Category: revising

Ready Set Write, revising, What´s Up Wednesday

What´s Up Wednesday? The second Ready. Set. Write! edition…:P

Elodie

*Cough, cough*

*Clears throat’

Before returning to your regular What´s Up Wednesday programming, please find below a Ready. Set. Write! public announcement.

Ready.Set.Write! started last week and woah! we were blown away by the response we got. You guys rock! For those of you on Twitter, we created a list of writers who are doing Ready.Set.Write!, if you´re not on the list just tweet me and I´ll add you. Oh and don´t forget to subsribe 🙂

Of course, you can still join us for this wonderful and flexible Summer intensive,  see all the details here. Oh and if you´re participating, don´t hesitate to add the link to your What´s Up Wednesday post on Jaime´s blog here.  From there, you can also discover new blogs and encourage other writers!

*Blog fades*

Welcome to What´s Up Wednesday…The Second Ready. Set. Write! edition

What´s up Wednesday is the brainchild of Jaime and Erin.  It´s a way to keep in touch in just four headings…

What I´m reading
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein – so many of my blogger/writer friends have recommended this book and I understand why. It´s a slow read for me at the moment, not only because my brain is in revision mode but also because I know more tragedy is bound to happen. And…I am very impressed with the way Elizabeth wrote the story.
What I’m Writing
ready set write button
I am pleased to report that I achieved my goals for last week. I have a revision plan, I finished rereading my novel, I added comments to the document and I revised more than one chapter. Actually, I did even more! I revised three chapters and I am finding ways to raise the stakes while “explaining/showing” more of why my character is where she is at the moment. I am LOVING it.
And Ready.Set.Write! really pushed me in getting my butt in the chair every morning at 5am. I know that revising in the train doesn´t work as well, simply because I need more time to revise.
My little notebook
My little notebook
My motto this week
My motto this week
I probably still need to work on this one
Spent a lot of time with my Chapter 7

And…I revised my chapter one. Again. This little snippet comes from that revision round.

Kelsey´s eyes dart from me to Malik. I need to say something. He can´t dig up the truth. If the media knows where we´re hiding, they´ll be back faster than the birds in that Hitchcock movie Kelsey and I watched twice already.

They´ll pick at us until we have no brains left.

No matter how hard Mama and my grandparents tried to shield me, paparazzi had gotten pictures of me. Most of them come from the day I testified against my father. I was six years old, tears were running down my face. The lawyer and counselor were pulling me toward the court. People stood on the sidelines and screamed we should die too. The room smelled like old tobacco. My father watched me as I walked up to my seat. Watched me as I told the jury what I´d seen. Watched me as I repeated his words. And he smiled when I glanced his way. His Daddy-loves-you smile but then his index finger ran across his neck.

I inhale and exhale, focusing on Malik, his smile, his eyes.

  • Revision goals for this week:

– Finish revising Chapter 1.

– Take another look at Chapter 7.

– And…change subplot…

– Add one pageant scene.

What else I´ve been up to
I´ve been spending some time playing the piano and I am still organizing our new apartment…
Some of the music I´m currently playing
Some of the music I´m currently playing

What inspires me right now

You. All of you.

And….being very very very very happy for a writer friend. Very. Happy. Really, the type of happy where I could actually smile despite the train being one hour late after a long day at work and the scorching heat.

This writer friend inspires me to believe and to work even harder.

Plus, I´m simply so happy for her. Did I mention that? 🙂

I can’t wait to check all your posts and see what you’ve been up to 🙂

Ready Set Write, revising, What´s Up Wednesday

What´s Up Wednesday? The first Ready. Set. Write! edition…

Elodie

Today is an extra special What’s Up Wednesday…as it’s also the post where I’m setting my goals for Ready. Set. Write! (you can still sign up if you want to, just click here)

What´s up Wednesday is the brainchild of Jaime and Erin.  It´s a way to keep in touch in just four headings…

