A Date Night: Walrus and the Carpenter

I can't believe it's the middle of October. Really guys, where did the time go? I cannot believe the agent round of Pitch Wars is three weeks away. Excuse me a moment while I hyperventilate.

Last week, I agonized over my pitch, query, synopsis, and first 250 words of my manuscript. Honestly, I think I'm overthinking it, but that didn't stop me from having a panic attack on Friday and texting my mentor about my insecurities. Brianna, as always, was encouraging and offered to help, which really calmed me down.

That night, I hung out with my writer friend Lisa over happy hour and dinner which also helped. It's nice to talk to someone who 'gets' it, someone who's on the same (though different) journey. It also made me see just how lucky I am to get the opportunity to work with someone already in the industry (thank you Brenda Drake for creating this fabulous contest). I ended the night by hanging out with Michael and his co-workers a little calmer than I felt all week.

On Saturday morning I woke up to the first 100 pages of line-edits from Brianna. Just glimpsing at the track changes overwhelmed me. I'm a REALLY anxious person so I took the day to absorb it. The day turned out pretty awesome despite the rainstorm. Michael took me out to Walrus and the Carpenter (one of our favorite restaurants) for a date night and it was amazing. I love eating sea creatures ;)



Oysters with a beautifully paired wine = heaven. I still can't get believe that I get to spend the rest of my life with this handsome fella! My stomach does flips just thinking about all the future date nights we'll get to have.


After oysters we moved on to octopus! Sliced so thin with a zesty marinade, it was absolutely divine on the taste buds. After having it this way, I rather have my octopus sliced thinly all the time thank you very much.


This was my fave dish of the night. A savory crawfish instead of the spicy creole style crawfish is normally served in, I gobbled this up and licked my fingers with no shame. Crawfish, like quail and crab, remind me of my childhood, so dishes like these always make me happy.

 
I've said this many times, but I'll say it again. This maple bread pudding is the best dessert in Seattle.
 
After this meal, you bet I woke up the next morning and worked all day on my line-edits. Delicious food is the cure for anxiety ;) Ha! At least that's what I tell myself!
 
How was your weekend?


Pumpkinsss

It's that time of year! Time to get pumpkins!

Michael and I go every year, and this year his sister Cristine invited us to go with her and her husband Tim. We were fortunate to get a beautiful autumn day which made the day even more picturesque. Because I was lazy and didn't take many photos, I stole the one's below from Cristine's facebook.

 

To start, we did a corn maze that supposedly takes 45 minutes to an hour to do. We did it in about 20 minutes thanks to the boys.





To be fair, we did have a map! So without it we'd probably be lost for awhile.

After, we headed to the patch to get pumpkins galore!



Now our home is filled with them! I still felt so festive the day after, I made pumpkin oatmeal balls the next morning before Michael and I hit our matinee showing of The Martian (which was super good btw).

How was your weekend? Are you into the pumpkin craze?

Pitch Wars Edits / Writing Progress Report 2

YAAAAAASSSSSSS! I turned in my first round of edits in yesterday night to my awesome mentor Brianna and I am both thrilled and nervous! It's also the last day of September! Which is grand, because I love October. I may just have to get a pumpkin latte to celebrate!

Anyway, so here's the skinny on my first round of edits. If you missed my first progress post last week, click here. Last time I talked about what I learned about myself in the process, this time I'm going to post about my method for it.

First and foremost I gathered all my notes from my edit letter and my video call from Brianna into my handy dandy writing notebook and made a list. The photo below is a simplified list I wrote up, with in depth details on the preceding pages (that I did not post). On the right side of the notebook is a progress log showing which chapters I worked on which day. I'm one of those people that works better in chronological order (gives me a sense of flow). As I write I also tend to jot notes down on a sticky and add them in.

 
My handwriting is pretty messy, but you'll notice that chapters 6, 7, and 12 were chapters that I had to work on for a while. What do they all have in common? They're scenes that has or leads to romantic tension. Yeah, the *feels* are tough for me. Luckily, Brianna sent me some really good articles to read. An article from Roni Loren was included which resulted in me divesting all of her blog posts for writers. I forgot which post it was, but Roni suggested the book below so I ordered it.
 
 
I found the book to be extremely helpful. It's not something to depend on entirely, but it helps when you get stumped and is pretty easy to navigate, so I recommend it.
 
So after I incorporated all edits I made another list for my read through:
 
 
A read through is a MUST. For me, I loaded my ms onto my Kindle so I could look at it in a different medium. This helps spotting issues you wouldn't otherwise notice.
 
