Anne Faye

I have a pile of books to read for my other writing life - books to review and books to judge, yet I took the time this past two weekends to indulge in The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald which came in off my hold list at the library. I had seen it advertised and decided to request it. So many times when that is the case, I am disappointed. I read several chapters in the book and then put it away to return. But this one I thoroughly enjoyed. Originally published in Sweden, it features a young Swedish woman named Sara who has been carrying on a correspondence with Amy, an older woman from Broken Wheel, Iowa. When Sara loses her job due to the bookstore where she worked closing, she takes Amy up on her offer to come visit her for a couple months in small-town America. Unfortunately, when Sara arrives, she discovers that Amy has just died. The people of the town tell her to stay in Amy's house because that is what Amy would have wanted. Sara, and her love of ...

Another National Novel Writing Month is in the books - I hope all of you who undertook it achieved at least some writing progress. My project for this month (plus a few days in December) was to work on two book projects. After I had finished The Rose Ring , my boys wanted me to write an action/adventure story with them. It took over two years of working on it every once in a while, and then it needed to be edited and formatted. This was really their story - I served mostly as a scribe and editor. The story ended up being about 20,000 words. During the past month, I did the final edits, proofread and formatted and gave them each a copy on St. Nicholas' Day as an early Christmas present: One of them wants to write a sequel. I don't know if that will ever happen, but it was one of those projects that was fun to do and I'm glad that they can have a physical reminder of the experience. As for my own project, my task was to revise the novel I finished several months ago. ...

I've spent the past couple weeks editing the second draft of my book. I honestly didn't think I'd get to have another set of eyes look it over before I shared it with the world, so I put on my best objective editing hat (after all, I do edit things for my "real" job) and set to work. I think I was pretty hard on the work - anything that bothered me, any inconsistencies (no matter how minor) - I fixed. I redid passages and added one chapter. I'm sure I missed a spelling or grammar error (I always do), but I read through three times so I'm fairly certain I got most of them. Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out, and even after reading it three times, I still enjoy reading the story so I consider that a good sign. I talked to an editor friend of mine last Friday and it turns out she will be able to read it over for me before I publish it which I am very thankful for. So, I sent the third draft to Staples and it is sitting in a binder waiting to ...

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I've been drinking in the pages of the latest issue of Writer's Digest . So many good ideas! So little time! I did come across this great idea in "The Geyser Approach to Revision" by James Scott Bell: "To do the best revision possible, you need to recapture the feeling you had while writing your draft in the first place. One way to do this is through music. Find several pieces that move you to feelings consistent with your book. . . Compile a playlist of songs that evoke the mood - or better yet, a medley of the various moods - you hope to convey in  your story, and use it as background each time you sit down to self-edit."

I know that this is asking too much, but what I would like is someone to hold my hand and tell me exactly what I need to do to fix my book. Instead, I am given suggestions. They are good, valid suggestions. I just have no clue how to actually implement them. Obviously, if I knew how to increase the level of conflict, obstacles and character development, I would have done it in the first place. I need someone to take my ideas and make them into an interesting compelling story because I am not up to the task. Ugh. Back to the drawing board. In the meantime, I am enjoying listening to 50s music while I work. This all started because I heard a commercial with "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by the Platters in it. That is one of my all-time favorite songs. I plugged that into YouTube and have been meandering since then.

I had taken the past two days off from writing. I was licking my wounds a bit after my rejection. I went back to it today, though, and wrote about 500 words. I also hired an editor to take a hatchet to my other story. I debated back and forth on this one. I absolutely hate spending money on myself, especially in a case like this when it feels like I'm just sending it off into the wind. There are so many other, more important, things to spend money on. I enjoy helping other people, though, so I'm trying to think of it in that light. I hired a friend who has just started an editing business, so I am helping her get her business off of the ground. I told her to be brutal. I really do want to improve in my writing. I hope that she can help me. 

This is a great post on the process of revision and how painful it really is. Surviving the Editorial Letter

I've been reading through my manuscript, fixing my mistakes and making a few changes. At this risk of sounding like an idiot, I'm going to write this anyway - I'm actually enjoying reading my own story. I have a horrible memory - not so bad that I don't remember how the story ends or that it doesn't seem generally familiar to me, but there are parts I don't really remember writing and I'm enjoying seeing how the story unfolds. This is my first time reading the story through, start to finish.

This is a good article on learning how to edit one's own writing: The Importance of Self-Editing

It is hard to believe the end of June is here already. It has been a busy month for me. Unfortunately, that meant that my dreams of getting my 2nd novel even half-written went down the tubes. As they say, the best laid plans . . .  ah, well. The final total for the month was 14,564 - a little more than a quarter of my goal of 50,000 words. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to return to the story. But, it felt good to write while I had the chance. As for my editing project, I am almost done my second read-through. I hope the client will be happy with what I have done.

I'm continuing to work on my editing project. I finished my first read-through tonight. This time through I just focused on grammar. The next read-through, I will concentrate on content. I'm enjoying this project. This is something I wouldn't mind doing more of.

The past few days just haven't allowed me to get any writing done. I've been busy working on paid projects, and those need to come first. One of the projects I am working on is a new one for me - editing someone else's manuscript. I've been giving myself a crash course in copy-editing with my copy of The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications by my side. I've also been making good use of the internet, looking up grammar questions I'm not 100% sure about. It is interesting working on someone else's work, instead of my own. I am hoping to give this young writer lots of positive feedback while correcting her grammatical errors and helping her make her writing better. I am thankful to have this opportunity to try something new.