What I´m reading
Well. Right now I’m reading GUILTY. My YA romantic suspense novel. (more explanations below(
What I’m Writing
ready set write button
Disclaimer: I’ve been procrastinating when it comes to the revision of GUILTY. It’s like I’m standing in front of a mountain and I really want to climb but I’m afraid to fall on my butt and break all my bones (dramatic I know).
It’s funny because I know the story is good, I know my writing is good (for a first draft) and I want to make it better, I want to make it amazing…I’m just scared.
  • Goal for the summer: Send off my manuscript to my CPs aka finish this revision. Add the layers I need to add, up the tension, up the stakes, make the romance more sizzling and the story even more dramatic.
  • Goal for this week: finalize the actual revision plan, finish re-reading it, add comments and nice colors into the document and revise one chapter.
Oh and if you’re wondering about what GUILTY is about, check out this post (and please note I officially suck at blurbing my own novel).
What else I´ve been up to
I’m currently in Finland…on a business trip until tomorrow…
I was interviewed by the lovely ladies over at DiversifYA...I’m talking about being European and I do mention food somewhere in there.
Otherwise, I enjoyed a lovely weekend with my husband, including an impromptu lunch date.
Going out
And….we got a piano! Even though it’s a digital one, the sound is great and it’s pretty and I can finally play again! So happy!
piano

What inspires me right now

The amazing response we got for Ready. Set. Write!

It’s really amazing and humbling and exciting and did I mention amazing?

You can still sign up and check out who’s participating below!

Sign up here:

I can’t wait to check all your posts and see what you’ve been up to 🙂

Ready Set Write, revising, writing

Let´s sign up for Ready. Set. Write! *happy dance*

Elodie

It´s finally time to sign up for Ready. Set. Write! The wonderful idea of the lovely and talented Alison Miller 🙂

Alison Miller, Katy Upperman, Erin Funk, Jaime Morrow, and I are hosting this summer writing intensive Ready. Set. WRITE! and we’d LOVE for you to join us!

  • You can join us now or later…
  • You can decide to write 100 pages a week or simply revise one sentence.
  • Whatever will help YOU achieve your goals and whatever YOU feel comfortable with.

We even have a button!  (created by Erin).

ready set write button

So what is this exactly?

Purpose: for drafting/revising/writing novels, flash fiction or short stories—whatever! As long as we’re writing!

Timeline: We’re kicking things off today, but the REAL goal-setting starts tomorrow! Please join us for What’s Up Wednesday and tell us what you plan to be working on (in the What I’m Writing section). Don’t know about What’s Up Wednesday? Check it out here and here. And here.

We’ll keep the awesomeness going every Wednesday until August 28 and we’d love for you to participate as many weeks as you can. Like Alison, I love reading snippets, so don´t hesitate to share away!

Some Other Really Cool Stuff…

Twitter parties! We’re going to try (operative word = TRY) to host a weekly twitter writing/revising party in which we basically choose a start time to write and then pop back in on twitter several hours later recapping our progress. Sounds fun, right?!

Our Twitter hashtag…cue music….#ReadySetWrite

BUT to do that we kind of have to be twitter-connected. Below, you´ll see our Twitter handles, and we’d love for you to leave your twitter handle in the comments so we can make sure we’re following you too!

Our twitter handles:

Giveaway! The five of us LOVE giveaways so we’re including one as extra motivation.

Mid-way through (mid-July), one lucky writer will win a Writer´s Care package…it´s going to be a package full of fun surprises…

Something you simply do not want to miss.

Keep track of your progress and be prepared to update on the rafflecopter post in July.

SO, are you ready for Ready. Set. WRITE?! Commit to a summer of writing by signing up on the linky below! And don’t forget to post tomorrow—share your goals and tell us what you’ll be writing/revising!

In the meantime, write a little. Or a lot. Grab the button and spread the word! And get ready to Ready. Set. WRITE!

Sign up here:

Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #30 – Getting lost in good books and revising…

Elodie

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

So I’ve been quite the bad blogger lately. I still need to put up my list of Debuts I’m going to read this year for the Debut Author Challenge. I haven’t done any Road Trip Wednesday and I haven’t been responding to recent comments. Though I read them and love them and am very thankful for them! So what have I been doing? Well first work started again which means less time.

