This Novel is Done!

Hey, how are you today?

Well, this week I got stuck into the final read-thru of my current revision. That means I sat down with my Paperwhite and read the story from start to finish.

This is when any weird sentences or repeated words stand out. Also, awkward phrasing and any excess. During this part of the revision process, I focus on all the nitty-gritty details. I added some words, then cut a bunch more. I also made all the changes on the Word doc after finishing each chapter.

Technically, I reached The End yesterday, but had to tweak a few last-minute details before calling it done.

The final word count is: 70,264.

I'm really excited about finishing this feminine rage, unhinged horror novel. It's full of unlikeable characters, complicated situations, toxic friendships, and a lot of manipulation. This is a dark story about the strange things that happen in the woods. It's also nonlinear, so I had a lot of fun putting all the puzzle pieces together. And scrambling them. 😁

Now that it's done, I'm mentally exhausted and need a few days off. Good thing it's a long weekend. Yay.

Have an awesome day!
 

2023 Goals

Well, we've almost reached the end of 2023, so I suppose it's time to chat about my goals.

This year turned out to be packed full of stuff. My husband became a bus driver, which flipped our routine. I managed to get my writing back on track after spending so much of the last few years revising, which is fantastic. And sadly, we lost our beloved 16-year-old Loki, which broke our hearts. It's been nine months, but we still miss him every single day.

Loki was more than a cat. He was family. He was the embodiment of our apartment. And without him, it feels like something is missing.

Anyway, I don't want to get off track and get sad all over again. I'm here to talk about the personal goals I set in January.

Here's how they turned out:

• Go for two daily walks: LIKE I SAID ABOVE, OUR SCHEDULE CHANGED THIS YEAR, SO MOST DAYS I END UP GOING FOR ONE VERY LONG WALK (JUST UNDER TWO HOURS).

• Get back into yoga and schedule more workouts: ALTHOUGH WE DID YOGA, IT WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE. STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE RIGHT BALANCE. 🫤

• Write between 100-200k words: I WROTE 190.934 WORDS.

• Read 100 books: I READ 102 BOOKS.

• Revise/finalise my NaNoWriMo 2022 first draft: YES! I ACTUALLY DID THIS IN MARCH.

• Write a novel or two: I WROTE ONE 65K NOVEL.

• Write a novella or two: I WROTE TWO NOVELLAS (45K & 30K).

• Keep writing short stories & subbing Try not to self-reject & submit stories no matter how much of a longshot it is: I WROTE THREE SHORT STORIES BUT DIDN'T REALLY SUB TO MANY OPEN CALLS BECAUSE I WAS WORKING ON LONGER STUFF.

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: OKAY, THIS ONE'S MESSY. I DID WRITE A FIRST DRAFT (65K) DURING NOVEMBER, BUT I DELETED MY NANOWRIMO ACCOUNT & WILL NEVER TAKE PART AGAIN.

• Continue playing Animal Crossing and get into some other cozy, cute puzzle games: I'M STILL PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING EVERY DAY & PLAYED COZY GROVE REGULARLY AS WELL. I ALSO FINISHED UNPACKING, CONTINUED TO PLAY THE TETRIS 99 CHALLENGES & RECENTLY STARTED SUIKA GAME. ACCORDING TO MY NINTENDO SWITCH STATS, I PLAYED A TOTAL OF 681 HOURS THIS YEAR! WHICH IS AWESOME.

Well, that's how I did with my personal goals list! Not bad. I'm very happy with what I achieved.

Now, here are some other very cool writing highlights:

• I now have TV/Film representation! I'm represented by Alec Frankel from IAG. This is SO EXCITING!! ☺️🎉

• I signed eight contracts this year.

• Writer Firsts: I got some amazing blurbs from a bunch of awesome authors, had my first hardcover and audio book releases & my most reviewed story ever!

• I edited four novellas and two are already published.

• I wrote, revised & subbed two prequel short stories that are now available for free at DarkLit.

• The two novellas I wrote this year, I also revised & finalised. Which is a big deal because I promised myself that I would keep up with first draft revision.

• I made two covers for my own books. I made the BEAST OF BURDEN cover, and with the help of Andrew Robert, I made the cover for CHANGE OF HEART.

• I finally updated my website! This was something I wanted to do all year but didn't get to it until this month. And now that I've done it, I want to make changes when needed.

• I got the rights back for two books.

These are the novellas that were released this year:

These are the short stories available for free:

I have a Creepypasta shortie in this Cemetery Gates Media anthology:

As I mentioned above, now that I've updated everything here, I've decided to concentrate on my website/blog more. After what happened with Twitter, NaNoWriMo and Substack, I'm starting to get sick and tired of closing down accounts and starting over.

