Anyone else feeling the post NaNoWriMo now editing blues?
One-Liner Wednesday brought to us by Linda G. Hill
Tag Archive: editing
Do any of you have a Wattpad account? I have had my first book, Haven, up for critique there. It can also be found here on this site. That is only the first four chapters. The whole novel is on Wattpad. I would love to get constructive feedback.
Anyway, the reason for this post isn’t to plug said novel but to tell about my day. You see, Wattpad and NaNoWriMo had an editing tutorial. It was called Edit Smart, Not Perfect: How to Polish Your Best Work Yet. I don’t know if this link will work, but I got to watch the Zoom here.
It was quite informative, and I hope they will put it on YouTube, so it is more accessible for all. If any of you find it at another site, let me know, and I’ll fix what I put here.
Anyway, that is how I started my morning. About the time that was over, I got to Zoom with my friends for our usual Friday meeting.
After a fun long chat, I decided to go watch the DuoCon. If you have Duolingo, you might be interested in watching this:
So I am even more motivated to edit my novels and keep going on my multiple languages. I have so many things I am into right now that I am trying to figure how to fit everything in a day or week. Life is exciting and quite the adventure!
Yep, I’m at it again! JuNoWriMo. I didn’t finish, or even do much with last months editing. So I am combining the editing and rewriting that needs to happen to finish Pandamapocalypse. But a new book was calling to me so I have started on Marina’s Mission. So my count for Panda is 510 words added as the story still hasn’t finished. Yet MM is the second part of Panda. So this is going to get complicated. Even so I managed 1870 words. Yeah!
I have complained that we get no spring or fall here. But this year the weather has been more of a springy feeling. I love my mesquite bushes just outside. They blossomed up and became nearly yellow with all the flowers. I finally got out to take a couple pictures.
Can you see the pods? Those are what makes the mesquite the most fun. In the summer when the pods turn brown they start popping open. If you are lucky, as you stand an look at these huge bushes, the sound of popping corn happens. It is so much fun to stand and hear a bush make noise!
It wasn’t really quiet as I took the pictures. There were so many bees that the buzz made me very nervous. I got away as soon as I could.
My newest socks are coming along.
The practice on the recorder was slight but I did manage to finger out Mary Had A Little Lamb, and Twinkle Twinkle. But I would love a book to read the music as I go. Tomorrow I promised myself to play one song on the piano just to reconnect.
For those that are curious as to how the Intermittent Fasting/Keto are doing. I’m managing OMAD (One Meal A Day) and that is a very healthy meal. I am rarely hungry later and if so water or tea will do the trick. My pants are getting loose enough to pull down without unsnapping or unzipping. I don’t weigh myself but at the end of the month I have a doctor’s appointment where I know they will weigh me. I think I will be happy with the result.
Today has been the warmest day all year. I think we hit 92. It is suppose to cool off the rest of the week. I think this was to help us get used to what is coming. Fans were running in every room all day.
Midnight is creeping up so I best get this published and head off to bed.
Being that it is after ten
Because I am beyond tired
Bragging about the amount of editing that isn’t quite finished feels boring.
But, I did manage to go through 6,428 words and edited a few.
Bedtime is calling early.
Boldly I push that aside
Because I still have a few more batches to correct.
Bit by bit I remember the long one mile walk in the breeze
Brave Kali by my side,
Blabbing with friends on zoom during the walk
Busy day!
Bedtime calls again.
According to my goal I am to write something that reflects what I did for CampNaNo. The editing is hard to quantify I worked on twenty pages. I added no words. Yet when I copied and pasted the number of pages I worked on to a blank sheet it said I had 2,041 words that I wandered and did edits to some.
And on another note, I am trying to get back into taking my daily walks. Today I walked .86 whatever that amounts to. I think it might be over 3/4 of a mile? That’s what the app told me. So that is now added as part of my 16/8 keto-ish/fast-ish eating/not eating program. I’m still learning, adjusting as I learn. Adding the walking makes Kali happy. She wants me to run, but not yet, sweetie!
