WORD Challenge = 14 pages edited

Thank you for your suggestions on saving my work. I thought perhaps I was paranoid, but now I think I wasn’t proactive enough. Everything I have is on the usb jumpdrive. If I lost it or it was damaged, I’d be in trouble. So I uploaded my stuff and I opened a Gmail account. Over the next few days, I’ll be e-mailing everything there so I have a couple of backups. I appreciate all of your tips!!

Other than that, I got some more edits done, in fact I’m almost finished. I may finish tonight, which would be wonderful, because I would still like to paper edit. So far, only the first 170 pages are paper edited.

I hope everyone is enjoying the remnants of the holiday. Perhaps you went shopping and saved a ton of money? Hubbby and I tried the new Arby low-carb wraps tonight. They were delicious!

WORD Challenge = 11 pages edited

I discovered two rather minor historical mistakes in one of my ms. A ms I’ve already submitted so it’s too late to change anything. Do I think it’s enough to get it R’d? Nah, not unless the editor holds a doctorate in English history. But as with everything, stupid mistakes are stupid mistakes. *banging head against computer screen* I make enough of the other kind, I don’t need any more.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Mine was nice and laid back. My mom and hubby’s dad came over. Dinner was catered so no work for me (besides the pile of dishes I still need to do.) Hubby and FIL watched football all day. My mom played with the kids and I worked on the computer. It was fun and relaxing for all of us, plus the food was delicious so it was a great.

Only five days left until the end of the WORD Challenge. I’m at the point where I’m 99.9% sure I’ll meet my goal, which is a good feeling.

Hey!! I have a question. I’ve got my life’s blood on this jumpdrive, but its compact size and portability create other concerns.

Do any of you upload your mss to your server for safekeeping?

WORD Challenge = 6 pages edited

Anyone else read the PROgress section of the RWR? I thought it was great! Write your good book. In the end, that’s all we can do.

You Are From the Sun

Of all your friends, you’re the shining star. You’re dramatic - loving attention and the spotlight. You’re a totally entertainer and the life of the party. Watch out! The Sun can be stubborn, demanding, and flirty. Overall, you’re a great leader and great friend. The very best!

HUGE kudos to my web designer, Genevieve, who dropped everything last night to add links to my home page, making it much easier to find what’s on the site, and rebuilt my Top Five page. The Top Five is still a work in progress, Gen is building a cool gif for it, but it should be completely live shortly.

Thank you, Genevieve!!

WORD Challenge = 23 pages edited, 5 paper edited

I’m finally reaching the point where I’m fairly certain I’ll achieve my WORD goals and get this ms edit finished. That’s such a huge relief to me. Even better is the fact that I’ve written a few new scenes and I just love them! I have more to write, since I’ve cut so much that I’m now 16 pages shy of my stated word count, but it shouldn’t be hard and I’m looking forward to replacing redundant and boring information with fresh, witty scenes.

I remember when I first looked at this ms just a few weeks ago. The task seemed daunting and for three days I despaired of ever finishing it. Jees, I didn’t even know where to begin! It just seemed such a monumental task to revise a 500-something page manuscript that had a lot of craft issues. Now I’m so glad I didn’t get discouraged. I’d forgotten how much I liked the story and the characters.

One of the mistakes I made the first time around was looking ahead to future books. I weaved in too much description and secondary plots to build up anticipation for the two books I have planned to follow this one. By refocusing my attention to the story at hand, I sped up the pacing and developed the characters more. I’m much happier with the story now and when it leaves my hands, I’ll be a lot more confident about it. And the secondary characters are still so much fun, I’m certain readers will ask about them anyway.

Oh and my son said a funny today. I was tucking him into bed and he asked me to leave the video on. “Just in case I get bored sleeping.”