Category: Beta

Beta, Books, Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #25 – The Magic of Rs, Revising, Rewriting, Reading and Randomness…

Elodie

Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!

Revising – Stephanie Perkins and my novel? : So my book is now with beta readers and I started receiving feedback. I am amazed by how my book is transforming in front of my eyes into something SO good. I mean it´s my book and I may be bias and all since I wrote it. But first, Jaime´s critique helped me shape it into a better book and now beta readers let me know what´s working and what´s not working for them. This forces me to really look at my story as a reader before digging into more revisions. I am loving it and you know what one of my beta, aka Kip, said when she sent me back my complete manuscript full of notes?  She compared the romance in my novel to the ones in Stephanie Perkins´ books. So yep, I´m still smiling about that. I don´t think I can say thank you enough to my critique partner and beta readers! You ladies ROCK! (and hubby, you´re pretty amazing yourself :P)

Rewriting: I am rewriting my first manuscript. The main plot is still the same but…the subplots are different AND I  actually know my characters! PLAYING WITH FIRE will be so much better after this rewrite and I am having a blast with it!

Reading: I read THIS IS NOT A TEST by Courtney Summers this week and wow, wow, wow, wow. I promise there will be more words to describe what I thought about that book when I discuss it for Tracey´s YA book club (by the way, you should totally join, it´s fun!). I also enjoyed BELLES by Jen Calonita! And now cannot wait for the sequel to come out 😀 I also love the fact that I actually heard Jen talking about the process of this book, the way she did some research and how excited she sounded. It somehow makes this book even more special 😀

Random: Running on Thursday made me feel like I had wings. Okay, not before the run, as my husband did have to push me to go and not necessarily during as I was fighting through it but after, loved the feeling!

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

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Beta, writing

Happy Friday #24 – The Chemical Engineer CAN beta read! and other stories…

Elodie

Yay, it´s time for Happy Friday 😀 Looking forward to know what made you smile this week!

Don´t forget you can enter my giveaway for a SIGNED copy of MY LIFE NEXT DOOR by Huntley Fitzpatrick (see interview with Huntley and details here) You have until today 12pm (EST). I will reveal the winners on Sunday!

My husband can beta read: So The Chemical Engineer doesn’t read. Really. He doesn’t. Except maybe sometimes non-fiction books. And he likes audiobooks (again non-fiction though). However, I did tell him he would have to read MY books. Long story short, I am now reading my draft to him. And…he does have some helpful feedback. Now you have to understand, taking feedback from my husband is not the easiest thing (we might be a tad argumentative) but he has a totally different perspective. Plus he also said: “Your book sounds like a real book”. In his mouth, it is a BIG compliment 😀

So between Jaime’s wonderful suggestions and his, I feel quite lucky. Sending it to beta-readers soon still feels unreal though 😀 (and totally scary)

The Chemical Engineer

New shiny ideas: I didn’t write in the train this week, I read. But I did have my little notebook with me to write down any ideas which come to my mind. One of them seems to have taken residence in my mind and the plot is slowly starting to develop. Exciting!

So, tell me, what made you smile this week?

Beta, Giveaway, Happy Friday, reading, SCBWI

Happy Friday #10 – Connecting, Reading and Yoga-ing

Elodie

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!  Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

Giveaways: Today is the last day to enter my “I love reading” giveaway (more details here ). And in case you haven’t seen: Sarah is having a “Moving Giveaway“, Colin a “Birthday Giveaway” and Rebecca a “Spring Break Giveaway“…

Lunch with other SCBWI members:  On Wednesday, I had lunch with three other SCBWI members and it was great! I am very happy I got to meet them. Talking about books, the craft of writing, writing in general or just about our life experiences was fun and enlightening. I am thinking of organizing this type of small get-togethers regularly and look forward to seeing them soon again!

Beta-reading:  I started beta-reading this week  and feel very lucky for two reasons: 1) I really enjoyed the book and 2) I realized that by helping her, I’m also helping me…Reading somebody else’s draft while keeping an open mind enabled me to go back to my own draft and know where I could improve. Her strengths showed me where I could better my own writing, some questions I had hinted at some I have on my own novel.

Yoga: I started up yoga again this week. None of the complicated poses yet, I am concentrating for now on the breathing exercises and the restorative poses since I have been having some pains otherwise. It helps me get more grounded, more “in the moment”. As I mentioned before, while my imagination helps a lot when it comes to writing, it can be a little frustrating when it turns into stress or anxiety…Yoga, cardio and more exercising in general help a lot.

ChangeWriteNow: I cannot believe the first week of ChangeWriteNow has already gone by. Once more, my teammates are encouraging and I set myself more realistic goals this time. While I am super organized at work, at home…I’m a tad more…hmm…messy and hubby is very happy I’m tackling this issue one way or another 😀

Now tell me: what made YOU smile this week?