Editing & Competitions

I have started to edit a manuscript.  Yep it’s finished but needs the polishing.  I have to admit I am the QUEEN of “and”.
It shows all the way through the writing and, and ,and. It is enough to drive anyone nuts.  I found a new tool thanks to the  lovely people at Natural Reader.

It is a text to voice software piece and the one I downloaded is free.  For me the free version will do although it is tempting to buy so I can adjust some of the words it pronounces LOL.

It picks up all my niggling bad habits of repeating words and phrases, the one habit that annoys me terribly when I read.  For example the book I was reading the other day used the word riposte.  It is french for retort, it actually stopped me for a moment as it is a word infrequently seen.  I liked the way it was used in this first instance.  Unfortunately after the 6th or 7th time it annoyed me.

It was used at least once every chapter and in one instance was used a second time in a paragraph.   When a word is unusual there is nothing wrong with using it more than once in a book but  a continual use can pull the reader from the story as it leaps out at them.

So this reader will help me pick up on the way things read.  I have already used it to pick up where commas are needed and sentences sound awkward.  So why are the people from Natural reader so lovely?

Well it wouldn’t load onto my laptop.  I tried each option they had for downloading it but it just woldn’t work.  I thought it was me and sent them an email only half expecting a reply.  they were fabulous.  emailed me within 4 hours (remembering I am on the other side of the world in a totally different time zone) with a link.  I tried the link and it failed to work.  So I emailed them again to let them know.  Within 3 hours they had sent another link.  This one worked.

Now if this is the service I receive for a free product then I can’t imagine the service i would receive for their paid product.  I would not hesitate to recommend them.  The tool itself is useful for writers as sometimes even when we read it aloud we can still misread words we have written.  This voice gives us a totally independent read.  Something we can do with at times.

Natural Readers 

I also entered a competition.  It’s an ongoing competition at Chase the Dream and I have a few that I can scrub up and enter.  I may not do anything but I’m hoping the practice with editing will do me good.  It’s fun anyway.

Anyway I hope your New Year is going great guns.

Xmas Cheer

I find it hard keeping the blogs separate and the only reason I do so is that I write adult books as well as children books which go under my real name. Part of me doesn’t want to mix it all up but another part of me realises it is hard to keep life apart.. So I may just may look at condensing it into one blog.
Still not sure though.

Banging my head against a wall

photo from getty images

Oh yeah, when you want to write everything is thrown at you to prevent it.  I have resorted to google docs to write,

Why google docs?  Well it is kinda portable.  I can be anywhere and work on it from any computer or even my phone if I get really desperate.  Not ideal but at least I am no cut off from it.  I have contacted technical support to see if I can get it working again.  Fingers crossed.  there is no way i can really get another, this one fell into my hands cheaply.  If it won’t work I will just grab a nebook and work in google docs so I can still have the portability that the Dana offers me.  Editing would still be done on the laptop but for writing well I could do worse.

We will play the wait and see game.  Bubs has decided to let my boob go, so I thought to myself that I would have a chance to write, nup, instead I chased round doing jobs that just had to be done for kids, hubbies jobs etc etc.   In a short while NaNoWriMO will start and I will be there putting my best/worst foot forward and i am going to try and hit those magic 50,000 words.

Ready, steady write.

One Of THOSE days

image from eNet

Don’t you just love those days?

As I stated yesterday I would work round the bub spending 15 minutes here and there.  Well it is close to midnight and i have only just been able to snatch a few minutes for myself.

My baby girl decided to have a “cling to mum and howl when she is put down” day.  So nothing was done except a load of washing, which I had to do otherwise madams would not have any uniforms for school tomorrow today.

On top of that last night after writing just over 600 words my alphasmart froze.  I was pretty relaxed at that moment as I had amazingly sensibly saved my work.  Ha!  Well that relief was short lived.  After hitting the reset button I discovered my MS had disappeared.  Not a huge amount of words all up, just over 12oo, but man I have only just started writing again and it felt like a body blow.

I hunted for it but it was nowhere.  Gone to where ever words disappeared to.   Another reason I didn’t chase the writing today I was just flat from the loss.  With Miss 6weeks tucked into the crook of my arm, I pulled the machine apart and cleaned it thoroughly.  I mulled over buying another one or if I would just get a nice little netbook.  I turned it back on and to my surprise there was my MS.

