Archive for » January, 2010 «
The third full edit of ES is officially done. I was right. The major hurdle of rewriting the beginning was done before I took the multi-month break, although my dumb ass broke in the middle of a chapter. Fun times trying to get back into that one. Of course, I make all edits by hand so now I have to actually type everything in to see where I stand with my word count. I’m really hoping it’s not under 50,000. I was able to whittle down the chapters from 26 to 23. Not that that means anything for word count but I did a lot of consolidating and eliminating of unnecessary wordage. The story as a whole is a little less snarky, serious when it needs to be serious. The tone is definitely more natural.
I don’t know if this makes me weird but I love noticing my own comfort phrases. I’m sure all writers have them. I tend to use “out of the corner of his eye,” “looked up,” “choked on his heart” (or a variation of it) and a few others quite a bit. Had to strike a lot of those. I love noticing those because it means I’m not failing as a self-editor. Noticing my own redundancies is a good thing, I think.
I started to lull around the late teens, having bouts of “OMG THIS SUX!!!” but once I got to the end, I realized how much I liked it. I don’t know if that’s something I should be worried about or grateful for. I should like my own book although right now I’m about 10 seconds from setting the thing on fire because I’ve edited it so much. I can’t edit it anymore. I think, as writers, we need to put our foot down on our own full edits. If we don’t, it’ll get to a point where we’ve changed and mutilated so much of the original story that it’s not even the same beast anymore. Plus, I don’t think any writer would stop editing one work. They’d always find something wrong, something to change, so it gets to a point where we need to utilize our self-control and tell ourselves to stop. This third run was it. I’m not making any more major changes unless absolutely necessary (meaning like the story’s totally FUBAR if I don’t). Small stuff, spelling, a few word choices, things like that. The foot’s going down.
I’m not going to make the January 25th start date for Amazon’s contest. But I am hoping to finish the manuscript up this week and I will make the final February 5th deadline. Who needs sleep? I just need to pray to the writing gods that they don’t hit their 5,000 manuscript maximum before I can get my entry in. I’ll have no one to blame but my procrastinating self if I don’t get it in but I won’t be any less upset about it. I really want to enter this contest and I really want to start querying. The thought alone makes me want to throw up but it’s time. My manuscripts about to graduate and I need to set it free in the real world.
*sigh* They grow up so quickly.
No, not the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I’m optimistic, not crazy. Thanks to the lovely Amanda Plavich for the heads up, I’ve entered a contest at Nathan Bransford’s blog. It’s for a book but I was more interested in the writing aspect of the contest. To enter you needed to write a diary entry or a letter from the point of view of a teenager (as the book being given away is written in that format). So I cooked something up and posted it for my entry. Apparently I channeled my inner emo. Here it is -
i
i
omg whatd i do
he just wouldnt stop yelling
i told him to stop yelling
372372372372372372372
i didnt need the combination
it was already open
his locker stunk
like him
he
he took her from me
he knew i liked her
she liked me
howd he get her
it was so easy
there was red everywhere
in my eyes
twerp was little enough
he fit right in
he cant have her
he has 372372372372372372372
did i wipe the corner
SHIT
maybe no onell notice
but she will
she notices everything
everything
wtf did i do
its all red
everythings red
she notices everything
SHIT
I never thought I’d hear myself say that.
I was at Barnes and Noble tonight spending the $50 gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket and, for the first time ever, I was actually recoiling from all the vampire stuff that was on the shelves.
Don’t get me wrong. I love me my vampires. My older school vampires. Interview with the Vampire. The Lost Boys. Near Dark. Anything manufactured prior to 2005. But this whole string of vampires in high school is just leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Oh yeah, I totally get the appeal for teenage girls. Absolutely no denying that. But at the end of the day, do vampires have nothing better to do with their immortality than go to high school and hit on jailbait? Really?
Not to mention the lot of them are just simpering pussies. While I highly doubt they’d be able to blend in with society if they went feral at the sound of the lunch bell, they’re just so mopey and blah and BORING that they’re kind of spitting on everything a vampire traditionally is.
One book I read fairly recently (more like 3 in one, actually) was Vampire Beach. I have never been so bored with vampires in my life. Of course the vamps are the hot, talented, unattainable high school crowd that everyone wants to be a part of but instead of being real vampires, they’re humanitarians and in order to feed, they throw parties. When they bite someone, it’s equivalent to dropping Ecstasy, apparently, and no pain ever comes to the victim. Where’s the fun in that? Not to mention their lives are just downright dull. They lay on the beach (yeah, they can go in the sun, according to them, they’ve adapted), surf and throw parties. Snore. I was hoping someone would go feral at lunch at that point. When one of them did (just not at lunch), it was over so quickly and painlessly it gave me the worst case of blue book balls since Breaking Dawn. Downer.
If I don’t read another vampire book for a while I’ll be quite content. I’ll probably wait until the shelves at the book store aren’t inundated with sappy high school vampires before I pick up another one. Although I do have one old school LJ Smith book in my TBR that I can see. And then 3 “vampire survival guide” type of books which I don’t fit into that category. Other than that, I’m branching out. I need a detox.
