Repetition....and OH, the WEEDS!!!

The worst weaknesses in my writing style are driving me crazy. I'm repetitive, I assume my readers will be dumb and unable to infer a thing and last, but by no means least, weed words. These are probably common problems but they annoy me.

As far as repetition goes the problem is two fold in my manuscripts. First of all, I always say something and then repeat it another way. I do this by the paragraph! Frustration. Also, word repetition. Last night the word "door" was used in a 4 sentence paragraph a total of 4 times. :/ That's stellar writing!

Next, I am forever telling the reader what they already can figure out for themselves, which is pretty much faithless writing on my part. I don't trust that I'm a good enough writer to describe from my text something so that the reader gets it. I will say, for example: "Sammy's face went white. His eyes were as wide as bottle tops and his body trembled. Obviously, this scared him." #2 sentence isn't even kind of needed. We get that. Sigh...

And last...last are "weed words." Weed words are the superfluous words that pop up all through your manuscript. They're pesky, common and aggravating. Well, those aren''t the words. That's what the words are. LOL Ok...done trying to explain that. My weed words are "that," and "just." ie: I just really need to tell you that you are driving me crazy and you need to stop, stop, stop it!! Wow, there are so many issues with that sentence I don't know what to do! I went all out with it though. Here's how the sentence should be written: I need to tell you; you're driving me crazy. You need to stop it! Although really, that: stop, stop, stop it, could have to do with characterization and might be OK.

All of this is stuff I've learned from writing but I have to say also, I can't stress it enough, If you want to be a serious writer, an "Author", GO TO A WRITERS WORKSHOP!!! Seriously. GO! Chapters 1-15 of my book were written pre- BYU Writers Workshop and I can definitely tell. There is a glaring difference between those chapters and the post-BYU Chapters I'm doing now. My writing improved so much over that week I thank heaven every day I went. The pre-BYU chapters took hours and hours to edit. I had to restructure almost all my sentences and clean up all the three above mentioned issues. The chapters I'm working on now are pretty quick edits.

Ok, well, as I've been editing I have discovered so much about writing. But I'm happy to say that I'm editing chapter 19 now. There are 28 chapters so I'm getting somewhere! Hooray! Now all I need to do is not think about the 4-5 more times I have to edit it after I'm done with the rough edit...

Oh - and one more really silly thing but when I wrote the word "Author" above I felt like herald angels were singing and it was neon lit and spotlighted. Do you think that makes me weird in any way? Oh, never mind, better not answer that one. And anyway, I know the truth.

Happy Writing!

Melony

FINISHED!

Just now after a 5 day recess I finished book 1, Hourglass. I am super excited about it! I rewrote the ending 4 times and I think I am finally happy with it. Well, outside of editing when I will probably rewrite it again. Now I need to print it all off and actually read it from page 1 to page 234. It will be interesting to see how it all flows. When you write you write chapter by chapter and it will be fun to actually read it all the way through...Anyway, today is an exciting day!!! Book 1 DONE!

Writing Group 2

Saturday was a great night with my writing group from teh BYU Writers workshop back in June. I am so glad I went to that and if you are a writer I highly suggest attending a conference of some sort. I learned SO much! But also, I met all these wonderful women and we get together to share ideas and critique each others work. It is just an awesome thing! I ave two groups and they are both terrific. Ally, who is the dark haired beauty above, is already a published Author! She has several books available through Deseret Book. i only wish I could be like her! :) I hope for the best for all of us in our publishing endeavors but I pray that we all keep writing and trying regardless of the outcome! Thanks ladies for being so great! We missed those who didn't make it! Janette - that means you! :)

Writers group: JOIN ONE!

If you are a writer and you want to be serious about it and get published (not that I would know about that...BUT) Join a Writer's Group! I went to my first one last night with 3 other writers and we have a great time. We read each others manuscripts aloud and then listened and offered critiques. This is very helpful to the writing process and can also share creative ideas and plot ideas etc etc etc...So, do it! Thanks to Chris, Stephanie and Rebekah for being there last night and commenting on my work! You guys rock! Oh - and in addition to sharing ideas and critique we shared a yummy dessert! thanks Steph! :D

To rewrite or not to rewrite?

That is the question. I had decided to just stop all of that and finish the book first. Then I planned to edit, edit, edit and rewrite like crazy but this weekend I went against all I had decided, double-crossing my own value system yet again! Oh well, I got a lot of good paragraphing and formatting done. I am so close to finishing this book I am back to writing again so expect good things! Book 1 will be complete soon! In the meantime I am considering just cleaning up one of my picture books and sending that out to an agent or two?? Get that ball rolling? To send or not to send??

I can see the end

I am in the home stretch!!! I have loved writing what I have been writing in these final chapters. I did have a moment last night at the movie(The Proposal which incidentally is about a publisher! manuscripts everywhere!!!) they showed the trailer for The Time Travelers Wife and I freaked out a little because there appear to be some similarities to my book. My wonderful husband pointed out, in an attempt to calm me, that my book is very different and that time travel is really the only thing that is that common. I really hope so. I haven't read the book for fear of subconsciously putting anything similar in my book. Anyway, I am excited to see what Ally and Grant will do next. I truly believe they have minds of their own that are only shown through mine. I don't know where it comes from. I just type. The book writes itself. It is hard not to think about what could be if I could get representation and a subsequent publishing deal. Regardless I am committed at this point. When book one is done I will write book 2, I have to. I want to know what will happen next there are too many unanswered questions in book 1. It is like I am a reader wondering what will come next but I am writing it as it comes....I love this!

Hourglass - A dream is born

I haven't done anything with my children's books but I would still really like to get them published. The new thing I am doing is writing a novel. I have started many a novel throughout my life. I have never actually finished any and usually only got a few pages in. Ideas always seemed to fizzle out. I refused adamently to read the Twilight series for a long time because it was just so everywhere. Everyone was talking about it, everyone was reading it. It was out of control in my opinion. The movie came out in November and I took Kenzie to see it. I was enamored with it. I wanted to read it then but nobody had the books and I just forgot about it till the movie came out in February or March. I got all 4 books on audio tape and devoured them. I listened to all 4 in 7 days. We got the 2 disc version of Twilight and Kenzie and I watched the 2nd DVD. In that DVD there is an interview with Stephenie Meyer that made an impact on me. I don't dream a lot but when I do I have a lot of great, vivid dreams over the years. Twilight was born out of a dream. She decided to write it down. I decided that the next time I had a dream I was going to write it down. Strangely, I had the dream mid-April. It was vivid. I have been writing ever since and my music has also inspired me with ideas. This one dream has evolved into what I belive could be a series. Who knows. I AM going to follow through with this though. My next step is to finish the book and send out querie letters. I absolutely need to find an agent. I realize the chances of my work getting published are probably not high but it is a dream. You never know until you try and I don't want to look back and think what if.... I hope to post here my progress.