My Writing Journey

Time to Put My Nose Back to the Grindstone

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Well, after a month break from novel writing, I feel refreshed and ready to get back to some serious writing.  I finished my first novel at the end of November, and when I did, I had no desire to start editing it or really digging into another novel.

So what did I do for the past month?  I let my novel rest, although I did send it to my writing buddies that I meet with weekly, and the editor completed technical edits (you know, grammar, spelling, and such), which I have only recently begun to look at.

Did I feel guilty for taking a month off?  No, I felt like I needed the break.  It is a busy time of year.  Also, I have heard other authors repeatedly suggest taking a break after completing a novel.  Suggested time off ranges from two weeks to a month.  It allows you to approach the novel with fresh eyes and mind to edit and revise.

During my month break I did not stay away from writing completely.  I couldn’t do that.  If you follow this blog, you know that I wrote a short Christmas story that I read at our church Christmas service, because I posted the original on this blog.  I also did a couple of blog posts, did some planning and research for my next novel, and I read and studied the book Revision and Self-Editing for Publication by James Scott Bell.

I found Mr. Bell’s book extremely helpful, and it has given me great tips and advice and motivated me to begin the editing and revision process of my novel.

For the past two weeks, I’ve had no time to write as I prepared for our family Christmas celebration, and then came the celebration, but during this period, I was still studying Mr. Bell’s book.  I was also blessed the Sunday before Christmas, to be able to spend some time talking to our church’s associate pastor, who is also a writer.  He has never published anything traditionally, but has printed and assembled some of his poems and stories to share with friends and loved ones.  He is now 92 years old and still writing.  We have been talking a lot about writing over the past couple of weeks, and I have had the privilege of reading one of his short stories and offering him some writing tips, because, though he has been writing for years, he hasn’t really studied the craft and is not up-to-date on today’s publishing options and what editors are looking for.  I love talking writing with other writers.  I also love to encourage and help other writers in any way I can.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I pray that God will bless you in the coming new year!  I hope that those of you who write, will enter the new year feeling refreshed and excited to write.

Look for glimpses into my novel in the new year.

What is a Beta Reader, What do They do, and Can I be One?

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Okay, before I begin to whet your appetite for my story, I thought I should explain a little bit about what Beta Readers are and what they do.

Almost anyone can be a Beta Reader.  The requirements are:

  1.  You have to read a lot and know what makes a good story.
  2. It’s best to be a Beta Reader for the genre of book you read the most because that’s the one you’re most familiar with.  So, if your favorite genre is fantasy and that’s what you read the most, that is the genre you should be a Beta Reader for.
  3. Beta Readers are volunteers.  They do not get paid, but they do get benefits (I’ll point these out later).
  4. It is helpful, but not absolutely necessary, that the Beta Reader know something about writing.
  5. A Beta Reader may need to give some information about him or herself or sign an agreement stating that he or she will do the job of a Beta Reader and will not try to claim the work as his or her own and try to publish it.

What does a Beta Reader Do?

  1.  A Beta Reader gets the privilege of reading a writer’s book BEFORE it gets published (we’re talking fresh from the writing process).
  2. As a Beta Reader reads the writer’s book, he or she should be paying close attention to the story and make notes on things like:  Does the story make sense?  Is there anything that’s confusing?  Does the story capture your attention on page one and keep it, throughout the book?  Do you care about the characters and what happens to them?  Is there anywhere that the author loses you or where the story slows too much?  etc.  (You may receive a sheet of questions the writer would like addressed along with the completed manuscript).
  3. The Beta Reader is asked to read and return the story with their notes in a specific amount of time.

What are the benefits to being a Beta Reader?

  1.  Well, as I mentioned above, Beta Readers are some of the first readers of the author’s completed manuscript, as they get to read it and give feedback to help the writer in making changes that would improve the story before publication.
  2. A good writer will send you a thank you note and/or gift and/or list you on an acknowledgements page in the published book.

