Adding or Subtracting

This past month I've been working furiously to finish the last edits of my book before I hit query land. Hence the absence here.

I finished my major edits and now I'm on my last read through. I've managed to cut my word count from 70,000 to 66,000, which really seems like a lot of words. In total, from the first draft of this book to now, I've cut 34,000 words, which is almost a whole book. Obviously I wrote too much the first time through.

For my second book, I wrote slim with the first draft coming in at just over 50,000 words, but now when I reach chapters that I didn't write very much for I feel like I'm writing the first draft again.

This begs the question: Do you write your first drafts to add or do you write your first drafts to subtract?

I'm beginning to wonder which one is better.

BTW - congrats to Elana Johnson on her book Posession which comes out today. So excited to read this one.

A Traveling Day

Since I didn't get to comment on many blogs this week, I'm going to spend my Friday trying to visit as many as possible and try to catch up with what everyone's been up to.

But just so you don't leave empty handed.

Here is a trailer of the movie I'm looking most forward to this summer, plus a close second.

One Day

Because I loved the book and the poster is awesome.

Crazy Stupid Love

Because of Ryan Gosling's abs.

What movie are you looking forward to this summer?

PS: Sorry my computer is too old to embed the videos.

A gorilla in a tree

Two weeks ago my daughter came home with a writing assignment. Look at a picture then write a short story about it. The picture had a boy standing on the branch of tree with a gorilla about to climb onto it. She made up a great story about a boy getting dared to go into a gorilla habitat at the zoo.

The next week I was volunteering in my daughters class and I had to listen to the kids read their stories, praise what they did right and give them a few helpful hints on how they could make it better.

Despite being put on the spot to provide feedback to a bunch of eight and nine year olds, what I found interesting is how different everyone's story was. One was about hunting, another a jungle, a pet, getting chased up the tree, etc.

I know it's been said that there are no original ideas left in this world, but even if that's true, there are definitely original voices. Two authors could have exactly the same idea for a book, but each book would be completely unique.

What do you think? Are all the ideas used up? Do you think that two authors could have the same idea but come up with completely different books?

PS: I think blogger might hate me because everytime I try to comment on someone's blog it kicks me out. I am reading everyone's posts - honest.

Good News

How do you handle it when someone else has good news?

Are you sincerely happy for them or do you have a twinge of jealous lurking in your heart? Maybe you have both.

Last month my son won MVP for his school basketball. On Saturday my younger son made the provincial basketball team, which is a huge accomplishment, because he's 13 and it's a U15 team.

I didn't tell you these things to brag, well, okay, I guess I did, but mostly I put them on the blog because I'm proud of my kids.

The thing is when I've told other people about these accomplishments, I've had a wide variety of responses. In regards to my son winning MVP, one parent suggested that the only reason he won because his dad was the coach (for the record, MVP was voted on by 7 different coaches). When I told someone about my younger son they commented on how much it was going to cost us to put him on the team.

When we see others write a great book, get agents, book deals, best selling status, how do we react? Do you go wish them well or do you turn off your computer and bemoan your lack of success?

On that note – Kasie West just announced a two book deal from Harper Collins, go give her a hearty congratulations.

Not being in a hurry

I have to say I didn't much accomplished last week. Family, technical problems, and a little bit of soccer drama took over my life.

But that's okay, because I don't need to be in a hurry.

On my commute to work there is one stretch of road where one lane goes faster than the other. It's hard to watch cars zoom past you, so it's very tempting to jump into the right lane. What you can't see is that further down the road there are two merge lanes clogging up that side of the road and eventually everyone traveling on the left flies by those who thought they were getting ahead.

There's been lots of times in my writing journey when I've jumped into that right lane, whether it be querying too early, not taking the time to really make sure the book is ready, or not being able to let go of a project. Inevitable this has slowed me down and I've watched people pass me.

If there's one thing I've learned over the past couple of years is patience. Nothing in this industry happens fast, so we shouldn't be in a hurry. We need to take our time and figure out what kind of author we want to be, what kind of book we want to write, and then strive to do the best we can and then strive to do better.

That's my goal this week: Strive to do better - if it means just writing one sentence better.

How about you? Is it hard not to be in a hurry and what are you striving to do this week?

Technical Difficulties

My computer is old and starting to show its age. The USB ports are wearing out, and I have to reset the keyboard every five minutes. Not a very productive way to edit or blog or do anything on my computer, so I'm taking the rest of week off.

Within the next two weeks we're getting a new laptop, which will make my husband's old one mine.

Good luck with your week and hope you get a lot accomplished. I'll be editing in five minute increments.

Happy belated Mother's Day.

Driving around Corners

I never knew how fast 30 km/hour can seem so fast when I'm sitting in the passenger side and my 15 year old son is driving. Yes, that's right, I can now add driving instructor to my resume.

Actually it hasn't been too bad. He's a pretty good driver, except for turning corners. He takes them a little too fast and over rotates the wheel. I told him that you slow down to take the corner and then you speed up when you're a little more than way through it.

Lately I've been worried about the middle of my book. Is the pacing too slow? Do I really need that scene? How can I make it more exciting?

So I took a little break and read three books to see how they handled the middle. And I have to say, just like coming around a corner, the books slowed down before they turned direction and then excelerated.

I think it's okay to slow your pacing in the middle (not too much though), set up the story line, develop the characters just before you thrust the reader into the climax.

What are your thoughts on the middle? Is it every okay to slow your pacing down?