Holly Lisle how to revise your novel lesson 14 is done.

This one was a lot more straightforward than the last. It covered simple time, and did help me pin point an area where I have to think a bit more about the timing.

Next up is lesson 15, complex time. I hope to be done with this one soon, then I can spend quite a bit of time on lesson 16, making sure everything is ship shape before I move onto lesson 17 where I get to start the rewrite.

I'm on night shifts for four days straight starting tomorrow, so although I have a boat load of other stuff to do, hopefully I'll manage to get a good chunk of lesson 15 done tonight.

Holly lisle how to revise your novel lesson 13 is done

Wow, that one was fairly meaty. It was a good insight into conflicts, my only problem was it was such a good insight that I kept on wanting to go back to it. I don't think I'd ever be done thinking of ways to make my conflicts better and better.

So I've moved on for now with the promise that I'll go back and look over all my notes from these past lessons before I move onto the write in. I may even head back into the monastery (lesson 10) for a bit to see if I can improve things even more that way.

For now it's onto lesson 14. I am 61.9 percent through this editing course, and just three more lessons before I get to start the write in.

Nanowrimo 2013

So who is nanoing this November?

I'm excited, trying to clear my plate of the big mass of things I need to get done beforehand, including finishing the how to revise your novel course. Not sure how well that is going to go, but it'd be nice if everything including the write in is done so I can send that novel off to betas and focus on something new.

A bit of planning would be a good idea too. So far I'm thinking something totally fun. Dragons, princesses, oppressive dictator, something along those lines. I'll plot it all beforehand of course, I love plotting almost as much as I love writing.

I'm practically drooling thinking of getting to write something of a decent length again. Sure, I've been writing short stories, but I haven't written anything novel length in months.

Hopefully it'll provide enough incentive to get me through the rest of my revision course. We'll see.

How about you? Anyone else gearing themselves up to tackle something for nanowrimo?

Holly Lisle editing lessons 11 and 12

For those not in the know, I've been chugging through holly lisle's 'how to revise your novel' course for a while. I recently finished lessons eleven and twelve, and am currently tackling lesson thirteen.

In lesson eleven I took a good look my scenes and considered whether I needed more or less of each plot line. I found it useful, and I hope I ended up with a more balanced outline because of it.

Lesson twelve focused on character which I've already done a great deal of thinking about during previous lessons. I've smooshed a few characters together, decided some heroes would serve me better as villians, and ended up with a more cohesive plot because of it.

So far I'm finding this course really interesting, and I hope I end up with a much better finished book by the time I finish it. I hoped to be on my rewrite (lesson 17) by now, but I'm a little behind. I'm focusing on making progress, and hopefully I'll be there soon.

Hitting goals

I have several goals that I set for myself. To give an example, by the time this year is up I want to have my novel 'truth seeker' on its second draft and ten short stories written.

As far as these go, truth seeker is on editing session 13 of 21, and I have seven short stories written, three of which are published. One of my other goals is to write at least 350,000 words of fiction this year. Yesterday I hit 200,000. I'm a little behind where I should be, but I'm carrying on.

Now I might not hit everyone of my goals, some are a little more lofty like my goal to write 100 stories (92 to go), but if you aim for the moon and miss, at least you land in the stars. I think that it is difficult to know where our limitations lie, so the only way to find out is to try and do things we think we can't.

Maybe I'll make a goal to have those 100 stories written by the end of next year, maybe I won't make it, but I'll get a heck of a lot further than if I didn't try.

Adjusting to a new schedule

So three days ago I switched to working nights. Just two days before that I worked my last early shift, which is a seven o'clock start and means getting up anywhere between five and six in the morning.

Now I sleep from about 8/9am to about 2/3pm, with a nap between 6 and 8 pm. It's a very different schedule, and it'll take a lot of getting used to. On the days I'm working I find myself with very little time, taking out sleeping and travelling I have about three hours left over for writing, eating, and everything else.

So far I like it a lot better than working days. I still need to get used to the sleep schedule. I'm only drifting during the naps, and I don't think I have the energy I did have, but I'm confident that it will get there.

As for writing, I think this will give me more time overall hammering out words. Since I'm living with family, I tend to get lots of visitors into my writing office, and unscheduled interruptions are a major annoyance to my OCD tendencies, and there are a lot more distractions. Working at night I hope to be able to focus for longer periods on my days off. 

I follow Dean Wesley Smith's blog and have seen that he does most of his writing at night. So it works for some writers. I won't know for a couple of weeks whether it'll work for me, but so far I'm hopeful.

Another short story finished

I love that feeling of typing the ending. This is the eighth story I've written this year. I'm considering some kind of celebration once I reach ten.

This story ended up just over 3,200 words. It's about a boy who wakes up in the middle of the night to find monsters attacking his house, but all is not as it seems.

So yay, and already on to the next one. I'm hoping to finish that one before I get around to rewrites for my novel 'truth seeker'. We'll see how that goes.