What the?

I quickly saved it to SD card and typed a few more words.  Saved again.

Have no idea how it happened?  Do I feel like writing?  Not really, after holding Possum all day I have had enough.  Will I write?

Yes, for 15 minutes, I won’t worry about word count but I know if I don’t get back on the proverbial horse it will be a long long time before I write again.  Not sure if I will write in the same story or just start another.  It doesn’t matter as long as I write.

Still don’t trust Alphie but we will see.  I will save onto the card and that way if it does die totally I won’t have to worry.  Other electrical goods have been messing up today though so I will give it the benefit of the doubt.

Time to write

Picture courtesy JimmyBurnsArt.com

So all writers have the dilema, how to fit writing round the rest of their life.

Lets see what I have to juggle.

Kids – 5 including one newborn and ranging up to the age of 12.
The normal duties of house
Working whether full time or part time. (at present not, but will be resuming in another couple of months)
A partner who gets jealous of writing time

Written down it doesn’look much but man between feeding, and nappychanges the day can slip away.  Especially if one falls asleep and doesn’t wake for 1/2 the day.

SO what am I going to do?

I am going to limit from tomorrow my “surfing” time to baby feeding times.  And then I will have 1/2 an hour at night once DH goes to sleep to blog.  That will be plenty and will also give me a day to think of something to right.

I want to write 2000 words a day.  I am NOT going to be able to do that in one hit 5 kids do not allow that.  BUT 4 x 15 minutes is possible.  That is how I keep my house tidy.  15 minutes at a time.

I know I can write 500 words in 15 minutes so I should be able to do the 2000.  So 15 minutes once DH goes to work.  15 minutes after school drop off.  15 minutes before school pickup (or 15 minutes while waiting at shcool) and 15 minutes late at night.  That may not work out perfectly like that but at least if I set 15 minute targets that at least is achievable.

I have a balancing act to accomplish.  So let’s see how we go.

Writing and tools

And the writing began. I shelved the idea I had yesterday for a while. I started back on my Death falls in love WIP. Gotta love something like that. I am not sure how many words I did today but I will continue to write and will see how I go. I may even write some more tonight. I have to be careful as I don’t want to spend too much time on the pc.

I pulled out my Alphasmart. Alf stops me being sidetracked by internet, email and other interesting things.

Yup I named my Alphasmart. Nothing original but I love Alfie.

image courtesy Geekzone

I write and write and when I need to research something all I do is mark it with a heap of asterisks so that when It does go onto the laptop it is noticeable.
I want to write. I have learnt that I enjoy other things though and I really enjoy contact with others so I will continue to work part time as a carer. It is also food for thought having contact wih people, looking after them. They have so many of their stories to tell. And they say funny things and it is a study in human behaviour which is always useful for writing.
The way they move, the way they speak and hold themselves. Words they use to describe things. For example the word underpants.
You would think really they would use words that are similar many come from the same era. But, it doesn’t work like that. I have heard them use underthings, knickers, bloomers, underpants and also my favourite unmentionables. There are others but this is just a sample.

Wow this write or die is vicious I had to pause it for a moment and it deleted words. Don’t want to do that too often.

My word count is about 500 in 15 minutes pretty slow I think but it still is a reasonable pace for me.
This tool would be very useful for NaNoWriMo. I can’t think which Blog I saw this on but it is really cool. It forces you to write and write without dwelling on everything. there is different settings for it. Now the tool is called Write or Die. it doesn’t really count words you copy in. Considers that cheating I believe. But the having to write without thought without dwelling is a motivator and it is a good way to get things down onto the screen.

It has different settings in it so you are able to be really mean which is what I am on or gentle. I haven’t tried the different settings but I am not that worried I will just continue to keep going. What I didn’t realise when I used this the first time yesterday was that the screen changes colour as a warning to you. I found that a little distracting at first as i tried to figure out what it as doing. So be warned once it hits red words disappear.