So, now you know what a Beta Reader is and does and what kind of benefits he or she receives, so now you can seriously think about whether or not you’d like to be a Beta Reader for me as you find out little tidbits about my story in the next few posts.

The Beginning of What Comes After Writing

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Hey Everyone, I finished my book Monday night.  Yesterday, I read over the entire thing and made edits and tweaked it.  I am happy with it and I sent it to my writing friends earlier today (you know, the ones I get together with weekly).

Now I’ll wait for their feedback, then I’ll do more editing.  Then I’ll be looking for some good Beta Readers.

Just an FYI, I didn’t write this entire book in one month for NaNoWriMo.  I have still not participated in NaNoWriMo, but hope to next year.  I’ve been working on my story since April.

The genre is Contemporary Christian Romance, so if you read A LOT of that genre or if you write that genre and have time to read my 40,000 word manuscript, you may get the opportunity to do so soon.

In my next couple of posts, I’ll do my best to whet your appetite with a little bit of information on my main characters and a tad bit about the storyline.

If you’ve been a Beta Reader before of have used some good ones you think would be interested, please leave a comment giving me the details.  Thanks!

So Much is Happening!

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Wow!  There are just so many things happening in my writing life right now!

First, and update of what’s been transpiring between the publisher I met at the conference and myself:  the Wednesday after the conference I received an email from her asking for my first three chapters.  I submitted them to her and Thursday I received an email saying she wants to publish my book if I haven’t already committed to publish with someone else!

However, I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted to do.  I needed more time, plus there is a contest I want to enter the story in, and the deadline is November 30th.  So, I asked the publisher if I could get back to her after the new year, and I was honest and up front about wanting to enter the contest.  She was very kind and agreed.  I am quite impressed with this publisher and am still praying for God’s guidance.

So, right now I am working hard to finish the story to submit before the contest deadline!

Meanwhile, I have another story niggling at the back of my brain that is itching to come out, so I am anxious to finish my current story and move on to the next one, which I have at least two, possibly three additional story ideas to make this a series.  I’ve written the ideas and a few other notes down to be sure I don’t forget anything.

Finally, the writing group I told you that I meet with on Thursdays, just added a new member to the group who is a professional editor!  I love sitting back, watching God move in my writing life, and just enjoying the ride!  I fully trust Him to guide me and my writing to wherever He wants us to go.

So, what exciting things are happening in your writing life?

A Writers’ Conference!

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I am preparing and getting geared up and exciting for the American Christian Fiction Writers PA Chapter’s first one-day writers’ conference, known as the Keystone Christian Fiction Writers’ Conference!  You can find all of the details here.  If you are interested in writing Christian Fiction and are anywhere near State College, PA, I encourage you to sign up.  You can even still register at the door.

I am super excited about the seminars and I have two appointments — one with an agent and one with an editor.  I’m going to try pitching my first book.  I’m both nervous and excited about this.

I won’t be traveling to the conference alone.  I will be traveling with three other writers, so the trip should be fun.

Sharing with Other Writers is so Rewarding

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So much going on!

We’ve added another writer to our weekly writing group.  Meet Laura at Caffeinated Fiction Caffeinated Fiction.  We are so happy to have her.

Our weekly writing group has created an email chain that we are using to help keep each other accountable and to encourage one another.  We use this email chain to post our monthly writing word count goals, which we post daily or weekly.  We encourage each other to press on toward those goals.  We lift each other up if we don’t quite hit the mark.  We also share prayer requests so that we can pray for each other’s needs.  I really love having this group of ladies to meet with and to rely on.

I also enjoyed speaking with a fellow writer at church on Sunday.  She’s been writing for a long time and has reached a higher level of success than I have yet managed.  She has written much more nonfiction than fiction, but she has done some fiction as well.  We shared a bit about our writing experiences and our upcoming writing plans. She asked me about my current work in progress (WIP), and it was quite fun for me to talk to her about it because she asked for some specific details no one else has asked yet.  (i.e.  She asked how many characters are in my book.)