My website is my personal space, and I want to highlight it a lot more.

Also, I'm not going to bother with a newsletter for now, I setup my blog so that you can subscribe and get updates sent directly to your Inbox whenever I post here. It just makes sense, and serves the same purpose as a newsletter.

Well, this is how my 2023 goals turned out! I'm very happy with everything that I managed to accomplish. And I'm very excited because SUFFER THE DARKNESS happens to be one of the projects I worked on last year. It means that those eighteen months I spent rewriting/revising all of those forgotten tales on my hard drive was definitely worth it.

I better write up some 2024 goals soon. ☺️

This Novella is Done!

Hey, how are you today? What's new with you?

This week, I've been busy working on the final read-thru of my current revision project. That's when I sit down with my Paperwhite and read the story from start to finish. It's also when any weird sentences or  repetition really stands out. I get very focused on the nitty-gritty details and usually end up mentally exhausted by the end of the day. But it's SO worth it.

I ended up cutting quite a bit, then adding some back. There were a few things that needed to be tightened and had to match the previous story. But it's finished now! I wanted to get this draft done by the end of September and I did it. Yay. 😃

The final word count is: 30,037.

I'm immensely proud of how this little dark tale turned out because when the idea initially came to me, during one of my afternoon walks, I pushed it away. Didn't want to waste time writing it. To be honest, I didn't think it was going to work. Yet, the characters wouldn't shut up and pieces of dialogue kept appearing out of nowhere. That's not even considering how vivid the imagery was... 

Anyway, I'm glad I gave in. And now it's finished before the long weekend.

I'm looking forward to spending three days with my husband. It's also daylight savings time. I can't wait for the longer days. It's really starting to feel like spring around here. When it doesn't feel like summer. Yeah, we had a few really hot days last week.

Well, that's it for now. I think it's time to enjoy the fact that another writing project is wrapped up. Instead of sitting on my hard drive for years. 😅

Have a nice day!

The Revision is Done!

Hey! How are you today?

Well, it's Friday. The 1st of September. The first day of spring. And the coldest day we've had for a while.

I went for a nice and long walk earlier and the wind chilled me to the bone. 🥶

Anyway, enough about the weather.

This turned out to be another busy week for me. The final read-thru usually is. It's when I sit down with my Paperwhite and read the story from start to finish. Doing this always highlights repetition, sentences that are too long, or awkward wording. Things that don't add anything to the overall story. It's when I end up cutting a lot of words and replacing even more.

I don't know why it happens, but every story has a handful of particular words that somehow appear a hundred times. LOL. This time it was: focus, accept and heart. I had to make sure there wasn't too many of them. The great thing about weeding out repetition words is that when I replace them, the new word choice ends up strengthening the sentence. Or encourages me to rewrite it completely.

Like I said, it's the nitty-gritty stage that sharpens the dialogue and narrative. The draft that enforces the emotional depth and develops the character connections even more. With this particular novella, I also had to re-read the sexy scenes a few times because they add a new layer to what's going on. 

I actually finished finalising everything late last night and ended up cutting roughly one thousand words. But a tiny addition that makes a big impact came to me during the day. So I added the few sentences this afternoon, and now it's really done.

The final word count is: 46,580.

I'm very happy with this novella.

It's a story that started as a way for me to deal with the unexpected loss of our beloved Loki. Losing him earlier this year hit us hard, and I didn't deal with it very well. He was my writing buddy, spent all day with me while I created stories. In many ways, he kept me in check. Without him around I tend to take less breaks, and sometimes even forget to eat. I miss him a lot and writing this novella helped me deal with how much his absence has affected me.

From the loss came a spark. An idea that stemmed from my own thoughts. And from that, I now have a completed manuscript about grief, love, and accepting what was there all along. That it turned into so much more and took my characters to places and situations I didn't expect, is a plus. 

It's been an emotional ride, but I'm glad I followed through and let my imagination run wild.

August turned out to be pretty busy. I finished writing a 30k novella, edited another one that will be published later this month (15k), and revised this one (46k). Yikes.

Well, that's pretty much all I wanted to say today. Just an update to mention that this novella is DONE. Yay!! 😊🎉

I'm going to enjoy the weekend with my husband and then take a week off writing. After that, think I'll get stuck into another lot of revision for this novella.

Take it easy and have a good one!

Tracking Words & Pages

 

Hey! How are you today? It's time to post another New Year tradition on my blog. I've been posting a screenshot of my previous year's Word Count Tracking Sheets for a while. So, why stop now? 😁

So, here are my 2022 stats:

Total words written: 160,534.

