Edit-a-thon '06 Summary

Well now, that's done.

That's right folks, we actually finished it. All of book one has been edited. We found enough pages to double what was left in the edit-a-thon but still we prevailed. All in all we did, what was it... 80 or so pages in two and a half days. For most of that, that was both of our individual edits as well as the together computer edits. It was intimidating. It was intense. And now it is done.

We celebrated by watching an episode of the OC -- a show we've not really watched for oh so long, but thought made a perfect guilty pleasure reward for such hard work.

So let me say it again: book one has been completely edited. We are fairly confident that most of what is in there is decent writing that is more or less gramatically correct. Sure, most of the writing is fine... but. There's always a but, eh?

Now there's the re-writes. We're not entirely sure how this is going to work. We certainly don't know how long it is going to take. We have to re-do at least the first 50 pages. We have to read the damn thing. Sure, we've now read this thing many, many times between us, but neither of us have been able to sit down and read the thing start to end without changing a word, without squabbling over commas... we need to read it for story, we need to read it for flow. We talk about building tension, but how can we really judge it's tension when to read the whole thing through has always taken us many, many months? And been done with pen in hand/fingers at keyboard? We also are beginnning to make cautious remarks about getting other people to read it -- you know, people who aren't us, and don't necessarily have a mother's complex about it all.

And then there's the publishing process. At what point do we start sending out queries again?

However, none of this is being worried about until after Christmas. We have a few busy, non-writing-related days ahead of us that can now be guiltlessly enjoyed as we have completed a monumental step in the development of our baby. Sometime after the yuletide celebrations we shall reconvene and determine how to proceed from here.

Not so smug

So anyhow, you all remeber how I said we only had thirty pages to do? You all remember how I was so happy that we only had to power through those pages and then the world would be right? Well, we found thirty more pages, and are very aware of the general stinging sensation created by finding those pages. Thus it was required that I attend EDIT A-THON 06, DAY TWO, today. It's getting done though, and even though we've been working since two, there is hope that we can finish it all today.

Page 393 must be a bitch though, because Bethany's been editing it for for-freaking ever. Yay it's done!

I caught up to her now, so I'm going to wait until about five of the last ten, need to be hand edited, pages are done by her, then I'll get off of the computer.

Just thought I'd update. I'll probably leave Beth to do the EDIT A-THON 06 summary post.

So soon!

I know it was only about a week ago that I posted, what ever will you -- my ever neglected little blog -- do with so much attention?

Today is edit-a-thon o6, to big to do that will decide our further movement with this, our novel, Prophecy's Birth. Oh the tension, oh the excitment, oh the lack of something for me to do at this very moment...

We've now edited everything that was edited and ready, which left us with thirty pages in need of attention. If we're smart I'll be able to pace myself enough that I can edit while Beth's editing and we'll somehow finish within five or ten minutes of one another. That's the hope, but the reality is that it'll probably be a much larger time discrepency.

You're probably all wondering why the fuck it's taking Beth and I so damned long to finish the damned editing on this thing. The answer is not that we're just crummy writers and have been completely re-writing this whole thing, that is far from the truth... most of the time. The reason is time, and now that we have time in this vacation '06, we have decided to pay some TLC to our baby, and get a move on. What we've also decided is that the book needs to be finished so that we can re-open its pages and ONCE A-FUCKING-GAIN, do some major re-writes.

Just typing that word, re-write, makes me shudder and feel a little nauseous. It's an unfortunate affect. I'm watching Bethany cut some stuff which is more entertaining, and eerie than I thought it would be... Back to where I was though, the re-writes *shudder* are going to require that we have the part of the book that we lie finished before we get started on them. I'm going to suggest that we each read the whole damned thing, and make a series of notes before we start on the new re-writes. I say we do this so that we can get a broad sense of what's happening, while we do that we can also get a better temperal sense of things. Beth and I are haveing some issues with time, which is putting a cramp in the way some of the characters move through the story. I figure if we each just read, and take careful notes with page numbers, than we can get a better sense of what's needed when we do those spiffy re-writes.

