almost build a story around them. It all just seems to fit together. I even use their real first or last name or part of a name they've used on the big screen in order to keep things simple. But then there are characters of my own making through research and culture.

I'm still in Queryland for my second novel, All Because of You. I did receive a request for more material, but learned this weekend that my first chapters just didn't cut it. No problemo. I submitted to another 5 agents on Saturday and look forward to hearing back from them in the next few weeks.

The current WiP is coming along nicely. Still having a few hiccups in the research department, so I'm writing around those scenes for now (Chapters 7 and 8). Maybe some day I can find exactly what I'm looking for, but it doesn't seem to be on the internet. I fulfilled my goal for the month of September and hope my October goal will include the completion of my first draft for My Demonic Love. Let's hope.

I started with the second in my Afterlife Series, My Mortal Eclipse, this weekend and wrote about 4,000+ words. It seems when I'm having trouble with the current WiP, I just need to work on something else. It helps!

What do you writers out there do when you have writer's block or you feel like you just can't write any more?

It's Friday

Hello, friends. I have some good news. Well, a couple pieces of good news.

#1. It's Friday! Oh, how I've longed for this day for so long. It seems this week was the longest of my life for some reason.

Good news #2. I received a partial request on my second novel, All Because of You!

This round of submissions only included about 7 agents. I have a list of about 50, but I'm too busy (*clears throat* ...lazy) to finish the rest of the research I need to do for each agent. I'd received two rejections prior, but yesterday, I opened my inbox and viola. A request :)

Now, since this is a Friday post, it's time to tell you how the week went. I'm up to about 70% finished with the first draft of My Demonic Love. This is my first try at a paranormal romance and it seems I've been having to do A LOT of research for it. If you've read my post below, I had a hard time researching the daily life of a cardiac surgeon, but with the help of one my of loyal followers, Anne, I was able to get through it! Thanks, Anne! Now, I'm onto researching vaults. Specifically a vault that will store an ancient book or document. I haven't come across a lot of information on the subject. I remember Dan Brown, in his novel Angels and Demons, chose the Vatican as his location for his MC to study ancient documents and that's the type of vault (archive, safe, etc) I want. However, when I try to Google for information, all I get is what's supposedly inside the Vatican archives. I don't want that!

Anyway, enough with the rant :)

I haven't really been working much on my short story, Relief, this month. It's supposed to be ready to submit to a contest at the end of the month, but seeing as how it's the first chapter from my first novel (and I'm kind of sick of my first novel), I haven't really been motivated to work on it. Suggestions?

What is your good news this week? How did your writing go? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Schedule

Out in the blogging world other writers I connect with seem to have a blogging schedule. This gives them a chance to focus on more important things, like writing (as I should be doing). So it comes down to this: My blogging schedule is now going to be Monday's (to let you know how the weekend was) and Friday's (to let you know how the week was).

So on to how the weekend went...

It was GREAT. I got A LOT of writing done this weekend for some reason, most of it being yesterday. Not only did I write an astounding 17 pages on My Demonic Love, the current WiP, I started writing a chapter of my Sleuth (to be actively worked on in 2011). For some reason, I woke up with an idea in my head that wouldn't leave and I had to sit down and write 10 pages of the novel. I also did a lot of research for My Demonic Love, trying to get inside the head of my hero and daily life as a cardiac surgeon. Here are some articles I found helpful if you ever need to work with this subject:

http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/residents/newhorizons/article-10.html
http://asianannals.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/7/3/165

http://www.ehow.com/about_6613038_life-heart-surgeon.html

I also asked my aunt, who lives with my Nana, how my Nana's valve replacement went, what the surgeon explained, how long the surgery took, etc. to get a more personal touch into the mix. I think I'm done writing the mechanics of it and am focusing more on the daily life of a surgeon since novels are character driven. Hopefully it turns out well.

What did you do this weekend? Did you surprise yourself as I did?