Total pages revised 3,843.

Although 2022 turned out to be an extension of the previous two years, as far as WTFuckery? was concerned, I managed to complete several writing goals. And the most exciting thing was finishing up my leftover Revision Projects. As well as completing another NaNoWriMo.

That explains almost 4k worth of revision pages and the bulk of the yearly word count! 😅

If you're wondering where I got this very handy spreadsheet, it's something Sidney Bristol used to annually share on her blog. Although this side of her blog hasn't been updated for a long while, you can still get your hands on the basic spreadsheet HERE. All you have to do is update the year yourself.

Either way, I wanted to give her the credit she deserves because I LOVE using this spreadsheet and have been doing so for years. It's so helpful and helps keep track of my daily, monthly and yearly productivity.

This post only covers my actual word and page count stats. If you're interested in a more detailed list, the other day I posted a breakdown of my 2022 Goals.

Yesterday, I setup my spreadsheet for 2023 and have already added new words and revision pages.

Anyway, here's to another productive year!

My Revision Plan is Finally Over...

 

Last year, while working on the edit for WALL OF DOLLS, I decided it was time to put a Revision Plan together...

It took me well over a year to complete this goal. I started in April 2021 and finished September 2022.

The plan was long and involved a lot of hard work, but I committed because I believed in the variety of novels I'd cared enough to write in the first place. The first draft word counts varied from 50k to 78k and were mostly written between 2017-2019. There were nine to tackle. Except, that number became ten after I took part in NaNoWriMo 2021 and added another draft to the list. 😳

Still, I pushed on.

I kept myself from drowning in fatigue, and pushed away any overwhelming thoughts, by taking a few weeks off between projects. Sometimes, when my brain needed a longer mental break, I took a month off here and there. It was important to stay on target but I also didn't want to burnout, and risk having to stop the process.

So, filling the creative well was a must.

In the end, I turned three of these first draft novels into novellas, while six remained novel-length, and one was shelved. I hate that my last project turned out to be an abandoned story, but when you consider the total amount of projects I finalised, losing one novel isn't so bad. 🙂

I mean, I did cut a total of 104,423 words!

So, what's the next step for these finished stories? Some I've already started subbing. While others might never find an audience because they're too strange. Or too short. Weird in ways that are hard to market. Like my novella about a young woman who descends into madness using a fairy tale narrative. Or the novella about a teenager who might have fallen in love with an alien... Yeah, there are some peculiar tales in the bunch but I'm excited to have given every one of these ten stories a chance to become complete.

Well, except for the urban legend novel that didn't turn out how I imagined it would. 😬

This is a big personal goal and sometimes, I have to remind myself what a huge achievement this actually is. Just like clutter around the house, story clutter can become a problem if I don't take care of it.

And now, it's all done. *sigh*

It's time for me to take a bit of a breather for the rest of this week, while catching up on some reading. After that, I'll start thinking about my next NaNoWriMo project, and will polish a short story I wrote on my phone. As well as write two other stories that I started earlier this year but never got around to finishing. Not sure if they'll turn out to be short or longer pieces, but I'd like to write them by the end of the year.

That's it for today. I just wanted to end my goal with one final reflection post. 😊

Revision Time!

Hey! Long time no blog, huh?

So, how are you? What's new? What have you been up to? 😁

After getting several revision drafts done in a row, I decided to take most of August off, and spent it with my awesome husband while he was between jobs. It was a lovely break and prepared me for the final Revision Project. Yay.

This time I tackled a YA horror novel that deals with urban legends/myths, but has a demonic twist. I really enjoyed writing the first draft of Urban back in 2017, so I was looking forward to finding out if I still felt that way. Five years away from this story put a lot of distance between the original concept/idea and, although I still liked a lot of what I read, I spotted too many problems.

Here's how my week turned out:

• Monday: 37/182pgs (69,041w)
• Tuesday: 74/178pgs (66,930w)
• Wednesday: 104/169pgs (63,050w)
• Thursday: 160pgs/60,398w

Well, the second draft is done.

As you can see, there was quite a bit of word-cutting done during this draft. Excess, things that didn't need to be there, and plenty of other probs that stood out.

Yeah, this revision didn't work out the same way as the others.

I mean, there's a lot to like about this tale because so much of it is essentially a series of stories within the main story. But for some reason, the thread that strings it all together wasn't as strong as I remember. 😧

Looks like I've reached the stage where I have to admit to myself that this novel isn't working.

I initially started thinking about this as early as Tuesday, which is a shame. This situation reminds me of something I said to my husband after watching the movie, Ouija. I told him that although there were quite a few cool ideas/concepts that I really liked, the overall story didn't work.

