Last Weeks in Kentucky

This is one of my last weeks on campus, so though Tech Week for Macbeth is now over, now I have final projects and the like to frantically complete. Basically, I don't have a whole lot of time to sleep, much less edit and otherwise function like a normal human being.

So not a lot of editing has gotten done this week- a little has, but only a very very little. I've read enough to realize how bad the writing is in the beginning of the manuscript- and see how bad my patch job was the first time through. But once I finish the read-through and major cut/pasting, I can go back and make the writing decent. It's not so bad that I can't read it- a little distracting, but more of an incentive to get done and go back to fix it than a soul-crushing hindrance as before.

I should stop procrastinating and get some more work done, but first I'll leave you with a couple sketches I've done this week. (sketching is a good procrastinator, funny enough)

This second one is a uniform of sorts that I thought up for the scholars of the Valley castle- I thought since they're a pretty tight community they might dress differently from others, so here's an idea for a High Wizard costume.

Working on Macbeth's costumes has influence what I'm designing in my head, and now I've been watching a bit more of Game of Thrones (my friends have gotten me hooked, and I've been watching it in between classes because I have no self control) so the costumes on that are making me geek out about gowns and things. Such a pretty show.

Getting back to work now.

Have a good night, everyone!

On! To the Second Edit

Greetings!

Due to life and school interfering, I have not gotten back to editing until tonight. As it is I'm typing this from backstage of my school's rendition of Macbeth. Someone just walked by me covered head-to-thigh in fake blood; I've been braiding hair all night; it's all crazy fun.

So. Today was beautiful; Spring in Kentucky is the most beautiful season I've ever seen. My college campus is gorgeous, and it's really inspiring. I've also been doing a lot of good reading for school; Macbeth of course, Emma, Murder in Amsterdam, etc. and now that tech week is dying down for the play I'm ready to use all this momentum and good energy and imagination towards my own projects.

I'm working costumes for Macbeth, and between that and knowing I'll be back in town for the next larping event has made me super pumped about redesigning my costume and sketching characters again. I'm super rusty so no sketches to post yet, but soon.

Today I looked at my editing notes again and decided on my game plan this time around. Last edit I was mostly just fixing whatever I could and making it so I was comfortable with the size and quality of what I was really going to work with. Now I have to do the major changes and heavy cutting and pasting, as well as fixing major plot holes and character and scene inconsistencies.

Right now I have a small list beside my original outline (which turned out to be mostly accurate, besides not including the events of two full chapters and almost the whole of Elle's trip to the Mountains) but it's not very detailed and I'm sure I missed some problems. So I've decided on a three-part plan.

First I'll read through the whole manuscript, without stops. I'll write down all the problems I have and where they affect the story and just general problem areas.

Second comes a revamped outline. On Scrivener everything is set up as an outline in the left margin, which will make it much easier to outline and remember chapter names and things. This outline will concentrate on the main plot and goal of each chapter or part and the things that need fixing to accomplish the goal for that section. I'll code things that are local problems and the ones that are farther reaching-that need fixing in multiple places, such as agreement with a certain scene or character trait. This should give me a good guide to what I have to do.

The third part then should be relatively easy- it's daunting now to say "just go and fix everything" but once I have done the first two parts I'll know exactly what needs to be done and a better idea of what specifically I need to do to fix it- I will use my new outline/editing guide and do the fixes. This will involve mostly cutting and pasting and adding or deleting or tweaking scenes to make things agree.

I'm going to go continue my outline now. Wish me luck!

First Edits Done

It's done. I've gotten through the whole manuscript. Wow, that's pretty cool.

So the first edit is done, which is awesome, and I feel like I fixed a lot of the writing. Now I know what major problems need to be fixed, and for the second edits I can go back and do the major cutting and pasting and touching up logistical problems and anomalies.

But first I'm going to take a small vacation. My spring break is next week, so I'll spend that time to do some more editing research, relax, and maybe get some work done on other projects. I haven't written any short things really, I think I'll try and get a few written to get back into writing, instead of just editing. I might even look at my failed NaNo attempt and see if it's worth salvaging.