I also want to welcome new followers! Thanks for being a part of this journey with me. Hope you enjoy :)

Research

My hero of My Demonic Love is having an identity crisis, or rather, I have a problem with his career choice. He's a heart surgeon, loves his job, but I am having a bit of trouble doing research for this particular character. I feel I need to learn as much as I can about the human heart in order to portray my character's life as close to reality as possible, but where do I start? How much do I need to learn in order to make it believable? I've tried watching heart surgery videos, but I understand NOTHING of what is going on or what the surgeon is talking about.

Do you have any advice?
Are there more writer's out there who think they've bitten off more than they can chew?

Progress Report

This week I've been focused on my second novel, All Because of You, and getting it ready to submit to agents. I have my list of about fifty agents to submit this work to and I'm researching each and every one to see which will be the appropriate homes for my book. Lots of fun :/

I've still been working on my current work in progress every now and then, treading through the murky waters of the middle of the novel and think I have a solution. The middle of novels are just filler really. The most important parts of a book being the middle and the end. Well, I always write the beginning and the end first, leaving me to deal with the filler, something I hate. The newlywed feeling of a new work in progress is gone at that time and you really have to motivate yourself to keep going. But keep going you must, or it will never be finished. It's going well though.

I've completely outlined my first try at a Sleuth, called Never Too Early, and just might start working on that book next. Right now, its fourth on my list, but I'm really excited about it and may start early.

So far only one person has commented on my contest for the month! You guys need to get it in gear if you want a chance to get Lean Mean Thirteen for free!

Hope you guys are having a good holiday weekend!

Goals...What Goals?

August's goals:
1. Reach 50% completion with current work in progress, My Demonic Love.
2. Finish synopsis of All or Nothing.
3. Work on short story for Chapbook competition, Relief.

Accomplishments in August:
1. 50% completion with My Demonic Love.
2. Finished synopsis of All or Nothing.
3. Worked on Relief

Yep, August goals have come and gone. Yay! For September, the goals include:
1. Finish Relief for competition deadline of September 30th.
2. Reach 75% completion for current work in progress, My Demonic Love.
3. Final read through and start of querying for All Because of You.

Oblivious

Good morning, friends. Not a lot has been happening in the world of writing since we last spoke. I have been asking myself a question for the past two weeks concerning my current work in progress, My Demonic Love, and this morning the answer was suddenly on the tip of my tongue. Location, location, location. That is what has Chapter 6 at a standstill. I literally could not think of a place that my hero and heroine would be safe to find the answers to their problems. They are being followed, their enemies know every detail of their lives and out for blood, so where in all of New York City (my main location) could these two feel safe? Well, she is a demon, and he is a doctor with no religious background. The answer was simple and obvious when you think about it. A church! Only my church is going to have a few extras to fit into what my characters need. I was stuck thinking the only place they could get the information they needed was a library and libraries are boring to write about. So out with the old and in with the new. Maybe Chapter 6 will actually get done this week or next. And yes, you can laugh all you want at my obliviousness.

Checking In

The past couple days have been very productive. The completion of my August goals are in sight and looking better with every passing day. I finished another chapter of My Demonic Love last night, making a total of 8.5 complete. This morning, I was up bright and early working on the synopsis of All or Nothing, which, of course, I put off till the last of the month. I have about two paragraphs of that written, with another 6 or 7 to go. If I put my mind to it, I can finish the thing before August 31st, which was my original goal. I also worked a little bit on my new short story, Relief, my contest entry into the Pudding Chapbook contest and first chapter of All Falls Down. In the original chapter, I have the hero, Daniel Banvard, released from prison, but not a lot from his POV. That is changing. I am making the ENTIRE chapter/chapbook from his POV. There are a lot of emotions playing around in that kind of situation and I intend to explore all of them in this revision.I'll be posting the short story on my "Other Works" page when I'm through and hope to get some feedback on what my readers think. It's not due till Sept 30th, so don't hold your breath.