Well, that's exactly how I feel about Urban.

So, after reaching the end and thinking about it, I've decided not to continue the revision process for this novel. Instead, I'll probably cannibalize chunks from this draft and will turn them into shorter stories. Actually, there's one particular creepy scene that I think will work great as a short story. And other bits that can be added to some of my other future ideas.

So, it's not a total loss. 😊

Now that I've completed the Revision Project List, I can tally the total number of words I cut this year. Between this draft (-9,637w), June's novel (-17,056w), the novella I revised in May (-27,927w) and March (-24,600w), as well as February's (-25,203w), I've now cut a total of 104,423 words this year! Yikes!!

Although, since I'm scrapping this novel, one could easily consider the entire word count cut. 😬

Oh, and another great thing about completing this project is that I can update my Revision List for the last time:

• April 2021: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
• May 2021: Full revision of Destiny
• June 2021: Full revision of Victoria
• August 2021: Full revision of Possess
• September 2021: Full revision of Monsters
• February 2022: Full revision of Cosmic
• March 2022: Full revision of Madness
• May 2022: First edit of Possess
• May 2022: Full revision of Summer
• June 2022: Full revision of Neon
• July 2022: Final edit of Possess
• July/August 2022: Full revision of Stuck
• September 2022: Second draft revision of Urban done before abandoning the novel.

Well, I might be finishing this Revision Quest on a bittersweet note, but I'm still super excited to have reached The End of a long task I set for myself last year. 😁🎉

All that's left to do is sorting my files. Then, I look forward to getting stuck into a bunch of new projects because the writing never ends.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy the next three days with hubby before he starts a new job. 

Have an awesome day!

July/August Revision Update!

Hey! How are you today? What have you been doing?

Here in Oz, the Covid situation keeps getting worse. The daily case numbers are still too high, and the deaths make me very sad. Still, people refuse to wear masks and continue to pack into crowded places without any social distancing. They're also too slow to act on the vaccine boosters. Luckily, hubby and I got our second booster several weeks ago, so we're now fully vaxxed. Again. It really isn't hard, but people are lazy and think that living with Covid means pretending it isn't there. 😡

Anyway, I better stop because this is something that grates on my fucking nerves.

After putting my current Revision Project aside for a week, so I could complete the final edit for another story, it was time to get back to Stuck. Especially since this is the last read-thru.

Here's my progress:

• Monday: 43/179pgs (65,532w)
• Tuesday: 86/178pgs (65,463w)
• Wednesday: 118/178pgs (65,560w)
• Thursday: 141/178pgs (65,306w)
• Friday: 177pgs / 64,836w

That means this novel is DONE! ☺️🎉

Although this story didn't require a complete rewrite or huge cuts (like several other projects) I did have to make quite a few changes. Most of the stuff I fixed were typos, tiny inconsistencies, and making sure the timeline was solid. This is the first book I've set during Covid, so I wanted to get all the details right. Not to mention the chapters that are set during different historical times.

I had to pay close attention to detail, so it took a while to get through.

Still, I had a lot of fun with this haunted house ghost story. And actually, it was raunchier than I remember... which, in the context of this particular tale, is definitely a good thing. Well, that's what I reckon, anyway. 😉

Unlike the previous mentioned projects this year, I ended up adding words to this one. 1,256, to be exact.

Another great thing about completing this project is that I can update my Revision List again:

• April 2021: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
• May 2021: Full revision of Destiny
• June 2021: Full revision of Victoria
• August 2021: Full revision of Possess
• September 2021: Full revision of Monsters
• February 2022: Full revision of Cosmic
• March 2022: Full revision of Madness
• May 2022: First edit of Possess
• May 2022: Full revision of Summer
• June 2022: Full revision of Neon
• July 2022: Final edit of Possess
• July/August: Full revision of Stuck

Love the way this list looks now! I can't believe I have ONE first draft left to revise: an old YA novel (from 2017). Yay.

However, I've been working really hard during the last three months (3 full revisions + 1 edit) so I definitely need a mental break. I think I'll take the rest of this month off, so I can have a break with hubby. ☺️

Have a great weekend!

June Revision Update!

Hey! How are you today? I hope you're all having a nice week.

The world is such a shitty place at the moment. I can't believe we're allowing religious fucking zealot fascists to have any sort of political power. Not for the first time, I have to wonder: WTF is wrong with people? Why can't these religious idiots let people live their own lives and mind their own damn business? Ugh. So disgusting.

