Tag Archives: Writing

Editor, Freedom, Writer

Editor:Why I Need One

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2013-03-22 10.20.35

I know there are tons and tons of links about why authors need to get an editor. Today’s post is why I need one. I am fortunate to have an amazing woman as my editor. She works tirelessly fixing my bunch of words to where they sparkle.  I will be perfectly honest. I am not a fan of commas. I don’t know where to put them with accuracy. I wrote once on my FB something along the line to how I was sure glad as punch that she knew where they went for I sure as hell did not. I don’t. Something so simple but if you do it wrong it will completely mess up a paragraph, page and eventually a chapter if you make enough mistakes.

I am not always sure when to make a chapter break. I get these right a good portion of the time but not always. Nancy will swoop in and leave in the margins where one should be and I am grateful for that.  There has been times I have not made any chapters at all. A great example of this was NaNoWriMo 2012 where I have 60k plus works but no chapters. I did separate them so it did not look like a hot mess. The sad part is I am still adding to this story I fear what it will look like when I am finally done and have to hand it over to her. I will do my best to separate it where it should be. I had gotten so wrapped up in this story, I wrote the required 50k words in two weeks.  I just wrote and wrote not caring about editing but about the words.

Nancy has spoiled me plan and simple. She lets me be an author without worrying about edits as I am writing down the latest story or MS. Knowing that about her I can be free and just work on my craft. I know a lot of editors heck majority of editors would probably kick me to the curb and say I need to find someone else. At which point I would have to man up and do a better job.

She has polished my query letter and my MS so well that publishing houses even in the rejection letters are saying how polish my work is in content, yeah me, and in edit which is yeah Nancy.  We make a good team. She allows me to write without worry about what I am going to do after. I am so grateful for her. I hope my fellow writers have a great person in their corner. It truly makes a huge difference in where I started to where I am at now.

Links, Publishing, Writers

Links Links Links

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I love links. It is to the point I have to write them down due to my bookmark list is so long that it just scrolls and scrolls endlessly. But there is so much great information out there it is hard for me to read the article and move on. Here are ten links that I wanted to share with fellow writers and bloggers. Maybe one or two below will be of benefit to you.

10 Signs That You Are Not Ready To Self-Publish

http://ht.ly/ej5is

Premature Publication

http://marlamiller.com/?p=375

4 Lessons Running Can Teach You About Writing

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/4-lessons-running-can-teach-you-about-writing?et_mid=588465&rid=3095949

7 Important Awards For Writing Every Writer Should Know

http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2012/10/important-awards-for-writing/

Writers Got Talent Contest

http://writersgottalent.com/

Choosing How To Publish

http://www.examiner.com/article/choosing-how-to-publish

How To Plan Your Blog Posts for a Year in Advance

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/05/how-to-plan-your-posts-in-advance/

Three links about query letters

http://lynnettelabelle.com/blog/perfecting-the-query-letter-part-1/

http://lynnettelabelle.com/blog/perfecting-the-query-letter-part-2/

http://blog.writersmarket.com/whats-new/query-letters-101-how-to-write-a-query-letter-and-get-published?et_mid=563566&rid=3095949

Computer snafu, Manuscript, Writer

My Lost Manuscript Part 2

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2012-08-11 15.56.34

As I expressed my mood online to fellow writers, a mountainous of advice and tips came across as authors tried to help me out with suggestions that might work or had worked for them. Along came with sympathy and understanding that only writers can understand and heart-felt sorrow at what had happened to me. To be honest who else would truly understand what I was feeling now?  They listened to me rant and rave as I vented about what was happening to me. For that I am thankful. I was not alone even if it meant my book was gone and I would have to reconstruct it.

I told myself that I would put it to the side and give myself a chance to breathe. I would come back to this book later in the year. The thought of trying to do it now well I did not have it in me.  That evening I had a meeting with some fellow writers one that I almost canceled for my mood would have been foul.

Prior to going I decided to check out the current file and see what portion I had still. It contained 41 pages which was half my book. It was not completely gone.  Opening up the file I did a word count to see how far off from 20K I was. The counter gave me the same number I had from that early morning.  Something has to be wrong right? I checked again and sure enough it gave me the same number.

What the hell? OK don’t get to excited Sharon don’t hope to much I told myself. This could be another trick from the evil machine. So page by page I went down reading it in its entirety. My book was in tact. The computer had compressed my book eliminating the double spaces that I had included. I did not ask the machine to do this. I had saved it and moved on to working with my external hard drives the rest of the day. Why did it do so? I don’t know and neither does my husband. This man is the Bill Nye of the computer world. Trust me on this.  But my book was here but it had been shrunk. When I had opened this files I did not give them much thought for I had 82 pages that very morning. I had no reason to believe this was my book. Why would I?

Needless to say my heart is singing a song of joy and praise being very grateful for finding my novel. I don’t understand what happened but I don’t care. Well I don’t care for now. Hubby will be checking out my computer to get it in a better state of affairs so my mental state does not tank to this degree. It was not a virus, I do not use Windows. So we know that much and that is about all we do know.

So today I sit and write about my computer’s plot to take over my world. It won temporarily. But there is something to be said for being obsessive with our writings and saving it in as many places as we can. If I had not done that who knows what might have occurred.

I have added many words since that day as I press forward. The great scare of Jan 2013 is behind me.