Anyone watching American Gods? I read it a few years ago. I remember being quite lost as I read but it all came together in the end. I am following this better, or maybe it is because I know what to expect? It isn’t even PG rated so if you are under 18 or don’t like sex or violence this might not be for you. I don’t like the violence and find the sexy parts hard to watch if my brother or son are in the room. But the overall story is pretty good.
Another goal I have in mind to integrate into April is practicing my piano or singing or both. On my walks of the last two days I have been singing with my Spotify-ed songs. So–check!
All of this while trying to get healthier through my finally decent medical insurance. All this tests and appointment after a year of sitting in the recliner awaiting the end of this darned pandemic.
Anyway, that’s all I got for A!
By the way, I don’t like practical jokes or April Fools and I love laughing and puns of all kinds. I just don’t like making fun of people in any way.
Join a lot of us as we play with the alphabetical prompts of the A to Z Challenge. Click on the blue underlined link under the big A above or this one:
Sunday is a special day of the week for me, thanks to technology. A 3 AM bedtime means my day starts at 10ish. I turn on the laptop and run and get my toast and coffee (or tea). By the time I’ve taken out the dog and set up my bubble sitting, I am ready to place the laptop on the footrest of the recliner and the plate on my lap. No, I don’t stick my feet out. I sit in a chair, in half-lotus, as that is far more comfortable and keeps my stocking feet warmer. On frigid mornings, I throw my electric lap warmer (Thank you, Rizza 💜) over me before setting up the computer and breakfast.
Now I go to church. No camera on, I may or may not have brushed my hair yet. And who wants to watch me eat? The church is a Zoom meeting of Unitarian Universalist is in Reno, Nevada. When I lived there, I only went a handful of times. I used to be into the weekly get up, get dressed up, especially when my children were small. But now that I can go in comfort in my own time and clothing. I can sing with the congregation as I choose. No stand up, sit down, thank you very much, my coffee is great.
The last few weekends, I have been enjoying different stars showing up for Galaxycon.com.
The above was one of my favorites. Though I am double or triple her age, I relate to her life story a lot. And she is a writer. I picked up her latest book:
By the way, I had a free credit, so I got it on Audible. So Felicia is going to read it to me.
She also suggests her favorite book about screenwriting:
Today I got to meet Michael Biehn of the Mandalorian and this afternoon Jessica Jones’ stars:
- Krysten Ritter “Jessica Jones”
- Wil Traval “Will Simpson”
Both cons were fun. By the way, many of these are free live. You only have to give your email address to send the confirmation and URL to get to the interview. If like me, life gets in the way, your computer glitches, you can still click on the confirmation within 24-48 hours to watch a taped version. And many can be found later on the YouTubes. Here’s an example of what I am going to watch later on tonight:
Once again. Going to a con is something I don’t think I would do. I know this is going to sound weird, but I can’t deal with costumes and masks. One of my best friends LOVES this kind of thing. I certainly enjoy it through her. And the mask issue is still an issue during COVID19. I wear one if I need to. I love it when you wear one around me. It shows you care. But I need to see lips and gesticulations to understand people talking to me. And Halloween scares me. Haunted houses scare me. I always worry that a real crazy person with real weapons will be there. And I HATE when folks jump out to scare me.
When the lockdown ends, and all things go back to live events, I will be, once again, the fair-weather friend that probably won’t be there. When the pains started, I had to bow out of writer’s meetings and board games meetings, or, yeah, the church; I’d ask to be Skyped in, but everything virtual was still new and uncomfortable. I hope that people will still do things like this. My eyes can’t drive nights, I can’t take flu shots for being allergic to the base (nearly died), and pain often keeps me from doing things I want to do. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a part of the meets. I’m sure I am not alone in hoping the zooming continues.