And don't get me started on the Covid case numbers rising here in NSW because people can't be bothered wearing masks. 🤬

Anyway, let's not concentrate on the crappy stuff for now, and talk about what I've been doing this week.

This month's Revision Project was my SF story with horror elements, set during the 1980s. It's fun, strange and features a character I really like. I enjoyed telling, or retelling, her story.

Here's my progress:

• Monday: 31/134pgs (49,149w)
• Tuesday (day): 72/134pgs (49,029w)
• Tuesday (evening): 85/134pgs (48,998w)
• Wednesday: 135/135pgs / 49,037w
• Thursday: 137pgs / 49,125w

So... Neon is DONE! Yay. 😊🎉

Although I didn't struggle with this story like I did with Summer, I did make a LOT of changes to the original draft. I also cut several chapters and a subplot, changed a character, completely rewrote the last two chapters, and gave it a new ending.

So, I worked pretty hard on fixing this WIP! I'm glad I did because I'm really happy with the final product.

I mentioned cutting chapters, and that means that I once again deleted quite a few words. 17,056, to be exact. 😬

Between this novel (-17,056w), the novella I revised in May (-27,927w), March (-24,600w) and the one in February (-25,203w), I've now cut a total of 94,786 words this year! Yikes!! 😳

Also the cool thing about completing this project is that I can update my Revision List again:

• April 2021: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
• May 2021: Full revision of Destiny
• June 2021: Full revision of Victoria
• August 2021: Full revision of Possess
• September 2021: Full revision of Monsters
• February 2022: Full revision of Cosmic
• March 2022: Full revision of Madness
• May 2022: Full revision of Summer
• June 2022: Full revision of Neon

I like the way this looks now. I only have TWO first drafts left to revise: an old YA novel (from 2017) and 2021's NaNoWriMo. 

If I stay on track and keep putting in the work, I can polish off the whole list before my self-imposed end-of-year goal.🤞

Okay, that's it for today. It's been a hard and super busy month, so I'm going to start July with a mental break because I really need it.

Have an awesome day!

 

May Revision Update!

Hey! How's everyone this week? 

Well, the world is still a dumpster fire but at least the shittiest Prime Minister in Australian History & his Dodgy Crew of Bastards have been voted out. Or should I say, booted? YES!! That's right, Australia now has a Labor government at the helm, and a Prime Minister who actually lives up the road from us. LOL.

It's great to see/hear politicians talk without mistrusting every word they say because you know they're screwing the country and only taking care of their friends/donors. The LNP caused a lot of damage. Fascists always do. 🤬

Good riddance to those selfish bastards!

Anyway, if you read my blog updates then you know I've been working on another Revision Project this month. And this week, I read the story on my Paperwhite one last time. 

After a full rewrite, I knew there were going to be some missed sentences, typos and other stuff. And although I did find plenty of things to fix/delete, at least the flow of the story was just how I wanted it to be. I didn't find any inconsistencies in the plot either, which was awesome.

Here's how this week turned out:

• Monday: 42/93pgs (29,969w)
• Tuesday: 73/93pgs (29,714w)
• Wednesday: 93/93pgs (29,573w)
• Thursday: 93pgs / 29,549w

So... Summer is finally done. Yay! 😊🎉

I'm VERY EXCITED about this WIP. After I came close to chucking it during the second draft, I worked hard on fixing everything during the third. I wasn't happy with the POVs and there was a key element missing. Luckily, because I'm stubborn, I decided to keep going and think about what wasn't working. In the end, I took some notes, made a plan, and fixed everything.

I'm extremely happy with how my latest horror novella turned out. 😁

I wrote this novel back in March 2019 and it clocked in at 57,476w. But now that I've cut 27,927w, it's a novella.

Between this novella, the one I revised in March (-24,600w) and the one in February (-25,203w), I've cut a total of 77,730 words this year!!! That's a whole novel. 👀

Another awesome thing about completing this project is that I can update my Revision List:

• April 2021: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
• May 2021: Full revision of Destiny
• June 2021: Full revision of Victoria
• August 2021: Full revision of Possess
• September 2021: Full revision of Monsters
• February 2022: Full revision of Cosmic
• March 2022: Full revision of Madness
• May 2022: Full revision of Summer

This list is looking really good. I now have only two old drafts (one from 2017 and another from 2019) and last year's NaNoWriMo draft left to revise.

The plan is to clear all these first drafts by the end of this year.🤞

Well, it looks like I can take Friday off and have a bit of a mental break. I'll probably take next week off too because my brain is mush at the moment and I need to read! I haven't read anything for a few weeks.

Have an awesome day!

February's Revision Update!

 

Hey! How are you today?