But really, I have been doing this *little* think called REVISING…waking up early on weekends to work on ONE TWO THREE, making my characters even more fleshed out, giving them more meaning and also more to struggle with.  I think it’s going in the right direction even though I did have a moment last week where I wondered, where I doubt myself (but that’s for another post :-)). Right now, I am simply excited to get in the train this evening and turn on my laptop, to put my alarm clock early Saturday to revise before my husband gets up.

And I’m also very grateful for Dahlia. She really takes the time to help us, going far beyond to answer our questions and help us make our manuscripts shine for PitchWars. And I cannot wait to read my team’s manuscripts!

And when it comes to reading? This week I got lost into two wonderful books! Both YA contemporary. Both amazing. Both giving me all the feelings. I will review them properly closer to their publication date but just know they both made me SMILE 😀

IF YOU FIND ME

IF YOU FIND ME, by Emily Murdoch

Publication date: March 26th, 2013

THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND …

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and taken to re-enter the “normal” life of school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must come to terms with the truth of why their mother spirited them away ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go … a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

DARE YOU TO

DARE YOU TO by Katie McGarry

Publication date: June 7th 2013

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all….

So tell me what made you SMILE this week?

Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #31 – Writing new words…

Elodie

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

Again, super duper busy this week, and today will be no difference. Sorry I’ve not been very active on this blog (or on Twitter) in the past weeks!

A lot of things made me smile this week…like the feedback I received from Mandy in the class I’m taking with her, being off on Wednesday due to the German reunification day and playing tennis with my hubby, spending a nice evening with friends on Tuesday, beta reading and critiquing…

But you know why I had a big grin on my face today? (on top of it being Friday)

I did, I wrote new words in my document. It was exhilarating and scary. I managed to type about 600 words during my commute and I’m loving it…It’s good because I’m soon going to start querying ONE TWO THREE – probably in a few weeks and I will definitely need to focus my brain on something. PLAYING WITH FIRE will help me focus and staying creative is a great outlet 🙂

 

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

Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #30 – Blog awards, Critiquing and feeling like a rock star :D

Elodie

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

I have been super duper busy this week, leaving the house at 6.45am and not coming back until 8.15pm for example yesterday. But, since there’s always a silver lining, not only do I enjoy my job, I also had a lot to make me smile this week…

Blog awards: I’ve received a LOT of blog awards in the past couple of weeks. Sorry I didn’t manage to properly accept them yet but again THANK YOU so much 😀

Critiquing and beta reading: Jaime sent me the beginning of her new WiP- I haven’t critiqued it yet, I just read it and I was left wanting more of it! Plus I have Sara’s first fifty pages waiting for me, and the 2500 first words of the wonderful writers in my peer review group for Mandy Hubbard’s class. I can’t tell you how much I learn about writing by critiquing and beta reading…

Getting my little blog  mentioned by Sara Megibow on Twitter: Yep, it’s kind of a fuzzy feeling and a bit “did that really just happen?”

Degrassi Junior High: I loved, loved, loved that show when I was younger. I caved and bought the DVDs…

A lunch break stroll…: As I said my week was busy, but one day during the week, I decided to take a short break to get some fresh air…and the view made me smile.

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

Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #29 – Revising, Learning, Reading and SCBWI…:D

Elodie

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

Online writing class with Mandy Hubbard: It just started, and I am so so excited about it…How to Write and Sell the Young Adult Novel with Mandy Hubbard.

Revising:  So this happened last Sunday…

And I can’t believe it. I know I’m not done, done. But…this round was a tough one and I feel like I’ve grown so much as a writer while I was going through it!

Reading: I read the updated manuscript of my CP, the wonderful Jaime, and again I’m blown away by her talent! (Jaime. You. Rock.) I just started BUTTER and this book is breaking my part.

This invitation – I am very much looking forward to going to the book fair in Frankfurt and now, I even get to mingle with fellow SCBWIers 🙂

The view from our apartment before heading to work…Isn’t it prettYy?

The view from our apartment

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

revising

My revision is a marathon…

Elodie

No I haven’t disappeared. I mean, yes. I have. But nowhere dangerous. I feel like a bad bad blogger. I haven’t participated in a YA Highway in ages…and it takes me days to reply to comments *hides in a corner*.

