Online Presence Priorities

We all know that we have to prioritize in order to get things done. While some say they don't have time, others of us see it as knowing what things they find more of a priority than others. This also goes for what time we spend online and to which sites we give the most attention to over the weeks.

Clearly, blogging hasn't had my priority thus far this year. Was not my initial intention but it is something I can't deny the fact either. I'm still making fiction and fitness my priority, after work, of course but where I spend online is limited and that's okay.


Question time:

Which website(s) do you use the most?


For me, it has been mostly bodybuilding.com and some with myfitnesspal or sparkpeople. I post in the forums on bodybuilding.com including having my own journal where I put up my lifting sessions and some every day babble. I often read other posts and do comment on occasion as I've made online friends on the site, and the other ones too.

Then there is Youtube. Had a slight setback with the laptop struggles. I have a power cord issue as in, I don't have a working one right now. Have to use someone else's until get my own again. Makes it hard since editing takes time and power. I have videos, just need to put the priority in getting them polished and posted.

Diet is a struggled priority as well, but that's a different topic. ;-)


We all have priorities and that goes for our online presence as well as the every day life elements. It is up to us to decide what needs to come first. Now get to it!

E is for Edit

Writing topic time again. I started editing one of my novels back in December. In fact, the only reason I let myself take part in NaNoWriMo in November was because I promised that I would start editing in December. I only managed to do a a chapter or two at the most in December. Editing is... tedious.

(Image Source)

We are in April now. Am I done editing the novel? hahaha... no. Yet I don't dislike editing. It's just taking me a long time.

I have made it all the way to chapter 15, which I'm editing right now. However, I still have to do the edit notes for chapters 16-25 before I can edit them. It's slow but I am over half way done editing the novel, which is a big step for me. This is my first novel edit. I've done rewrites and first drafts, but never an edit on my own work (have been an editor for others writing though). It is proving to be a different experience.

I have also noticed something strange with this edit. With each chapter I'm adding anywhere from 200-900 words. Yeah, my novel is getting longer with this edit. Sounds wrong doesn't it?

The reason for the increase is in part it's a rewrite. I'm changing the tense of the novel, from present tense to past along with fixing some wording. I do a lot of deleting, don't get me wrong. I delete sentences and even whole paragraphs. But I also rewrite things and add some details that were missing. But it's okay. The second draft of the novel was only 50,000 words (first draft was 23,000) so even if I add an average of 400 words a chapter, that will just make it a little longer and closer to the desired word count. Still it's a strange phenomenon when it comes to this first edit.

Next novel, the adult mutant one, however, I imagine it won't involve an increase in word count. Since it's already 90,000 words long, it'd better not get another 10,000+ words from an edit. It's my next edit focus, after I get this one done and of to a few beta readers, who I still have to find.

So, in short. I'm editing. It's going slow but I hope to have Tattle Tell ready this year and I can't wait for that day when it's done.

Who is editing?
Do you enjoy editing or find it difficult?

December Approacheth

With December around the corner, Saturday, and that marking the end of the epic 2012 National Novel Writing Month, I feel now is a good time to post what December will bring for me. I may post this on both blogs (so sorry if you follow both and try to see the new content only to find you read the same thing twice). This year has been a pretty epic year for me with nanowrimo because the novel I thought was one book turned out to be 2 so the end word count is going to be over 150k by the time I have the very rough first draft done. And most of it will have been written in November. Crazy sounding, I know.

So, after such a large word count and spending so long on the one novel, what happens next for me? The answer is a resounding: Edit!

*pauses for dramatic effect* or is it affect, bah, either, it's nanowrimo still and I don't care which is right. ;-) lol

Okay, now you can breathe a heavy sigh of relief. When I say edit, I don't mean I'm going to be editing the novel I may or may have not finished yet from NaNoWriMo 2012. In fact, I'm not even editing/rewriting the novels from 2011 or 2010 NaNoWriMo.

Nope, I'm going to edit a novel I started writing during NaNoWriMo 2007 since I've rewritten it before. Okay, that one might be a rewrite as opposed to an edit because I need to change it from present tense to past tense, but bleh, I'm calling it an edit because I'm not changing content really. I'm just changing from "he sees the new boy" to "he saw the new boy". Same stuff minor, time consuming change.

I'm also going to edit the novel I write 65k of during March in 2010. It hasn't had a heavy rewrite as the other one because the novel ended up at 90k and the main content I'm happy with enough that I'm going to not change much in what happens, just work on polishing it. I will be focusing on things like showing instead of telling (I am really bad at this), taking out some of the passive voice, and fixing minor details (like changing one of the minor character's names because I have a Michael and a Mitchel, tsk).