Well, it's Thursday and today it was time to take care of a few last-minute revision tweaks. Yeah, I always end up with a list of rep words and details to double check before calling the project done.

Anyway, here are the stats: 

• Monday: 38/79 pgs (28,956w)
• Tuesday: 79/79pgs  (28,746w)
• Wednesday: break day!
• Thursday: 80pgs / 28,420w

So, Cosmic is now DONE! Yay. 😃🎉

I'm really excited about finishing this story because I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2017. 😳 And after getting stuck into this revision, I started wondering if it was even worth finishing because something was bugging me about the narrative... It wasn't until the third draft that I realised there were a few subplots that could be eliminated. After cutting three chapters, everything started coming together.

The first draft was 53,623 words. That means I cut 25,203 words! I did mention last week that this was going from novel to novella real fast. And I was right. But I don't mind because the story is SO much better now, stronger.

I'm happy I stuck with it because the two girls in this otherworldly tale deserved to have their story told. 😍

So, finishing this project also means I can update my Revision List again:

• April 2021: Full edit of Wall of Dolls 
• May 2021: Full revision of Destiny 
• June 2021: Full revision of Victoria 
• August 2021: Full revision of Possess 
• September 2021: Full revision of Monsters
• February 2022: Full revision of Cosmic

Asides from working on this story, we finally watched the rest of EVIL S2 and it didn't disappoint. I love this dark, twisted and wicked TV show. They're not afraid to push the boundaries, and I enjoy the demonic angle.

Well, that's it for me today. I'm looking forward to taking a bit of a mental break. Also, it's time to figure out which Revision Project will be next. As well as... am I going to write short stories for the interesting anthology calls I keep seeing on Twitter?! 👀

Have a great day.

September's Revision Update!

 

Well, I know it's Thursday, but today I finished my latest Revision Project so I thought I'd pop in.

How are you?

The Covid situation around here still sucks. The numbers have been just below 1k daily this week and the vaccination numbers are going up, but I doubt I'll ever fully get over this pandemic. I intend to keep my distance, stay away from most public places and will avoid crowds forever. I've developed a serious case of people phobia and this virus scares the hell out of me. 😫

Anyway, I was actually preoccupied this week because I got stuck into the final read-thru of my latest WIP.

Here are the stats:

• Monday: 62/207pgs (74,247w)
• Tuesday: 135/206pgs (74,100w)
• Wednesday: 207/207pgs (74,035w)
• Thursday: 212pgs / 74,009w

Monsters is now DONE! Yay. 😃🎉

I'm VERY EXCITED about finishing this project because I put a lot of hard work into it to make the story better and stronger. I ended up cutting over 3k words, blending chapters, rewriting sections, sharpening scenes, and tightened everything until the finished product became the story I envisioned at the very beginning. Back in 2018.

Actually, I wrote the first draft of this novel back in September 2018. So it feels kinda awesome to have it finished exactly three years later. LOL.

Finishing this project also means I can update my 2021 Revision List again: 

1. April: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
2. May: Full revision of Destiny
3. June: Full revision of Victoria
4. August: Full revision of Possess
5. September: Full revision of Monsters

I'm happy about the progress I'm making with these first drafts. They all sat on my hard drive collecting dust for too long, so it's nice to actually complete and file them away as done. So cool.

I think that's about all the words I can manage tonight. Every second I put into this story was totally worth it, but my brain feels like mush now. I'm in desperate need of a mental break. 

Actually, we have a long weekend coming up and daylight savings begins, too. Happy about spending three days with hubby.

Have a great one!

PS. Have you seen Midnight Mass yet? If you haven't, you totally should because it's a fantastic show.

August's Revision Update!

Well, it's Friday and I thought I'd pop in to post an update.

Things in NSW are going from bad to worse. We've been suffering through this half-arsed mockdown for 8 WEEKS now and instead of getting better, the case number are getting out of control. We've had 600+ cases for three days in a row. Hotspots are no longer reported and the contact tracing is not of the gold standard calibre they always bragged about. 😫

This is alarming, scary stuff made worse by the fact our state government is delusional. They fucked up from the beginning and refuse to accept responsibility or tighten the meaning of essential worker. And now, people are dying and our hospitals are under pressure.

It's awful and so frustrating because we can't do anything about it. But that's what happens when people keep voting for right-wing governments that DGAF about them. 😑

Ugh.

It's best to concentrate on the good parts: hanging out with hubby, going for walks, enjoying nice meals and getting back into yoga.