I am only using at present for my blog. But once NaoWriMo comes along I think it will be very useful. Once you have hit your target it stops threatening to destroy your work. And I met my target a minute ago so no more nasty threats. I have time to spare . Woohoo

The web version is free and the desktop version is $10 and I may buy it yet. Having it so I don’t have to turn on the internet is a very good thing for me. Time is just about up and I have done over 600 words.

Write or Die by Dr Wicked

Write or Die by Dr Wicked.

This is the tool that has captured my attention.

Check it out!!

The Muse has returned

I want to finish a book this month,. Trying this out will let me know how much writing I should be able to get done in at least 30 minutes. I will see how it clocks up at 1/2 hour but aisde from that it is just a cutesy gadget. If i can get 500 lwords done in 15 minutes then it will be good I will know I can do the Nanomrimo. But ut us crazy talk and just rubish. I am slwo at typing and I have no idea whether any of the words make sense I kinda need it to learn how to type and write. Wow would you look at that. If I stop witing for too long it deletes more words cool.
Well I am only at 6 minutes and I have managed 228 words which isn’t too bad really. But I keep pausing. I need to set a time when I will write.
When will I write?
When will I write.
I can’t type one handed we have learnt that and we only need to look at how I am going now to see I do need 2 hands to type. If I don’t have 2 hands it will be really bad. really really bad.
But I spose I could try and type in the morning after Miss has had her morning feed. I’m awake. just but I am awake and at the time she is waking me it is getting light. So I could just set myself to write at that time.
Next question what will I write? don’t need later.
Anything
Write rubbish just like I just did at the beginning. just start writing and delete what you that isn’t too hard. Look at that you can’t just paste. It desn’t recognise a paste, recognises a cut though I do believe. So you can’t cheat on the screen
So what will I want to write about tomorrow morning?
Vampire?
Werewolves?
Love?
Magic?
Magic is good. A woman, a witch. A cursed witch, young and beautiful in the inside but old and haggard on the outside. The curse can be broken by love. But who would love a hag?
An ugly hag at that.
And he would have to be arrogant and gorgeous and really not believe in magic at all. And so he would be fighting any attraction to her, because she is ugly. Why would he fall in love with her. Injured. Is it set in modern times? I don’t think so.
She would be a healer. Set in some place but no real date. Won’t need a date.
How long will the story be? Hmm don’t know yet but the idea is rattling around.
So I have a hag and now I have an idea for another story. A series of hag stories. Could be good. I feel like writing. And that in itself is a good thing.
It has been along time and I felt something missing but couldn’ fix it.

Week 1 Check-In

Well this week much to my surprise I managed to do the Morning Pages everyday even if they sometimes ended up being done half way through the day. I do know that doing them is not always pleasant as I look at things. diving into my emotions for characters in my books means that emotions I would prefer to be left alone get stirred up. I also found sometimes that I would try and cover up what I was thinking or gloss over it. Sometimes I would let it happen but a few times I pulled myself up and wrote about it.
I find it amazing how much crap I like to carry around in my head and found it even more amazing that once written down it seemed to disappear as if acknowledging its existence was enough and that I am storing it elsewheres so it is no longer in my brain.

My artist date consisted of a few things week but nothing satisfactory. I went to the shops by myself but couldn’t enjoy it much as I was on an actual mission not just for the pure joy of it. I wanted to go to the movies but work intervened and so I spent time with the library browsing around. I ended up writing so I guess that is stating my dates failed. BUT they were something I normally wouldn’t do and they were by myself.

This week my roster looks much different so I will plan something nicer. I felt a little guilty about leaving my family with the baby sitter. Part of me saying ‘you should be at home with them taking them to enjoy the library/shops as well.” The other part laughed gleefully and yelled ‘FREEDOM’.

I pay the sitter by the week and she had quite a few short days so one slightly longer day wasn’t going to kill her (I was still home before 3.30pm)

This week I am going to go to the  museum.  Yes the girls would like it too but I need this time. They have been before and they will go again, but I need this. Even without filling my creative well I need time to myself. I will try and find free things to do and spend only once in a blue moon. I want the dates to be joyful and fun. Doing things I like and haven’t really done for yonks. Like swimming and watching the X-files and many other things.

All in all with the progress I’ve made I’m pretty happy.

My hero

Gream Reaper by ?who?

Don’t you just love him?