I'm also going to be working on my art portfolio again, so I'll probably do some more sketches for y'all as I do that. What kind of images are you guys curious about? I'm thinking of doing some more landscape and architecture sketches, I do so few of those.

I do have one sketch to post now- I redid an interior sketch I drew a long time ago. I've fixed a lot of discrepancies and will try and restart that digital painting of it I wanted to do.

So there's that. Wow, I can't believe that last half went so quickly. Kind of makes me scared to go back and see why the beginning gave me such trouble; I doubt I fixed it all up.

I've got a lot of schoolwork to get done now that I can't use my manuscript to procrastinate, so... I guess I'll see you all in two weeks!

What a Fantastic, Wonderful World

This last week has been awesome. In just about every way.

But especially regarding editing progress! I'm kind of on a role, have edited a good amount every day, and gotten through a huge chunk of text. I've organized and edited quite a few chapters-worth of material, and gotten through I think like 30k words. That means of course....

...That I'm three-quarters of the way through! I have around 50k words left, and I expect it to go pretty quickly, seeing how the last 50k went. I'm on a very productive streak right now. But the last part is also more recent, so the writing should be more according to my present level. Of course my present skill level in writing may not be amazing anyway, but at least it's waaay better than it was two years ago. Way. Better.

I now run the risk- and I feel I was doing this over the weekend, when I went through a huge mass of text in one sitting- of just reading instead of editing. Which is good in that I find my own writing decent enough to enjoy reading, but also bad because I'm not thinking or reading as critically when I do that, I think. So I'm going to try not to do too much at once (who thought I'd ever have this problem) so I won't fall into an easy and lazy habit.

Many major things need to be solved- like major choices made by characters- there was something that impacted many chapters that was caused by Taim, but I don't remember the reasoning I put behind it when I wrote it, since it doesn't seem to make sense now. These types of things I've made notes of (something Scrivener has been awesome about and is very handy for) and will review my original story notes and figure out solutions for my second edit. That may be the procrastinator in me, but I don't want to stop my momentum now and I can't wait to get the preliminary editing done.

So I'll see you next week! And hey, I'm even getting to bed before midnight tonight! What a grownup.

Page: 306/415

Problems I'm Thinking About:
-logistical consistency
-character development
-messy writing and being too wordy(one of my main problems. It's horrific, really.)
-Pacing, especially regarding action and suspense for emotional scenes.
-making sure characters agree both with their own reason in their decisions and actual logic.

Finally Intensity

I started my daily editing around nine thirty this evening... Or technically last night, since I got super carried away and it's now twelve forty-five AM. Oops? But I just edited a very exciting bit- a bit including my first fight scene of the book.

I think my timing was well done during the first fight scene, and I remember being very careful to line everything up. I'm still finding mistakes of course, and with fast-pace scenes it's harder to make action ownership clear, so I'm working on that.

Otherwise I'm very happy with this- the action has started, it isn't horrible, and I'm working with newer writing as well as characters that I dearly missed that were not in the first half of the book. I don't know if I should worry about this, but I seem to have introduced a whole new cast of characters for the second half of the story, mostly due to relocation. Would that ruin continuity or all the work I've put into developing other characters? All characters reappear by the end of the book, they're not gone forever, of course, but I don't know if that's something that sits well with readers. Anyone have any advice regarding that?

This past week I missed a lot of days for editing due to my life being for a brief period of time CHAOS ITSELF, but especially regarding my binge tonight, I think I'm still on track. Not that I really have a track, other than just constant progress. Because I'm obviously a very organized person(NOT). I love having these random three to five hour spans of productivity. It's like my brain decided to cooperate unconditionally this once.

I had to stop and post this because I need to go to bed/do more homework before I go to bed because I promised myself I would. My Humanities class is reading Macbeth this week- one of the only Shakespeare plays to have a well rounded female character. So I'm excited- I've read it before but the class is being taught by the drama professor who's directing Macbeth this semester (a happy coincidence) and it's going to be an interesting next couple weeks going through it. Swords have already made one appearance in the classroom (like, real ones).

