Sick Leave

Just a quick note. I almost didn't even post, but since I might not be posting next week as well (since I'll be up North with some family), I figured I'd better let you guys know that I won't be posting for another two weeks.

I've been sick over the weekend and am still in the thick of it today, so much so that I think I'm going to pull a sick card and just taking it easy today and maybe tomorrow depending on how I feel.

I did finish editing the last 10 pages of my book last week, as well as proofread 50 pages, so I had a pretty awesome week. This week is looking to prove less so though due to sickness and the holidays coming up.

Hope everyone is doing well, both in health and with their writing goals, and hope you have a good Christmas.

Name Change

Name Change

So as you might notice, I’ve changed the title of my blog. Wanderlust has been my pseudonym for quite some time, but when it comes down to it, I want to make it as easy as possible for people to find me by my real name. Hence the name change.

Well this week has gone quite well (aside from one 3 pages edited day), and I’ve edited consistently 9 pages a day most of the week. In fact, I'm nearing the end of my book, and I’ve got some bad news: I really haven’t extended the book hardly at all.

This is mainly due to the fact that while I’ve added ten or so pages of content, I’ve also deleted about nine pages of text, so as for my plan to extend the book significantly, it's not going so hot currently. At least the total word count is over 50,000, which, by the way, is what most publishers are looking for. Anything between 50,000 to 100,000 words is considered a normal length novel by most publishers’ standards.

At any rate, I’ll soon be wrapping up my little four month marathon early. Admittedly, it looks as though I’m not going to get that glorious 365 pages that I was shooting for, but you’ve got to end a story where it should end. I don’t want to force anything unnecessary in there.

It’s been a great focus practice for me though, to write a book and have it edited within 2 ½ months is quite incredible compared to anything I’ve done before.

A Publisher is Considering My Book!

Wow, two weeks full of happy numbers, a great deal of progress on my writing projects, and hearing back from a publisher that they liked my query letter and want to see more of my manuscript, marketing plan, and another synopsis!

As you probably know, Thanksgivings was last week, so it made it tough to write a post since I still have family over on Sunday. Sorry about that. I try as well as I can to at least have a post a week. Regardless, there’s a lot of report on that I’ll get to in this post.

I’ve already mentioned the bulk of the good news I received from a publisher about them wanting for me to send more info of my book. I didn’t mention what book though. It’s not the one I’m working on now, it’s the book I finished over the summer and send queries out to multiple publishers. I’ve gotten three rejection letters back so far (it’s been 2 ½ months since I sent the letters out) but this is the first reply back in the positive. They made it clear that they haven’t chosen to publish it yet, they just want more info on it since they liked what I had sent already. Here’s a little excerpt from them,

“Thanks for writing earlier this year, and please excuse the long delay in reply.  Our company has been totally swamped with submissions this year so there is a huge backlog of material to review for publication in 2013.  The good news is that your proposal stood out,” Pretty cool huh! Well, I’ve sent all they asked for so we’ll see if it pays off and they choose to pick my book up. I’ll keep you in the loop.

Besides from that, I’ve been editing a recent essay of mine that I wrote on the book Dracula. That took a bit of time out of my normal writing/editing schedule for my current book, but only for a day or two. Also was taking care of some Tomework business which was good, but again, time away from my normal grove of writing/editing my book.

Regardless of the interruptions, I’ve been able to keep some great numbers up on how much of my book I’ve been able to edit. Hopefully I’m able to keep it up as we charge into Christmas holiday.

First Draft Complete!

Well last week I finished my book. It’s the first draft and it is a skeleton right now compared to what I have plans to do with it. Now comes the editing along with filling in missing scenes and skimpy sections.

I finished the first draft on page 113, that’s 53,275 words, so I’ve got a good base in which to go from. I hope to fill it out to around 75,000 words or so—we’ll see.

I had just set a 3 ½ pages a day quota, but now I’m going to have to alter that since I’ll be doing pages edited/rewritten/written instead of just writing. I’m going to need to hold off on placing a quota down until next week since I’ll need this week to gauge what I can handle.

Anyways, just a little update of a post. Still working hard, and I’m glad that I have the book’s first draft finished. Writing this play by play account really has helped keep me focused. Thanks to everyone who take the time to read along.

Upcoming Goals

Well, as you can see, I wasn’t able to pick back up on the 3 pages every day trend. I did make an effort, but we’re still stepping over moving boxes, so this week we worked hard on clearing most of the rooms so that we have walking space—that cut into my writing time. Oh, that and Halo 4. :)

So in the upcoming weeks, I’ve got some goals that I’m going to work on accomplishing; they’re big goals, but I’m pretty sure I can achieve them. Here they are:

This Week – 3 pages a day on weekdays

Next Week – 3 ½ pages a day on weekdays

The Week After – 4 pages a day on weekdays

Facebook

Just a small post before my customary Sunday update. One important tool to becoming a better writer I’ve always heard is to read. I struggle with that. I’m a slow reader, always have been, and when I read a book, it usually takes me months to finish unless I’m reading an hour or more a day. I can read a book in a week, but I’ve got to set a decent amount of time aside to accomplish the task, and reading, in my opinion, should not be a task but a pleasure.

I’ve come up with an idea to help me put more time into reading since I know I have a little spare time here and there throughout the day to get some reading in, even if it’s only a few pages or so. I spend quite a bit of time on Facebook every day. It’s a nasty habit, refreshing the Facebook banner every time I maximize my browser. I got the idea today that for every time I click my Facebook tab, I’m going to read a page in the novel I’m currently reading (which right now is The Necromancer, by Peter Teuthold in case you’re wondering) and I can’t click back on Facebook until I’ve gone ahead and read my allotted page.

This is either going to cause me to do one of two things: one, I’ll end up reading a lot more; or, two, I’ll slim down on Facebook or abandon it all together. Either one is a good thing I think. Anyways, I thought the notion interesting and wanted to make a post about it in case anyone else out there has my same problem and might want to try my remedy out.