Hey all! With the semester almost over and the holidays coming up, things have been a little crazy but I’ve still managed to get some editing in. If you hadn’t heard, I finished my WIP Nightfire! You can read my post all about that here. But I know that y’all have liked the snapshot posts, so I thought I would continue them as I dip my toe into the editing phase, and eventually get into major revisions where I’ll be picking apart my beautiful shiny MS completely.
I created To Build A Story to take you through the writing process and journey with me–which doesn’t stop when I’ve finished the first draft. I’ve changed up the snapshot a little bit so I can give you a better look into my editing process.
Title: Nightfire
Current word count: 67,505
Words written this week: 500
Words cut this week: about 100
What I’m working on: My first full read through of the story start to finish, with some light edits and tweaks. I’m actually surprised by how well it turned out. I expected I would have to destroy most of it since it is only the first draft. But I think that the beginning is very strong, though it does start to change around the middle, with the parts I wrote for CampNaNo. They’re not awful, but they’re not entirely working, though I need to figure out exactly where I want them to go before I try to fix them. I also finally divided (most of it) into chapters! So at least there is some sort of organization and logic now.
Favorite lines:
In this ever-shifting world, only two things are sure. Tangible, unchanging.
The breath in my lungs, and the drumbeat in my chest.
I sit crouched in my vantage point, my muscles stiff with cold yet poised to strike, an arrow notched in my bow. My breath crystallizes as it meets the frigid night air, swirling clouds from my lips. Here in this austere silence, instinct pulses through my veins and my humanity falls away.
I am a predator, born to kill.
Goal for next week: I’m a little over halfway through, and I hope to have finished this read-through by then!
I always love the snippets of your work; you have such a knack for wording and phrasing that I feel gets forsaken a lot in the interest of snappier, quicker-paced writing.
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Awesome! Congrats! 🙂 Is this your first novel?
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Thank you so much! No it is not, I am in the process of querying my other manuscript 🙂
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Then we are in the SAME position! I was just participating in Pitch Wars. Sent out my requested materials, and I’m hunting for more. Meanwhile, new MS!
Also, you doing #PitMad on Dec 4th?
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Awesome! I submitted to Pitch Wars too 🙂 Thats great! I think I am! You?
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DID YOU!? Ah! I’m so sorry. I keep losing track of all the PW people. Who was your mentor?
And I will be. Why not? Might as well throw my hat in the ring and hope for the best!
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No worries! I got a request from Renee Ahdieh but I didnt make it in the final round. Thats great though and an excellent point! Thats how Ive felt about a lot of contests. 🙂
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Well, darn. That’s okay, though. Back to the query trenches it is! 🙂 And I love contests! They are a great way to reach agents! I wish you luck. 🙂
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Yes! 🙂 They really are. Best of luck to you too!
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I don’t divide my novels into chapters right away either… l love your favorite lines. They’re so well written and descriptive.
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These lines are lovely, “I sit crouched in my vantage point, my muscles stiff with cold yet poised to strike, an arrow notched in my bow. My breath crystallizes as it meets the frigid night air, swirling clouds from my lips. Here in this austere silence, instinct pulses through my veins and my humanity falls away.” If this were in a book I would definitely pause and reflect upon this passage 🙂
McCarthy has a lot of passages like this where he interjects philosophy into his writing. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve encountered another author that does it as much as him. Many authors convey a message with their writing, but it’s not the same. I try to do more of that in my own writing, but it’s something you can’t force or it comes out awkward. Glad the revision is going well 🙂 I just looked at a piece I wrote a few months back and certain parts make me cringe XD Nothing like time to give you some distance and objectivity on your pieces 😛
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