Page: 258/415

Problems I'm Thinking About:
-logistical consistency
-character development
-messy writing and being too wordy(one of my main problems. It's horrific, really.)
-Pacing, especially regarding action and suspense for emotional scenes.
-not letting this part of the story drag, especially for the next few chapters.

Tidings from the River

I've just edited the very last scene before the official arrival of Elle and the party in the Desert. I get to start tomorrow fresh in an entirely different setting!

My research for the desert was really fun and I can't wait to go back through it. I want to make the setting especially vivid going forward, since it's such a foreign and dangerous place to Elle. I put a lot more confusing and dangerous elements into it than even a normal desert has (because hey, magic- if not to make your characters frightened, what IS it good for?) and hopefully that strangeness will be pretty constant. There are a lot of developments for Elle, especially because she goes through some really mentally trying things that change her, and I want to get the stress of a formidable place right.

That's really all going into it, I've been keeping up with editing fairly well, except over this past weekend. Last weekend, though I forgot to mention it, was a hugely productive one. I sat for over three hours straight editing last Saturday- a feat of patience and an attention span I just did not have three weeks ago. Consistent creativity really is amazing for the brain. I've also been helped by my roommate introducing me to habitrpg.com, which is this amazing game-type thing. It's basically your to-do list but with rewards for your own fantasy-type character when you do them, and there are pets and weapons and other things... It's really helpful especially if you're super competitive, like me. I found myself Friday night looking over homework that I could do just to get more points, which is both something my parents are going to be proud to read and very, very frightening. I'm fueled almost purely by the infuriating fact my roommate is level 14 and I am currently on level 5.

But once I finish writing this post I'll get points since it's on my to-do list. And then I can buy an axe before I go to sleep.

Since it's ridiculously late and I've had a very strange day I'm going to deprive you of a summary list. So all I have to say is good night/good morning, and I hope everyone is safe and doing well.

For those of you out there having a bad one, remember to love something, and no matter how small or big it is, it will get you through.

Halfway!

I'm officially over the half-way mark in editing! (At least for the first run-through)

But it's really exciting. I have around 90k words left, which are already divided into two big chunks.

I knocked through the middle chunk this weekend at an amazing pace- as my friend suggested, the muse visited, and I sat for over three hours straight editing this thing. I think it's mostly because I got to a point where the original writing WASN'T horrible should-be-burned quality- which is also really exciting! It's fun not to hate my own stuff!

I'm also completely out of the middle part of my manuscript now, moving on as soon as I post this to Part Three. Much excitement. BRING THE ACTION.

Another reason for my inspiration this weekend I think came from watching a couple Ghibli films. I watched Spirited Away and Ponyo each for the first time, and they're just (oh my god) beautiful. Not only is the art amaaaazing, but the stories themselves amazed me- I can't think of many (if any, other than Ghibli) films that focus on love in the same way. In Spirited Away and Ponyo the protagonists are all young children, and yet they succeed due to true love. It is refreshing, because it isn't necessarily romantic love, but it isn't just the love of a family member, like a lot of things with younger protagonists focus on. It's just true love- which is really actually simple, despite how we seem to overanalyze and categorize it in real life. Why can't we just love wholly and with abandon, without having to invalidate or categorize it? It's limiting and I like that Ghibli did away with those boundaries.

The only way all that is relevant is that I would like to include something like that- in fact I think that's what I did try to do with one of my characters (who conveniently is introduced in Part Three) and maybe I can do a better job now, being aware of that and seeing it successfully (and beautifully) done.

I may or may not have to go draw some Spirited Away fanart. (But more editing first!)

Page: 222/415

Problems I'm Thinking About:
-logistical consistency
-character development
-messy writing and being too wordy(one of my main problems. It's horrific, really.)
-Pacing (I've noticed many things I've done right with pacing and many instances where I've done it very horribly wrong, so I want to play more with that now that I see it. I feel like it might become even more important, with the coming action.)

Hope you all had a wonderful Saint Valentine's Day!