I’m doing a marathon.

A revision marathon. Those who believe that it’s a sprint, a few big bursts of power and then pouf, done. Well…that’s wrong. At least in my case.

Oh I need those bursts of powers, but even when I’m all creative-sweaty, I continue. I push through.

I’m on draft 9.

 

And the end of the tunnel is near. I see some light shining through.

What did I learn?

  • Beta readers and critique partners: they’re the best. Mine in particular. Ladies: THANK YOU! They reply to your freaked out emails, they tell you what works, and what doesn’t. They’re not afraid to say: “I don’t think so” or to say “Your sex scene works very well.”  Or “Is it bad that I’m developing a crush on your 18-year-old character?” They help keep me sane while pushing me to work on my manuscript
  • I also sent my first 50 pages to Taryn. And she kicked my butt…in a good way. I got some new tools and ways to make my voice shine through even better.

And all these amazing people not only pointed out where I could strengthen my plot, they also noticed some things I do in my writing that just won’t flow:

  • Using the word “just” –  I deleted about 125 of them
  • Using the verb “to start” – How many times can one of my characters “start driving” or “start yelling” or “start counting” or “start crying” or “start walking”…well apparently mine can also more than a hundred times. Well..not anymore. Now they either press their foot on the gas pedal, or they march/step/stroll/walk…
  • Passive – I didn’t have as many but I was a pretty bad offender in cases where it’s not warranted at all…
  • “Lips turn upwards” –  Now my characters either smile, show a dimple, the side of their mouth edge up.

And yes…my hubby must get tired of it. Sometimes…But it will all be worth it at the end.

Right?

How is your writing/revising going?

Happy Friday, revising, writing

Happy Friday #28 – Time with family, reading and revising…

Elodie

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

I am on business trip until this evening and tomorrow, we´re off to Russia…So I will see you next week! 😀

Revising: I´m getting there, really, slowly but surely, I am getting there! And my story is so much better now than where it started. Again, CP extraordinaire and great beta readers, THANK YOU!!!! Oh and my query is ready (crazy!) and here Ian and Christa, you totally amazed me for helping me so much!

Reading: This week, I read IF I LIE and PERFECT CHEMISTRY! 😀 and wow, wow, wow, both books brought out a LOT of emotions! More on them later 😀

Time with my family: Last weekend I went to France and this was a much needed reunion! Spending time with my parents, my sisters, my aunts, grandmother, niece and nephew was wonderful! Sometimes, living far from home isn´t easy and going back is always a treat! Plus I got to meet my second niece 😀

My newborn niece 😀

So, tell me what made you smile this week?

Editing, Happy Friday, personal, revising, writing

Happy Friday #27 – Birthday, Query, Thank you and Other stories

Elodie

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

Birthday: Last Saturday, I turned 31… My day started out with a wonderful birthday concocted by my husband – which including French Toast, potatoes, bacon and some bubbly…YUM! During the evening, we went to a restaurant (where I enjoyed a very nice cocktail) and we went to see The Crucible at the English Theater in Frankfurt. It was just an amazing day!

Birthday Breakfast
Birthday drink

Query : So query writing has been kicking my butt in the past weeks. I´m still revising my book, but I thought it was high time to start seriously thinking about my query. After participating in Sara Megibow´s webinar, I knew it needed more work.  I´ll tell you more about my query writing process and Sara´s webinar next week but after a lot of work, I have a query that works I think and which actually sounds like my book!!! 😀

Reading and revising: This week, I started reading those two wonderful books to help me in my revising process (highly recommended by Sara) and they rock!

Great books

THANK YOU!: Thank you to everyone for the good wishes on my birthday and on our anniversary. Thank you for the lovely comments on my posts! Thank you for helping me with my query (especially thanks to Christa and Ian, who´ve really been super patient and kind with me during the process)! Thank you to my CP extraordinaire and my beta readers! Thank you for being just wonderful. All of you! This week, it felt like this:

Today, hubby and I are off to France to see my family and our newborn niece for the first time 🙂 I´m super late to reply to comments but I´ll get there, promise!

So, tell me what made you smile this week?