Most of my writerly friends are in Orlando at the RWA national conference this week and honestly my heart is there too. I’ll be fighting hard this week not to live in a state of regret and oh I should have just gone for it and what the heck with the money zone. In order to combat that I’ll be listening to old workshops that I may have missed on my ipod and working on my next project and drinking lots and lots of coffee. 

Here’s hoping for a productive week. Wishing I were having my annual Nora spotting though.

Best,

Kwana

P.S. Droid update: I have to get a new phone something is wonky with mine but it’s not in the store so I must keep this until it’s shipped to me. Patience is not my thing but I will deal. My BIG complaint: Why Verizon is it not shipped to the store and held for me for an exchange? Why must I pay for 2 phones and will then get my money back for one once I (Me?) send the broken one to you? That does not seem right.

P.P.S this is not new news. I did kindly tell this to the customer service person in Verizon and on the phone. Just had to blog it like I blogged how excited I was over getting the Droid.

P.P.P.S (huh?) I was no all rude like the Fla man who apparently did not have an hour for the technician to fix his phone because “he would lose too much business in and hour. As a matter of fact his business could shut down in an hour. Did we all have any idea how much money he could lose in that time. An hour? It was just crazy… Blah, Blah Blah….! ” Let the record show in the 45 minutes he ranted his phone did not ring once. I guess Mr. Trump was not calling.

Oh and I can’t stop talking. Head over to Becoming True Me to discuss Is God On MY Plate? Here.

Thanks for all your kind advice yesterday on focus and not obsessing. I will take it all under advisement as I of course continue to OBSESS. Eeeee. No really, I’m trying to chill. The whole watched pot thing and all. Besides it’s too hot to be standing over that darned pot.

A Watched Pot Never Boils by Alfred William Strutt

Best,

Kwana

P.S. in other news my inspiration/dream board fell down yesterday out of the blue. Not much to obsess about over there… right?

The very sweet from Debra from Lifescapes was kind enough to ask me about my editing process which is a little hard to pin down but I’ll try to write a bit about it here and not bore you all too much.

Now every time I write a book it’s a new and different process. I have written 5 full novels and quite a few partials which are sample pages of novels that are ideas in work.  A little back-story before I get to the edits. I’m a pantsterwhich is a term for flying by the seat of your pants. Now, I wish this wasn’t true. I’d love to be a big time outliner and have every aspect of my story down cold before I start to write, but that’s just not true and even when I do have it and map it all out, the characters are like these “real” people in my head that seem to go off in their own directions at the oddest times. So then its map out the window and time to pull out the GPS. Well, somehow through all this I find my way to the end of a novel that looks remarkably like the “movie” I originally saw in my head way back when.

But being done is just the beginning. My grammar and spelling, as most of you long time blog readers can attest to, is just a hot mess besides that, who knows if I changed a characters eye or hair color way back in chapter 3 and not even noticed. Heck, I may have changed a name. Writing a story is a long process.

Coming to the rescue is my critique group. I have a core group of 3 writer friends that I havehad for years I call them my Writing Vault and they are invaluable to me. We read for each other and give loving but very real feedback. No just easy pats on the back here. So I’ll send the manuscript off to one of them.

Opps Add in: Thanks Maira for reminding me. First I print out a full copy and read it through myself and red line edit it once going through all the way with a full read. This is usually painful. Ouch.

Then off to crit partners and  they will edit the whole book with bold red track changes with all their thoughts on grammar, seeing if  I’ve totally fleshed out an idea, have enough emotion etc… then I go back and make whatever changes (I agree with) I want to the entire book. Then I’ll do this again with another critique partner until I feel the work is the best that I can make it. I can’t put a time on this as it can be quite long depending on life and how much work the book needs. I’m not a quick writer and it’s different for each book.

Now this process doesn’t work for all writers. I know many published authors that don’t work with readers at all, but for me the help and mostly the caring and support has kept me writing through the years even in the face of rejection.

I am eternally grateful to my critique group. Thanks so much Megan, Jen and Jeanine. May all our writing and publishing dreams come true.

 So tell me, what’s your editing process?

Best,

Kwana

It’s the same old thing going on with me. I guess I’m running on fumes now. I’m either at my little table or on on my bed or on the couch. Yeah, it’s me and my laptop and my edits… in my sweatpants. Not as pretty a sight as this slightly misshapen Picasso woman. Ah well. I am who I am right about now.

But enough about me, what’s doing with you today?

Best,

Kwana