crazywithkeyboard

First:

Not counting ones embedded in phrases that have been deleted, thus far I have deleted 316 excess commas from The Vedia Gamble.

Second:

Acting on some very good advice, I went through the story and did a search on "then". I think I deleted about 75 of those.

Third:

The Lulu copy of the story is GORGEOUS. I finally got my mitts on it on Saturday. It looks soooooooo cool! I'm glad I took the time to do it, even if it's not the final version of the story.

Labels: NaNoObsessing

... well, somewhere in Denver, anyway.

The Lulu copy of my book, that is. It seems I spoke too soon yesterday when I said it wasn't here yet. UPS tried to deliver it yesterday, and left me a note to sign. I did, and directed them to deliver it to the office across the street. So maybe I'll creep out of here a few minutes early and go fetch it.

Hee!

Of course, I've made quite a few (albeit minor) changes to it since then ... and found at least a dozen more typos (another one just this morning). Sheesh. Oh well. Considering that I went from zero to finished manuscript in two and a half months, that's really not so bad.

Labels: happy dance, NaNoHERE

Still editing. Still finding more commas than are needed. I think I really am going to count them up and see how many I've deleted. I've saved my current draft with markup information; that copy will get archived so that I'll be able to go back and see the changes I made.

I'm really liking the way I've been able to work in some of the feedback that I got. And I added a couple of sentences to the end of the last chapter, to make it feel a little less ... abrupt.

Got my first professional feedback at COSine last weekend. Did a reading of my first three (double-spaced) pages. Feedback was on the whole very positive. It was very exciting.

The Lulu copy has not yet arrived, but I didn't expect it this soon anyway. :)

Labels: NaNoMeanderings

A couple of entries ago, I was saying as how I thought I'd removed most of my gratuitous commas from my story.

Yeah. Right.

That was about a hundred commas ago. And I'm *still* finding the darned things. I mean, I tend to be the Queen of Excess Commas anyway, but this is even worse than usual. I think it's one of the unfortunate side effects of writing at NaNo speed.

Maybe I should start a pool amongst my beta readers to have them guess how many commas I've removed?

Labels: NaNoNattering

(Started to post this yesterday, then had problems with the connection, so ... pretend you just got into your time machine and it's about this time yesterday...

Got to re-reading the offer from Lulu for a free copy of my NaNoWriMo novel, and the deadline is midnight, January 16. Which, technically speaking, is midnight TONIGHT.

So ... I spent my lunch hour frantically incorporating a last few edits, then PDF'd it and uploaded it and sent it to print. I'm sure I'll now find 42 more typos (and my beta readers will find 442). But if that's what it takes, I guess it's worth it to get all of them out of the way before I start sending it out to agents and publishers.

Feedback from elanurel was very helpful; I still have more feedback from phoenix14159 to incorporate, and someday, rivkarivkina will come down from the clouds far enough to give me more feedback than, "Guh! Not work safe!" {grin}. And I may poke copies at a few more people and see what they think.

But for now ... Edit Phase 1 is done.

[EDIT: Not even 24 hours later, and I'm up to four typos that didn't surface until it was too late....]

Labels: NaNoObsessing

It's January 10th. My edited copy needs to be at Lulu.com by the 16th. That's next Tuesday.

I was hoping my beta readers would have their feedback to me by now, but I think they (and I) have been distracted by recent events. First, most of us got roped into cooking the feast for Twelfth Night. Then Rivka was offered admittance to the Order of the Pelican (for non-SCA folks, this is A Really Big Deal), so I doubt she'll be interested in doing much editing any time in the next three weeks.

I've added two more beta readers, though. Hopefully, they'll have good feedback for me, even if not in time for the deadline!

I've also done two more editing passes through it, and am starting to feel better about it. I think I have almost all of the gratuitous commas out. I am not taking out any of the gratuitous sex, however. :)

I have also done formatting, and have spent some time fretting over cover art. Think I will use something from the Hubble Space Telescope website; I checked their terms of use, and as long as it's for personal use (which this is; this edition of the story is my freebie from Lulu and will never be offered for sale), I'm good.

After that, my next step is to start working up a proposal letter to send to potential agents, and to compile a list of agents who are currently accepting new work. My goal is to have a good letter and a list compiled by the end of February, and actually start sending out March 1. Probably pretty ambitious, but what the heck. After that, I need to work up a summary and a submission packet, just in case. It will be good practice, even if I never end up needing it.

Labels: NaNo Editing, NaNoObsessing, NaNoPrinting

Last night, I finally finished my first editing pass through the story. Found a couple of continuity tweaks, and took out all of the excess commas, which was about 20% of them (I tend to get pretty comma happy, especially when I'm trying to write quickly). My loyal beta readers have finished their first read through and are even now compiling their feedback for me. My big plan is to get feedback from them on the 10th, then spend the next few days frantically formatting to meet the Lulu deadline.

I've already formatted the first-page blurb, the title page, and the first two chapters, just to see what it will look like. Since the first two chapters don't seem to need much editing, they're probably not going to need many changes.

It looks really sharp. Perhaps I'll pdf it later and see about posting it somewhere for people to see.

I still need cover art, though. Any volunteers?

Labels: NaNo Editing, NaNoPrinting