Oh, and this happened:

• Monday: 40/202 (76,764w)
• Tuesday: 69/202 (76,536w)
• Wednesday: 144/201 (76,355w)
• Thursday: 205pgs / 76,077w

I actually reached The End yesterday, but it always takes me an extra day to tidy up any last-minute changes and checks. Plus I have to rename the files, format to double space and update all my external drives. And clear away the many post-it notes + random pieces of paper I've accumulated. LOL.

I'm super excited about finishing another WIP. Yay. 😁🎉  Especially this one because this is a novel I wrote back in 2017 and I worked really hard to make this story stronger. I fixed all the inconsistencies, cleaned up the writing, trimmed the fat, changed the direction of several subplots, altered the timeline and even wrote a new ending. Yeah, this isn't a linear book. 😁

Really happy and proud with the outcome. I put my poor main character through a LOT, but I love where her dark journey leads. 😁

So, finishing this project also means I can update my 2021 Revision List again:

1. April: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
2. May: Full revision of Destiny
3. June: Full revision of Victoria
4. August: Full revision of Possess

Looking good! I still have a bunch of WIPs to get to, but this is great progress. I set myself a serious goal this year, and so far I'm sticking to my plan. Even with the sad state of the world.

I almost forgot to mention that this week I also proofread The Wired City and The Bone Factory for the upcoming paperback release. So, yeah, it's been a super busy week!

Anyway, I think that's enough chatter for now. I need to take a breath, because I feel like I've been holding it in all week, and give my brain a break.

Have a fantastic weekend!

June's Revision Update!

Hey! How are you today?

Well, NSW is officially on lockdown. Actually, it started last Saturday and will go on for two weeks because the infection rates keep going up at a steady pace. There were actually a few outbreaks in several places in our own suburb, so it's bloody scary. So much that we're wearing our masks when we go for our daily walks. Don't want to take any chances.

The shitty thing about this lockdown is that, unlike last year when hubby was home for the duration, this time he's working because where he works is considered an essential business. 😫

If only this fucking government was competent enough to have the majority of the population vaccinated by now. We're partially vaccinated and have our second dose appointment in just over a week. It can't come soon enough.

Anyway, let's talk about something more positive. This week I got stuck into the final read-thru of my latest Revision Project, Victoria.

Here's how my week turned out:

• Monday: 29/151 (56,616w) 
• Tuesday: 97/151 (56,414w) 
• Wednesday: 151/151 (56,246w) 
• Thursday: 151pgs / 56,264w

As you can see, I started a bit slow on Monday but quickly found my stride on Tuesday, and reached The End yesterday. But it always takes an extra day for me to tidy up any last-minute details. Then there's renaming the files, formatting to double space and updating all my drives. Phew.

And I just did all that!

I'm SO excited to have completed this dark little story. 😁🎉

I've mentioned this before, I wrote the original draft of this novel back in late 2019, so I've had quite a bit of distance. And because of this, I ended up adding over 5,000 words to the word count, slightly changed the direction, and intensified the Greek mythology ties.

This is a gothic haunted house story, but not quite. 👻 Either way, I'm very happy about how it turned out and hope I can find a home for it someday.

Finishing this project also means I can update my 2021 Revision List:

1. April: Full edit of Wall of Dolls
2. May: Full revision of Destiny
3. June: Full revision of Victoria

I really like the way this list is shaping up. 

I'm not going to lie, working on these projects is hard work. Sometimes it becomes tedious and I just want to be done with them, but I give each project the attention it deserves because I love these stories and want them to be finalised. Not just sit around on my hard drive half-finished.

Okay, that's enough chatter for one day.

I'm in desperate need of a mental break and some serious reading time! Think I need a few weeks rest. A breather. Not to mention that my birthday is next week.

Have an awesome day! 😃

May Yay!

Hey!

How are you today? Hope your week is going well.

I'm feeling good at the moment because I tackled the final read-thru of Destiny and it went well.

Just to jog your memory, this is when I put the finished novel on my Paperwhite, sit down on the couch and read the story from start to finish. This is my last chance to find anything that sounds off, needs to be deleted, and also when any rep words stand out. It's not as much work as the previous drafts, but involves being very nitpicky and then manually making all the changes to the Word doc.

Anyway, here's how my week went:

Monday: 70/181 (70,735w)

Tuesday: 125/181 (70,654w)

Wednesday: 181/181 (70,688w)

Thursday: 181pgs / 70,704w 

As you can see, I actually reached The End yesterday. But today was all about tidying the last minute details and backing up all my drives with the updated versions.

Yay. I'm SO HAPPY. 😁🎉

Not only am I super excited about getting this novel done by my self-imposed goal date of 31st May, but this is a story that's been with me for a while. Since early 2018! Yep, that long. It all started when the image of a misplaced demonic girl popped into my head. By the time I sat down to write her tale, it ended up becoming so much more. And I love how it turned out.

