Revision

Maybe you wrote a novel in 30 days. Maybe it's a hot mess and now you're wondering how to edit it—or even if you want to edit it.

Perhaps if you look at it as an evolving adventure that is destined to go through many rewrites, becoming better and better each time before it's published, you might see that editing is a magical part of the journey.

Your novel is your baby; talk to it, ask it what it wants and needs in order to grow, to evolve, to be the best story it can be. Help your manuscript birth itself into a bestseller by giving it lots of loving care and attention.

Survived NaNo

Made it through another NaNo... :)

Ended up writing two novels this year. Well, truth be told, I only actually wrote one.

My magical word fairy wrote her own novel—it's a novella because she's a little fairy and it was a bit difficult for her to jump all over the keyboard to write the words... :) But she was on a novel quest and was bound and determined to write her own novel.

And the good news is I didn't get stuck in 1971 in my time travel novel.

Both books need a serious amount of editing, so it's going to be a while before they see the light of day, but I had a blast doing NaNo and now I'm going to give my fingers a well-deserved rest.

True to form, another idea for a nonfiction book for writers was born during NaNo.

It's got something to do with writing a 50,000-word novel in thirty days... :)

Magical Word Fairy

Once upon a time, somewhere in the land of imagination, lived a word fairy who believed words were magical and that they created a world within paragraphs and pages which grew into beautiful books.

She liked to visit writers and sprinkle magical ideas and inspiration into their minds as they were writing, making the words sparkle and shimmer with light. 

She watched with happiness as the writer's imaginations came to life, playing and dancing and singing with the words on their pages.

 

You can sometimes hear her laughter and feel her joy when a writer opens up the magic inside them and sees their words come alive on the page, shimmering and sparkling with light.

Excerpted from 30-Day Novel.

Doing a D.O.R.G.

Okay. I admit it. I might be a little crazy. I mean, who writes a 50,000-word novel in a month? You'd have to be crazy to do that.

You'd have to be even crazier to write a 50,000-word novel in ONE DAY! Yet, some people do it. And I figure if they can do it, so can I... :)

It's called a D.O.R.G.—Day One Ridiculous Goal.

So now you know... I have a DORG. I'm crazy. I'm going to write my entire novel in 24 hours (or less). Gonna need a lot of coffee for this. Good thing I'm named after a coffee.

Update... November 2

Umm, let me tell you a story about my D.O.R.G. It turned into a D.O.R.K.—Day One Ridiculous Krazy (okay I know that's not how you spell crazy, but after you write 34,728 words in less than 24 hours, that's the way it's spelled... :) And I really should admit that my manuscript is a hot mess.

Note to Self: Don't do this again. Ever. Really. Never Again. At least not until next year... :)

Doing NaNo... Again!

Word-ideas are dancing in my head. A magical word fairy is whispering in my ear. Playing with images of the novel that is yet to be. Actually, I don't have a clue what I'm going to be writing about, but that's okay cause I'm a pantser... :)

 Last year I was on a novel quest. This year, I'm hanging out with the (sometimes invisible) magical word fairy who has some ideas about writing a novella. The time warp sequel is floating through my mind. But I'm also thinking about writing the prequel to the series.

Guess I'll just have to wait until November 1st and see what words appear on my computer screen and where they take me.

A Novel Journey

It's so interesting how characters can come to life when you're writing them. What's also interesting is how a novel can take on a life of its own and begin it's own journey...

I wrote a novel last November during NaNoWriMo. I had a book idea in mind but it just never felt right so when another idea floated into my mind a few days before the writing challenge started, I grabbed it and ran with it. Novel Quest is what happened.

But then, the more I played with the book, and thought about the ideas inside the book, the more it started to change direction and take on a new focus. I originally thought it was mostly about offering a humorous look at writers writing a 50,000-word novel in a month, along with some time morphing and a kahuna quest.

And then the magic happened. I realized it was more about a kahuna quest and finding the magic within, and that writing a 50,000-word novel in a month was part of the magic of the journey.

The End???

Couldn't sleep last night so I decided to make a cup of coffee and work on my new series. It was only supposed to be a trilogy, but then it started to grow. Novels have a habit of doing that from time to time.

A prequel was born several weeks ago and last night (early this morning?) another book to finish the series came into the picture.

Only problem is... it's not a sequel in the strict definition of the word, so I figured it would be an endquel... that made sense to me at 3:00 a.m. But then, after searching through the dictionary and the thesaurus, and surfing Wikipedia, I discovered that there is no such thing as an endquel!!!

Not a problem, I thought to myself. One of the perks of being a writer is that you get to make up words to say what you mean. So I invented a new word—Endquel—it means the ending of a series. Maybe I'll put that on Wikipedia... :)

New word for novelists — Endquel

(the ending of a series; the last book in the series)

Book One is almost ready to be published. The four remaining books are in various stages of completion and will soon follow with the prequel coming in fourth and the endquel finishing the series.

 

And that's the end??? Or maybe not. The end is really a new beginning. There's always the possibility of a midquel or an interquel, or even a sidequel somewhere in there... :)

30-Day Novel

A few months ago I mentioned that a "how-to" book came to me while I was writing my 30-day novel in November. Well, it's here!!

Just published 30-Day Novel: Tips and Tricks for Writing a Novel in Thirty Days... :)

Offers a lighthearted look at what you're getting yourself into if you decide to write a novel in a month. It's a guide that shows you how to survive a 30-day writing marathon.

Inside this book you'll find a magical word fairy running through the pages, as well as the secret to writing a novel in thirty days, positive pep talks, writerly words of wisdom, and more.