75k and book is done! How about some editing?

All finished with the book! It was 75,000 words and 25 chapters in the end. Now the editing has started and it has been insane. I've had a lot of interesting moments. Lot's of grammar rules I did not know. I am learning to edit and it's like learning to write again. Anyways, if anyone wants me to talk about my editing more, please leave messages in the comment section. Otherwise, I may not know anyone is interested.

Possible topics might be...

Biggest grammar mistake propagated over 75,000 words.
Most difficult part about rewording sentences.
Sources for help and resources.
How much time and effort does editing take.

Any of those topics I can see writing 700 words or so on. So just leave some comments. Or talk about whatever you want.

If not, maybe I'll be back next Friday for another semi-annoying purposeful blog.

Just read a great Stephen King quote--

"If you finish editing and barely have any marks on your page, you aren't working hard enough"
-Stephan King

Chapter 25 - The End

Books finished! I'm at nearly 75k and I am proud to say, I'm done.

photo by Cremo	via PhotoRee

I'll be writing in some prologues and possibly some character, and scene descriptions which I failed on first pass. But the book seems done now. Now for the editing. There really isn't any point in prolonging the climactic scene any further. It was very epic and satisfying.

I may continue a weekly blog to talk about editing.

How does Friday sound?

Chapter 24 - Avoiding the Shaft

Well, we are nearing the finale of the book. It's been fun. There are now less than 7.5k words remaining. It was my intention to have a long and fantastic ending, but of course a random and possibly interesting thought occurred to me. Once again the book feels like it just wants to swing right back in the favor of our heros. I need to choreograph this ending so that it ends at 80k, but at the same time I don't know what to do. I don't want them to get stuck in an elevator shaft, and have to traverse the cables. That always happens. I want something unique, fun and interesting.

photo by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)	via PhotoRee

So once again the white board is in effect. It's a beautiful thing when ideas come together. And I am already seeing some crazy ideas for the finale. In the world of copyrighted metaphors-- the white board is the Lightsaber, the Deathly Hallow Wand, or the Arrow of Apollo. It is the one thing that will take an idea of a magnitude of 1 and turn it into a magnitude of 10. So I've drawn something, and I will draw a bit more to see how this goes throughout the day.

Chapter 24 or 25 tomorrow good friends!

Chapter 24 - Writing groups

I went to another writing group last night. This is a group where we read our work out loud. Interesting. I find it odd to be reading what I wrote out loud. The entire purpose of me writing it is so that others will read it. Reading it myself seems to almost spoil the point. And I do not always favor the sound of my own voice. Luckily I know better than to attempt the voice of my characters. I'm not a talented actor and could easily embarrass myself that way. One of the many traps I must avoid.

photo by Stuck in Customs	via PhotoRee

But the reading went well. My first chapter has seen so many revisions. Being the first thing I wrote has its disadvantages. Mainly being it was probably written to be felt and understood, rather than read. In other words, I've improved a great deal and it's actually quite difficult to transfer what I have learned retroactively to the first chapters I wrote. Luckily I have been learning by leaps and bounds since I started this adventure, so I think what I have now is at least much more readable. Can't wait for you all to experience this. Or throw it back in my face if that's the order of the day. We shall see.

Chapter 24 continues tomorrow.
Four or Five days of writing left. Then my Twitter will no longer be slave to these whims,
this fun and whimsical journey which is a baron wasteland for comments.

Chapter 23 - Who's driving this flying umbrella?

So as I was writing the end of chapter 23, I noticed a pattern. Though I told myself the story would slowly be coming to a close, the end was quickly getting blown wide open. Stakes were rising. Tension continued to build. People were in greater, and even greater danger than I had ever expected. And as I finished chapter 23, in the exactly place I wanted to be, I noticed that my characters were also in the exact opposite place that they wanted to be. It ended in a cliffhanger. Hell, if it ended now, this book would be a tragedy. Alas there are 10k more words to write. It is not over till it's over.

So in the words of Little John from that famous Robin Hood cartoon Disney movie long ago, I dare ask, "Who's driving this flying umbrella?"

photo by naturalturn	via PhotoRee

Chapter 24 continues tomorrow.

Chapter 23 starts. A roller-coaster!

So I guess this happens with every artistic endeavour at one point or another. It ceases to be an uphill battle, and becomes just a little too fun and exciting. So I am of course, as predicted, exactly where I thought I would be. I've written 2.1k today to bring the total ever closer to that 70k mark. The 80k mark will probably come too soon after that. And the experience is that much more like a roller-coaster. In good faith, I'm limiting myself to 2k per day when I feel like I could just ride the rush to the bottom. Then look at the photo being sold to me for $9. Did I really make that face?

photo by Victor Alves	via PhotoRee

Next time I'm gonna flash my man boobs. Ok. I don't have man boobs. But, seriously, that's the world we live in. If I'm gonna have the photo that goes viral on the internet because I stuck my tongue in someone's ear or mooned the camera, I need to think about this. Seriously.

No, really.

:P

Tomorrow chapter 23 continues.

Chapter 22 done. Spilling the beans!

Well, I guess I can say a few things about what I've been doing writing short bursting chapters for the past six posts. It was a planned out saga of six chapters, which was extremely intense and took a lot of planning. I'm proud to say, 'That that part is finished!' It is time to wrap up the remaining parts of the book. I have one or two surprises planned, but 15k words remain which are completely and totally unknown to me. Well. Now that I have spilled the beans on the six part saga, I am not willing to say much more except that it has been fun. The most important thing is always how it is received when it is read by you, so I'll be careful not to drop any spoilers.

Tomorrow the journey continues.