How are things going in your writing world?  I’d really love to hear about it.  I would really enjoy getting some comments in the comment box, telling me about your writing journey, whether it be successes or struggles.  I’d be happy to encourage you in your journey as I continue to travel mine.

Some News!

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Just an update on what is going on in my writing life:

1.  The editor of our local homeschool magazine contacted me about a month ago and asked me to write a couple of articles for the magazine.  So far, I have written one, which the editor was so pleased with, she told me to write something for her anytime.  My first article in this homeschool magazine has been published in the latest issue exactly as I wrote it!

2.  I just submitted a short true story, in first person, to Chicken Soup for the Soul.  I won’t hear anything for a couple of months, or, if they aren’t interested, not at all.  Of course, I hope to hear from them in a couple of months.

It is quite difficult to fit writing into my current schedule, but in three weeks, that should change, as we are dropping one of our homeschool activities because it has just become to much for us.  I am looking forward to having some more time to not only write, but accomplish some of my household duties that I fall behind in.

Have you published or submitted anything lately?  If you have, I’d love to hear about it.  Leave a comment.

Encouraging Young Writers

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As I have mentioned before, I love teaching writing to young people, especially those who are so interested in writing and eager to learn.

We had our homeschool co-op today and I am free during the 5th period.  One of my students came to sit with me and I was reading something that another student had written, but the young lady sitting with me asked if it was my story.  I told her it wasn’t and pulled out my story and handed it to her.

She’s been struggling with writing but she has a desire to learn how to write stories, and she wants me to assign specific homework!  So far this year, I’ve just told them to write a story and to keep it going as long as they can.  Most of the students are happy with that, but this young lady and a couple of other students want me to give them homework.  I promised I would come up with something for them for next week, but their stories are really good.  I hope they continue to work on them and finish them one day.

Back to this young lady, she read about four pages of my story and said, “Okay, I have an idea for my story now.  Don’t worry, I’m not stealing anything from you, but now that I read some of your story, I have an idea of how to write some of what I wasn’t sure about before.”  She took out her story and she wrote several paragraphs in the course of about a half hour, while I was working on a short piece that I plan to submit.  When I put my work away, she asked me a couple of questions about her story and I offered her some advice.  It was really nice to share this one-on-one time with her.

Here is a piece of advice I shared with my class:  If you begin writing a story and get stuck or decide you don’t like it, Don’t throw it away!  File it somewhere because you could get an idea that would help you finish the story, or you might want to use parts of that story (a character, setting, etc.) in another story.  You never know when something you wrote that you thought was worthless will become valuable.

Making Adjustments

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In the past week, I, and some of my friends have found that some of the things that we do, need some adjustments.

First, the small homeschool group we created is going great and everyone loves it, but we need to do some tweaking because we always run out of time on at least one project.

Second, our Thursday evening writing group.  There has been way to much social talking and not enough writing, so many of us go home frustrated and angry because we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, and for most of us, Thursday evening is often the only chance we have to write during the week because of other family obligations.  (We are all homeschool moms).  So, we have found it necessary to draw up a few basic rules and guidelines.  We also decided to add a monthly social night for our writing group, where we can spend an entire evening talking about all things writing!

Therefore, I have found that just as my writing needs editing and revision, so do some of my activities.    🙂

Meet My Writing Friends

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My Hand 008

I thought that since I posted about our weekly evening writing group, you might like to take a look at what my friends are writing.  They each have a blog where they write, in addition to the other things they write when we meet weekly.

First, there is my “Random” friend, you can see the fruits of her talent at Random Stories Under a Blue Moon.

Next, there is the amazing poet in our group, and you can read some of her poetry at The Dance of Life.

Finally, there’s the politically minded, non-fiction light of truth of the group, and you can read her truths at The Truth Expedition.

I hope you enjoy visiting my friends.  I certainly enjoy my weekly evening with them.