So, in an unofficial sense, December will be my novel editing month because the only reason I let myself start another new novel (I still have like 5 I'm in the middle of writing) was that all first drafts would be put aside as soon as November ended so I could devote time to editing.

I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous about this edit because it's a new stage for me. Even though I have been working on writing for about 7 years, I've edited for newspaper and for a small publisher, I have never done a full edit on one of my own novels. I've editing some scenes and short stories, edited chapters to submit for critique to a group, but I have not done a novel edit. Course, it took a while to get a novel that was not only rewritten but ready for edits and I kept starting new ones but that's besides the point. This marks a new stage because ideally, as soon as I'm done with edits I will have something I can have a reader check out. I won't send it to agents right away even though my dad thinks I'm stalling with this edit (*waves hi in case family members see this post*) but I will be a big step closer. A giant step even. Because soon as I've worked out the edits, had readers check it out, then do another pass after a minor break where I can work on finishing one of those already started novels, then I can try to submit to agents.

My goal is to have the query sent out some time in 2013, so I have my work cut out for me. I figure, if I can write 150k in a month of hectic mess, I can managed to spend a few months getting the edits on more prepared novels. And to be honest, I need a timeline. So, hmm... What the heck. I turn 29 near the end of August. Sounds like a good goal, 9 months from now in fact.

Now I have a timeline and a goal. I want to have at least one of the mutant novels ready to send out queries by my birthday. And now you all know and I will have to work hard to follow through on my goals. Yay for incentive!

So, that is my plan. And yes, I promise to also try and post a few times a month at least, because I do have more to say on writing and on my writing, so there will be more blog posts in the near future. And there will be book reviews done too because my new plan also includes putting together a weekly schedule and I'm putting in reading time on the list. I need to read and I shall, along with writing and editing. So much to do, I can't wait to start.

What are your plans for December 1st?
How did November go?

Progress

I have made progress in my editing. Woot!

While it has taken me several months, I finally have the notes done for the edits on Standing Ground. I can actually start making changes now. Working on the edit notes for Tattle Tell, which is different cause it's less passive but the changes will take longer cause I need to change the entire thing from present tense to past tense. The present tense was for when the novel had been in third person, I just figured when making the big change to third I'd keep the tense to see if I liked it that way or not. Now to change it to past tense.

But the key point is... I am making progress. And that I feel good about.

H is for Highlights

Last month I posted on my other blog about my editing process, or at least the one I'm trying out. I have never really done a full edit on a novel before so figured I'd give this method a try. Here is the post:
http://dawnembers.blogspot.com/2012/03/editing.html


These are a couple of screen shots. The words aren't really legible from the screen shot but the highlights are visible. And all of the chapter pretty much look like this with some spots less colorful than others. Some of the highlights come from the editminion site but a good portion are things I found and want to fix.

And...

Here is one where there is a yellowish tag that means there is a note that is attached. I can make a note on something that I want to change or develop further. See... This one has less highlights, hehe.

How do you edit?
Are you a fan of highlighting?

MNW versus MNE

For the past two years March has been for March Novel Writing Challenge (MNW). In 2010, I took part in the challenge and wrote 65k on Standing Ground. It was the first time I'd made 50k in 15 days. However, in 2011 I only wrote 15k on a YA novel.

On the other hand, this year I joined an editing challenge. At first I thought the editing was to be done in February but then I figured out it was a prep challenge and the editing would be in March. There is even a web site to sign on to for novel editing month in March.

Now I am torn. Do I want to edit in March or do I want to write?


MNW isn't really an official event. My friend had a forum for it on Writing.Com for the 2010 one and in 2011 I had my NaNoWriMo plus group along with this blog for those that wanted to take part. But no official web site or anything like that.  So, if I was to do it this year then I would have to do it in my group or on a blog again since I don't know who all wants to take part in it this year.

MNE has an official site. nanoedmo site There are forums and already people signed up, ready to go. The challenge I'm doing this month is planning to edit for this even though some have started editing already.

MNW is nice compared to NaNoWriMo because the goals are different. While someone can write 50k if they really want to, they don't have to do that much. There is no set goal minimum or max. The writer chooses their individual goals and can work on novels that they have already started. Last year I started a new novel but the year before I had 15k done of the novel before March.

MNE does have a goal to reach as well. For the editing challenge the goal is to achieve 50 hours of verified editing. The verification is done on the site and in their rules they explain what they qualify as editing.

Tough decision.


What about you?
Are you taking part in Editing Month?
Or are you more of a writing in March type?
Should I do both?