And the Tubes have great bits of help for people like me who are learning to edit their novels:
Oh, I forgot to say the other Sunday thing, and I think you all know what I’m going to say CBS Sunday Morning. My favorite part is the moment of zen at the end. By the way, YouTube has the full lineup of the show. Happy Birthday to my friend Yve and to PBS. And now:
I have to admit that most of the day I felt like it was Saturday again. And the computer acted up. Am I the only one that keeps multiple windows open with lots of tabs on each window? I have one for YouTube tutorials and patterns, one of social-media like Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter, and one with email and blogs. So all that disappeared and I had to reset it all up.
That done it was time to edit more of last month’s book.
Then I wrote for the prompt for Writer’s Group. I do like meeting with the group and seeing how they are doing and what they come up with on the prompts. Oh, and that means it was actually Monday! Ha! I do know!
Do those of you that do Duolingo find there are days you do the bare minimum and other days you can’t get enough? Tonight I read a lot of the stories. I’m back to playing with Japanese, French, Esperanto, and still working with Spanish and German.
Oops, I still didn’t write my review. I don’t know if I have the chops for it tonight. I’d rather knit a while before bed. Tomorrow.
Is it Wednesday already?
I know. That shouldn’t even count but after editing all day I had nothing left. Even so, thank you, Linda, for the somewhat easy blog prompt. LOL!
What is worse than looking at a blank page?
Editing!
I spent today editing my CampNaNo story, Haven in 3D. I don’t do it like the picture, though I think I might near the end. My process is: Open yWriter project. Open Word with the RTF of that project. Then I open Grammarly Pro. Though I don’t think I am down to the words but the actual overall story, why not fix what I can as I read?
After I have cleaned up a scene in Word, I copy and paste it back into the yWriter scene and move on to the next scene. I think I added 26 words. That was a surprise because at first, I was killing words left and right. I spent from around noon to just an hour ago. I covered one chapter and two scenes from the next chapter. I needed to do this one to have all the information I needed for the one I just finished. It is fun to get back to the spring novel. It has all my favorite Haven characters. I can’t wait to get the series up for everyone to enjoy. It could just be me. I hope not. But if so I have had a fun time living part-time in another universe!
Blogging has always been a part of me. Like the newspaper I tried to print when I was a kid.
Like all the Dear Diaries I attempted to write.
Then the internet came along. I tried several times from Prodigy on to have a blog.
But just like way back with the toy printing press, I never know what to say. Linda G. Hill has always had cool prompts to get my brain going. Just like Just Jot It January. There is something to write about every day.
What can I say? I think I like ‘journaling’ so that I can go back in time and see what was going on way back then. It is why I do book and movie reviews. I rarely write about the literary content. I try to include how it affected my life or how my life affected my interpretation of the book.
Same here. Except purer. A prompt can get the writing started. Writing is the aim. Fiction or non-fiction. Write. Writing is often lonely. Blogging brings friends. It’s a chance to share our intimate thoughts and find others who think in the same way.
***
The next question is how I came up with my theme. I’m unsure if this is the background that the words are on or the name and aim of the blog. The background is so I can read it with the least amount of eyestrain. I like the colors. As for calling it
Darswords
Musings about Havenverse
As one of my commentators stated, Darswords looks like Dar swords. And my reply was about the word is mightier than the sword. My inner thought on that is I need some swordier words!
Haven is the sentient planet that about 90% of the books that I have written for NaNoWriMo have been about. I need to get my books edited and out for folks to read. My possibilities list included getting busy editing. The blog is keeping that goal front and center.
How has blogging changed my life? I have met some cool people out in the blogosphere. Support overflows the nets as people drop by personal blogs and connect. I wouldn’t have met such great people had I not gone to their blogs and learned about their lives. So much better than Dear Diary, today I breathed in and out. Imagine if someone would have picked up that diary and asked me questions about the rest of my day or how did those breaths feel. Did the air feel cold or steamy as I respiration? Could it be there is boredom in living inside one’s head and not having the chance to explore what you might not have thought of on your own? That’s what blogging has meant to me.
Darswords 
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