This also happens to be a NaNoWriMo novel, which makes it even more exciting. 😊

The other awesome thing about completing this novel is that it means I'm still sticking to the Revision Plans I made in April. Completing as many (of the nine 😵) first drafts as I can this year is my main writing goal for 2021. 

And so far, I've completed these:

1. Full edit of Wall of Dolls
2. Full revision of Destiny

It doesn't sound like much, but just getting these two projects done involved critically reading each of these novels at least three times. From start to finish! It's time consuming and mentally exhausting, but I enjoy the process. 🙂

Anyway, I'll eventually have to figure out where to sub this story, but for now I'm going to take a bit of a mental break before getting stuck into the next revision project.

Have an awesome day!

A Bit of Editing

Hello again!

Well, this week, it was back to editing for me. This time it was the final edit of my upcoming YA horror novel, Wall of Dolls.

Because I'm such a double checker (or is that glutton for punishment? 😂) of course I read the whole thing again. This time felt more like a proofread. I even managed to get lost in some of the creepier scenes. And that's a great thing because when I'm revising/editing, I'm super critical with my story.

This also made me realise that I'm pretty much done with this story.

Anyway, this is how it went:

• Monday: 119/218pgs
• Tuesday: 218pgs
• Wednesday: Checked & emailed back

I'm SO excited!! Yay. 😄🎉

I worked really hard on this book. I wrote this about three/four years ago so my writing has changed/evolved quite a bit since then and I wanted to make the final result as good as I could. And with my editor's help, I was able to make a lot of improvements/changes to make the story better and even creepier. I'm serious, thanks to Liz, I ended up cutting three chapters, blended two into one, strengthened family bonds, softened some unnecessary sharp edges and even added new stuff.

Yep. I'm very happy with how it's turned out and can't wait to see the finished product!

After finishing the edit, I took a mental break. And this apparently means going through my books and DNFing the hell out of stuff that doesn't grab me. 😅 I actually DNFd 13 books on Thursday and 11 on Friday.

A lot of these books ended up being Richard Laymon books I found in a thrift store a few years ago. I was so disappointed because I was looking forward to checking out his books and they turned out to be such shitty sexist dribble. Ugh. 😑

Anyway, now it's time to enjoy the weekend. Have a good one!

Just because...

Yesterday, I posted this on Twitter:

 

That's right. After calling my slasher novel complete last week, I decided to grab my Paperwhite and re-read it. 😁

I know, it was supposed to be done and I was sure I'd moved on, but I was wrong. There was a little voice inside my head telling me to check it out one more time. To make sure that all the last-minute changes blended into the rest of the story seamlessly. And while most did, I found there were a few sections that needed the tiniest of tweaks.

To be honest, the final version would've worked just fine as it was but the things I found and smoothed out this week made the story stronger, better. And most importantly, FINALLY made me happy. 😍

I'm very proud of this novel. I've been a huge slasher fan since the 80s and this story is my love letter to this subgenre. I hope to one day share it with the world. 

But for now, I'm super excited to be done. Again. 

I'm going to miss these characters because they really got under my skin during the writing and revision process. Maybe that's why I kept going back.

Maybe I should check it out one last time... Just kidding. 🤣

It's really done this time. You know how I know for sure? Because my brain is now ready to start thinking about other stories. 👀

Well, that's it for now.

Hope you enjoyed this unexpected update!

It's Time to Finish This!

Hey! How are you today? What's new this week?

The world is still a hellhole suffering through a global pandemic too many morons are trying to convince themselves is over, so we're still staying away from people and protecting ourselves with masks and hygiene.

This week I completed the WIP read-thru on my Paperwhite, added all the changes to the Word doc, and this morning I made some last-minute alterations. 

So, the story is now done and the final word count is 40,335. 🎉

I'm SO excited about finishing this novella for several reasons. Firstly, this gothic horror story turned out a lot better than I expected and broke my heart in so many unexpected ways. 😭💔 And secondly, it's the fourth novella I've written this year.

And why is that important to me? Well, writing a novella is something I've carried forward on my Goals List for several years. And each year, I failed. But 2020 turned out to be the year I finally met that goal. Who would've thought THIS year would be the one? LOL.

Anyway, I'm really excited about finishing another project and can now concentrate on other stuff. Like reading. Something I've barely done during the last few weeks. 😲 Not to mention that I can now sign up for NaNoWriMo and get stuck into NaNoPrep. 😃 

Most importantly, I'm taking a bit of a mental break.

Have a great week!