During my read through I was able to read my changes with the rest of the novel in a short span to see if they worked or not. Two of my edits in chapter 4, and of course, 12, did not. So I ended up rewriting those again. But besides that, the ms read better. Things not included in my checklist were things like varying sentence structure, word choice, taking out passive voice, renaming chapter titles, and etc, which I changed as I read.
 
My draft is INFINITELY better than the draft I submitted to Pitch Wars. I love that I can see the improvements after having a mentor. My ms is almost there, but I think with a round of line-edits I can get it where it needs to be.
 
Edits are tough though. I was starting to hate the ms because I couldn't get some scenes to work, but after my reread, I fell in love with it all over again. I suffer from bouts of doubt from time to time, but I am also proud of myself and hopeful of where Diamond Queen will go.
 
To end, here is a song that I feel encompasses Diamond Queen. If I imagine the story like a movie, this would be playing at the end credits.
 
 
Lyrics:
 
Some days
It's hard to see
If I was a fool
Or you a thief...
Made it through the maze
You found my one in a million
And now you're just a page torn from the story I'm building
 
And all I gave you is gone
Tumble like it was done
Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn't shake
Thought we built a dynasty, like nothing ever made
Thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break up
 
The scar I can't reverse
When the more it heals, the worse it hurts
Gave you every piece of me,
Don't wanna risk missing
Don't know how to be so close to someone so distant
 
And all I gave you is gone
Tumble like it was done
Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn't shake
Thought we built a dynasty, like nothing ever made
Thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break up
 
It all fell down
It all fell down
It all fell
It all fell down
It all fell down
It all fell
It all fell down
It all fell down ehhh
It all fell down
It all fell down
It all fell down
 
And all I gave you is gone
Tumble like it was done
Thought we built a dynasty that heaven couldn't shake
Thought we built a dynasty, like nothing ever made
Thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break up
 
It all fell
It all fell down
It all fell down ehhh
It all fell down
It all fell down
It all fell down
(And all I gave you is gone)
It all fell
It all fell down
It all fell down
Thought we built a dynasty forever couldn't break up

 

An interview, a read through, and some writing inspiration.

Happy Monday Everrrrryone!

I cannot believe that it'll be October soon and the Agent Round of Pitch Wars is about 5 weeks away. Eek! If you haven't seen it already, check out my Pitch Wars interview with my amazing mentor Brianna Shrum below!

 
#TeamSparkleShine

I spent the majority of my weekend working on first round of edits and I finished on Saturday, whoo! So now I'm going to do a quick read through and I'm planning to tweak one of the chapters a little bit more before I turn it in to Brianna. So for now, I've loaded it onto my Kindle and making changes on the computer file whenever I see something that needs to be corrected. I highly recommend you reading your ms in a different medium. It helps point out things you wouldn't normally notice on the computer screen.

To end, one of my mentee mates Cindy Baldwin shared a great blog post by Robin LaFevers this weekend with the rest of us so I decided to pass it along. Check out Surviving Nearly There for some writing inspiration!

Bookshelf

Oh the joys of reading!
Below you will find some of my favorite books/recommendations!
Think I'll enjoy one of yours?
Please let me know via my 'contact me' on the right side bar.

Young Adult
Flipped
Magonia
Harry Potter Series
Eragon Series
Divergent Trilogy
Thirteen Reasons Why
The Fault in Our Stars
Looking For Alaska
Memoir of A Teenage Amnesiac
Stolen
Hunger Games Trilogy
Just Listen
The Book Thief
Paper Towns
Wicked Lovely Series
The Lunar Chronicles
North of Beautiful
Just Listen
Grisha Trilogy
The Truth About Forever
Speak
Every Last Word
Palo Alto

Classics
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Brave New World
1984
The Great Gatsby
The Sun Also Rises
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
The Bell Jar

Health/Food
Eat to Live Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Salt Sugar Fat: How the food giants hooked us Michael Moss

Philosophy
Sophie's World

Fiction
Flowers for Algernon
Gone Girl
Paris Wife
Veronika Decides To Die

Memoir
On Writing Stephen King
Still Writing Dani Shapiro

Suggestions for your TBR pile.

In lieu of writing up multiple book reviews of my current reads these past two months, I've decided to make a list that you may want to add to your TBR pile.

For you contemporary lovers: Stephenie Perkins's Anna and the French Kiss, and Isla and the Happily Ever After


Why you'll like it: Very cute YA romance set in the idyllic Paris at a school abroad. You'll fall in love with the city and the MC's in one quick read.


Why you'll like it: Another cute YA romance using some of the cast from Anna and the French Kiss. This one had a deeper romance and the MC's quirky and artsy. The setting also takes this from New York to Paris, to a charming town in Spain.