Yesterday, I heard from my beta-reader about All Because of You and he gave me some great advice when it comes to my characters. I was surprised he didn't have more to say, but am a little relieved at the same time. I'm hoping September will be the month to start submitting to agents for this MS. I have a read through I need to do apparently, but then it's out to query.

Making Progress

My Demonic Love is coming along nicely for now. It's always easier to write the beginning and the end. I have trouble writing the middle of my novels. That is were most of my time is spent, trying to get to the end and not in a boring manner. But it's going well, I think. I have been working on other things as well and should update you on those too. I'm not really giving as much attention to the other works in progress as I am with My Demonic Love, but they deserve recognition anyway!

My Demonic Love @ 39k (Paranormal Romance)
My Mortal Eclipse @ 1k (Paranormal Romance)
My Angelic Death @ 1k (Paranormal Romance)
Relief - A Short Story @ 5k (Chapbook)
Never Too Early @ 1k (Sleuth)

I'm keeping pretty busy and loving every minute of it!

Catching Up

Well, hello there. It's been a while. This week has been eventful. My best friend was in town from Wednesday night to this afternoon. I just dropped her off at the airport. We were able to see Eat Pray Love, the movie and were both very inspired to better our lives for ourselves. Even it involves just learning a language and dreaming of traveling to our favorite countries. I was able to get out and rock climb this week for the first time since husband and I moved to Nevada. I also got a very needed hour long massage on Thursday. I had a great week. My vacation was much needed and even fruitful.

I'm up to about 200 pages on the current MS now. Each morning while my friend worked on her doctoral project, I worked on my book. I spent at least two hours each morning writing and was able to get a lot done. My goals for the past week were to finish Chapter 6 and Chapter 13 and work on my short story for the Pudding Chapbook contest. I finished Chapter 13 and I worked on my chapbook, but Chapter 6 is still at a standstill. I'm not too bummed because I wrote seven pages of Chapter 14 instead. The month is passing quickly and I have a little under two weeks to reach my goal of reaching 50% completion. I'm not really worried. Yet.

Today, and the rest of the upcoming week, I will be catching up on some neglected reading. My nightstand is stacked with books and only growing bigger every day.

Under Control

No, not really. I don't feel that way at all. It's been a very busy week in the writing department. I wasn't even sure I wanted to take time away from the current work in progress to blog. But blog I must.

Here's what's new:

This week I was able to finish two chapters in My Demonic Love. Pushing my total count of chapters finished to 5. I started another two chapters today. I have about 5-7 pages of each written right now. These two make up my goal for the week. Must finish them by Saturday.

Something else kind of cool: I've been thinking about stepping out of the Romance genre once I have My Demonic Love, My Mortal Eclipse and My Angelic Death written. I was actually able to outline at least half of the new idea yesterday. It wasn't planned. I was toying with the idea, but my subconscious made me do it. I woke up this morning and forced myself to get the ideas out on paper. The new book if tentatively titled Never Too Early. It is more a Sleuth, but may have some romantic elements. I'm not sure yet. My focus is still on the current paranormal project, but I did have to write out the prologue for Never Too Early before I could move on.

I was able to register for classes this week. So I am going to start my bachelor's program in a couple weeks. This will most likely take some time away from writing and blogging, but I will do my best to keep up with everyone.

Some bad news: I lost three pages of My Demonic Love. I don't know where they went. I opened up a finished chapter, and suddenly I remember that's not where my chapter left off! So I searched my backup drive and the chapter was on there, but a previous version and not the one I was looking for. Thank goodness it was only three pages. It was nothing compared to The Great File Loss of 2009 where I lost 150 pages of All Falls Down.I cried then. Really. So today was nothing. I was able to rewrite the three pages I lost. So no harm, no foul.