To refute myself: it might not be such a good idea. We might lose some perspective on the actual novel, or we might lose take too much time out of the book and lose our roll. Hm, the arguments to do the read are stronger. We should probably do the read then.

The only problem with this, of course, is that we'll be moving FARTHER away from publishing.I know, I know, there has to be a proposal first, there has to be a good story, start to finish, there has to be all this stuff, but it just feels like this date keeps getting shoved farther and farther away. I know I'm young and all, but that doesn't mean I have all the time in the world to wait, because I don't. There are other stories waiting for voice.

*name* is a woman suffering from obsessive compulsive order, after fighting
her Buhdist heritage for as long as she can remember, she finally gives in to
her father's suggestion that she meditate to find the cause of her problems.
What she finds on her journey is so spectaculare that it changes the very time
she's in, and that she percieves.

Now doesn't that just sound really cool? No one had better steal that. I would be so pissed off. Then again, I'm sure most people don't carry my theory of time with consideration given to Saint Augustine. I also have an interest in a story about about a dystopia I kind of created, but then again, I don't know if it's a dystopia, or just a really undesireable place that happens to be futuristic. I guess they can be mistaken.

Odd that both of those have roots with science fiction. We'll finish, and the series will be done, but I wish we had more time to devote to it. Staring at my next semester schedule is making me wince for the sake of the writing. It's going to take a big hit, but then, when's the writing not taking a hit? I'll say it again, like I'm constantly saying, time has got to be made. YA!

Well, I'll let Bethie respond, or not, depending on how she feels should her break come. For now though, good bye and wish us luck?

Tis the season

Tis the season to be a writing. A writing away I shall be, as soon as I have a space to do so in. It is a victory for this blog and for my life's work (so what if I'm not even twenty yet), that I have three weeks off.

Now that the cursary "I'm going to write" has been said, and the "I just wish" has been done, I can do a real update on the ol' novel thinger.

We've hit ANOTHER hitch in the road to publishing. Admittedly being rejected by five agents isn't a big deal, but Beth and I have always believed in nipping things at the bud. It's going to put a delay in our plans for publishing... I guess we'll just have to take the beats and hitch up our skirts, because you see... the unfortunate thing is that BOOK ONE IS REALLY REALLY BORING!

Beth put it excellently when she said "It's like that mother that one day just has to admit that her daughter just isn't that pretty." We love our baby, we love her passionately and with such a fierce ardeur that we've neglected to help her get over her less pleasent qualities.

I guess it all started when we were forced to split the book into three due to its sheer tomb like qualities. She was huge. So down to three it was! We wrote book one, and as we edited it we just kept saying, "It get's better," which it does, a lot better, it gets down right juicy political, mystical, soap operaey with just a touch of war fare juicy. It's great... in the second book. I think that's where our problem stemmed from. Beth and I just kept saying "Oh don't worry, book two is great" without thinking that to sell book two we HAD to sell book one. Book two makes no sense without book one... we tried to make it make sense and failed.

The good news is that we were able to create a really dynamic new opening for book one that would take care of the first quarter fo the book's hum drums... the bad news is that it doesn't take care of the middle of the book... you know, the important part. We really need to find a story line for book one that sells, and that gets the readers to book two which deserves to be read.

Bethany and I have a plan, so don't worry your little head oh non-existant reader of this barely maintained blogosphere niche. We plan on spending about a week FINISHING the final major edits of book one, and then doing all those book things we promised ourselves we'd do... and never do, do. Thus it's going to be writer-a-thon of a sort. I doubt that we'll actually get everything we want to accomplish accomplished, but we'll try... and christmas shop as we're trying. CHRISTMAS IS SO EFFING SOON!

OK, well that's the official update. Night night my loves.

[note] I'm finally going to read beth's 3-day, which is good because results come some time in January[/note]