For you fantasy lovers: Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy


Why you'll like it: Want an immersive fantasy that's a tad dark, but also fresh? Try this Russian-inspired fantasy. I devoured this series immediately. It's so good, it may even sway you to root for the dark side.

And for those of you who love retellings (or even if you don't): Brianna Shrum's Never Never


Why you'll like it: This is a hooky (pun intended) tale about a bad ass captain. But is he truly the villain? Shrum takes you on his journey from a little Lost Boy to one of the most frightening pirates in Neverland. Pick this up, now. Though I feel I should warn you, you may end up SWOONING for the man with the hook ;)

Pitch Wars Edits / Writing Progress

So, first and foremost, Happy Fall! This is my favorite season! Bring on the scarves, hats, gloves, sweaters and hot drinks :) After moving into the house and finally feeling settled in, I'm excited to deck out the place with some fall leaves and pumpkins :)

With the cooler weather, it's the perfect time to get cozy, break out the fuzzy socks, sit by the fire, and get back into the groove of writing. This time, however, things are a little different with being in Pitch Wars and all.

Being in Pitch Wars is pretty darn awesome. I'm still stunned at finding myself in this position and I intend to enjoy every minute of the process (no matter how much my eyes want to read anything but my ms! I've read it so many times, the words are mushing together--but more on that later). It's been really great connecting with the Pitch Wars community; everyone is so sweet and kind, not to mention extremely talented--it's a great honor to be amongst you all.

But what comes after the PW announcements? Hard work.

After getting my edit letter and video call from my amazing mentor, Brianna Shrum, I had my list of things to tackle on my MS. It was nice to have some sort of direction going into revision. I went through my MS with my CP and made changes before submitting to PW, but in my gut I knew it wasn't ready yet. Brianna really hit on the nail for me when she explained what my MS needed--which I've realized is one of my weaknesses. None of my edits included major macro changes though, and for that I was pretty happy with because truth be told, I'm not sure if I could handle a huge overhaul in the short time frame. So to you Pitch Warriors cranking out those huge edits, I applaud you.

To break down this month and next, I'll be taking the rest of September to revise my manuscript. I'm planning to be done by this Sunday, and then I'll do a read-through on Monday and Tuesday to make sure that all the changes are cohesive. Then off to my mentor on the 30th, where I wait for line-edits! As I wait, I'll work on my pitch, query, and do some agent research on who I'd like to query outside of the contest when it's over.

Sounds pretty peachy, but how am I doing exactly?

Well, the edits were harder than I thought they'd be (aren't they always?). I really only did heavy changes to one chapter so far, but I feel like I'm being hyper critical when I read my manuscript that I'm going at a snail's pace, second guessing every single word choice. I am driving myself mad I tell ya. Because I feel like I'm doing something, but when I look at my track changes, it looks like I haven't done much at all. The story looks the same (plot-wise), but I am hoping it *feels* different.

Hopefully when I do the reread and I'm reading it on my kindle versus MS word, I'll feel better.

But here are a few things I've learned about myself in the process:
  • The gut twinge - This happens when I read something in my MS and I instantly hate it. This tells me that it can be written better, but I don't know exactly how. It just feels off, so I tweak and tweak, hoping it solves the problem.
  • Rearranging & transitioning - When you rearrange paragraphs within a chapter, you lose the initial flow, so you have to revise so the flow in the chapter works, but also with the whole of the book. This is actually much harder than it sounds and probably contributes to me feeling like I'm doing nothing.
  • Bad eggs in the carton - Some chapters are really great, and then there are others that aren't so much. But you can't just toss that bad egg out, or in this case, the chapter. You need it to make a dozen. So you patch it up and try to make it work, but it still doesn't look whole. The yolk is oozing from the cracks. Chapter 12, I'm looking at you.
  • Digging deep - Since plot is there in the MS, I'm focusing on building up the emotion throughout the novel. Considering I'm an emotional person since I cry at basically everything, you'd think that'd be a breeze. But it's difficult bringing the emotions of characters to life without being melodramatic. You teeter between that fine line, and you don't want to tip over the edge.
There are some positives though:
  • This is probably the best polished manuscript I've written (and within a small time frame too, whoo!).
  • After doing major tweaking on one of the chapters, I think my pacing is right on!
  • No insta-love BS in this manuscript, which I take as a compliment, because looking back on M2, I could have built the romance part better knowing what I know now.
  • This book's more hooky than M2, which I think will make it more commercially viable.
  • I'm making significant progress in novel writing from when I began in Fall 2013.