Hope you all have a good upcoming week. I have a friend coming in to town this week, so you won't hear from me probably until next Sunday. Happy writing!

Slowing Down

I've finished yet another chapter for My Demonic Love. That makes 4.5 chapters written now. It doesn't seem like much, but when the chapters are 30+ pages each...yeah. So I'm up to about 135 pages. I'm still trying to figure out a lot of my plot unfortunately. I have a big picture idea, but somehow I keep losing sight of it. When I'm writing, I just go.

In other news today. UNLV is off my list of schools to attend. I'm going to check out Nevada State College once more. It's closer to home, it's a smaller school and they aren't idiots. We'll see how it goes. I need to something soon...school starts in a couple weeks.

A New Day, A New Month

It's a new day, a new month even. Time for some updates.

First, a mini book review. Right now I'm reading Eat. Pray. Love. by Elizabeth Gilbert. I've only read up until about page 79 so far, her time in Italy, but am loving this book. It makes me inspired to follow my dreams, to do things because I want to do them and let nothing hold me back. I believe we all should take a chapter out of her book, literally, and try to live more like ourselves. Stop worrying about work, stressing from day-to-day. Just live. I'm looking forward to finishing this book, a true story mind you, and living my life on my dime, not someone elses. I recommend this book to all women, maybe some men, and would be happy to let you borrow my copy.

Now, for writing updates. I haven't been posting much because I've been writing! Yay. About time huh? My Demonic Love is coming along well. I'm still sticking with my goal of 1,000 words a day, but some days, like yesterday, I wrote 1700. Right now, I'm in the mind of my antagonist, who will be getting a new name because the character I'm basing her off of is also named the same. I made it that way at first so I could relate the two, but now that the story is coming along and she's developing her own personality, I have to change her name. My antagonist is a power hungry, evil, masochist who will stop at nothing to rule. What kind of name can explain in a single word that type of person? Any ideas?

So far I have about 3.5 chapters written, each totaling around 30 pages, but my entire novel is outlined so I knew exactly what I want. Of course, it never stays that way. I'm always changing this or that as I go, forgetting what I originally wanted in favor of the way the story wants to run.

I haven't had any trouble with my characters as of late, not since last week when I didn't want to write a particular scene. I did write that scene and with a clear head even. I just had to take a step back and analyze the emotions I was feeling then try to get those exact emotions down on paper. I'm confident I was able to do so and as a bonus, without tears.

Other works in progress are stirring around in my head. Even though I moved My Angelic Death to the end of the series, I have a feeling I will actually be writing that one sooner than planned. Since I'm currently in that character's mindset with My Demonic Love, it's easy to get new ideas and plan out her book while I'm working on someone elses. It's driving me nuts.

Since it is a new month, I believe some goal setting is in order. I STILL haven't written the synopsis for All or Nothing. I'm not sure why I'm putting it off or what I have against writing it, but My Demonic Love is in the forefront of my mind and apparently causing other writing problems. So that is one goal for me to get with this month. Another would be to have My Demonic Life 50% written by the end of the month, praying, if I'm going to school this semester, that I can spend that kind of time with it. I've written two novels this year already. Three would be great, but it's not a priority for me.

What are your summer goals?

Slice and Dice

Well, some changes are coming in my current WiPs. First off, I'm rethinking titles. Here are the new ideas:

My Demon of Life (Book 1) = My Demonic Love

My Mortal Eclipse (Book 2) stays the same

My Beautiful Disaster (Book 3) stays the same

My Adored Torment (Book 4) stays the same

My Angel of Death (was Book 2, now Book 5) = My Angelic Death

What do you think? I'm currently writing My Demonic Love and have come across some interesting developments. As I told you a few days ago, my Heroine didn't want to kill the Archangel. Well, that realization has now grown into a completely new chapter being added in the beginning and a rework of my Hero and Heroine's separation. Don't worry, they get back together. In Romances they always do.

As you can see I've moved My Angel of Death, now My Angelic Death to the end of the series. The reasoning? I'll give you an insider look. My antagonist in My Demonic Love is the Heroine in My Angelic Death. She is sentenced to angelic prison and her story starts there. I needed to give her some time to get used to the idea, to suffer, grow humble, and open herself to change, maybe even love. I believe the series will run more smoothly with her story at the end. As far as I know, her story is the last of the series. I don't have anymore planned after that, but you never know what will happen in the future.

Welcome to new followers! I'm glad you can be a part of these experiences for me as a writer and look forward to getting to know you better!

Progress

Well, the first chapter of my paranormal romance is as finished as its ever going to get. To be honest, I've just been working on that one chapter rather than moving forward. My research for my second chapter isn't quite complete, so it will be at least another week before I feel comfortable getting down and dirty into my Hero's life. No, not DIRTY dirty. He's a heart surgeon, and I feel the need to learn more about the human heart before getting it all down on paper. This way I won't have to go back and fix things, or risk sounding stupid when other people read it and I haven't done my research. Many revelations have come forth today while writing though. If you've read my status update on Facebook today, you saw that I backed myself into a corner at which I had no way to get out of until about 5 minutes ago. All my current research is on angels and demons. So guess what this book is about? ANGELS AND DEMONS. So I was at a crossroads while my Heroine was kicking some serious Archangel butt. The Archangel was beginning to grow on me! I didn't want him to die and neither did my Heroine. I was stuck, but I'm stuck no more. Details still need to be worked out. I now have a lot more research I need to do and this book is moving at an impossibly slow rate. I was beginning to look at my plot as the others in my writing group had yesterday and what do you know, it worked.

Days Five, Six, and Seven

Still going strong except for one thing. I keep forgetting to take my vitamins! So hard to remember. I couldn't even remember to take birth control, but I was hoping this well-being experiment would get me to remember. No worries, I'm feeling great. No sugar = energetic me. Although I haven't been running in a week...my experiment is over, but I believe I will continue this no candy thing. I have to go back to FUSE drinks and LIFEWATER though. Plain water isn't bad, but I need flavor every once in a while.
I'm getting A LOT of writing done lately. Per the post below, you can see that I finished up my third and final novel in the Banvard series. I started ALL THREE of my next novels in my paranormal romance world. That won't last for long, but when I have an idea, I need to get it out before I lose it and I happened to have an idea for three of the next manuscripts. It's not much, just a couple pages on each. It'll be a while before I blog again. I need to focus. I'm glad you could follow me through this experience and want to say thanks to all those who forgave me for my bad moods!

Day Two

Today was a little bit easier on me. First off, I wasn't trying to get through my day with chocolate, my day had me by the hair and was pulling me through. I didn't think about candy at all! Better that way. Second, I got into my creativity goal during downtime at work. I started sketching again. I wasn't sure what to draw, but there happen to be one of the books I'm reading next to me and I decided to sketch the cover. The scan didn't turn out too well so I'll have to do another one tomorrow to show you guys.

But since this is a writer's blog, I will update you on my progress in the writing world. So far revisions are going well for All or Nothing. I realized the reason I only made it to chapter 3 the first time around was there was so much to be fixed! This past couple of days, I hunkered down and rewrote nearly all of chapter 1 and edited up to chapter 5. Today was my goal of finishing revisions, but that's obviously not happening. This weekend is my new goal, and since it's a three day weekend, more time = better writing. Research is still being conducted for My Demon of Life and when I say research, I mean paranormal romance books that are written in the same type of world as mine. I've read A LOT of paranormal romance, but have never written one and I want my new world to be believable. Studying others work will help some, but in the end, it all comes down to my imagination.

Starting Again

Well, I finally printed out All or Nothing and am starting on revisions all over again. I'm hoping within the next week I'll have a huge portion revised so I can finish up my research for my new novel, My Demon of Life.