Well, then!

So. I’m contemplating redesign again – but not total, just a little bit. maybe. i don’t know. just something I’m mulling around. *L* I really like this layout, so perhaps I’ll just keep it longer.

bah.

Anyway! Got highly motivated this week! Yes! I read Steven King’s On Writing and wow. Talk about getting inspired. WIth his typical down to earth style, I realized a whole bunch of things – not the least of which were:

He writes the same way I do. Or rather, since he was here first, i write like he does. *chuckles* down to the same 2 revisions and a polish!

You don’t have to have an outragous vocabulary to succeed! This is one of the things that I fear the most. When I tell a story, I tell it simply. This does not make it a bad story. In fact, it might make it a better story then if someone else had gone through and added a buncha 5 dollah words! So. I rock. In conjunction with that is that

The first word that comes to mind, no matter how rude, crude, simple, otherwise, is usually the best word for the job. Don’t say “have to deficate” when you *mean* “haveta take a shit, man.”

Adverbs are not your friends! but Even the masters such as King cannot get rid of all of them. *grin* And if it’s the tell tale of a novice writer to have so many adverbs? I’m doing better then I thought already. Whee!

And the scanned copies of his manuscript and then the handwritten edits? Mine don’t look so bad now. *chuckles* They are very, very similar.

So yeah. I finished the book in 2 days, and then spent the next day and a half finishing the 1st draft edits on AbO. Yes. My handwritten edits are done! I now need to transfer them to the doc file, and get them to mom and TBF for their readthroughs. Both are total grammar police, and will catch all the ones I missed. They’ll also catch the plot holes, though I think I filed in all the glaringly obvious ones.

Not only that, but I began my research into agents to query. I’d rather find a professional to guide me through these upcoming waters of freaky publishing. So. As soon as the edits are done and off to the beta readers, I will be formulating query letters, and beginning my stack of rejections.

The short exerpt that I turned in for the local reader’s night wasn’t chosen, but mom had a poem chosen to read so I’m gonna try and find a sitter so that I can attend with her and listen to her read.

And then next year, I’ll show em. I’ll have a copy of AbO in my hands, and and thumb my nose behind my advance and royalties check.

[my buddy S would be so proud. THAT is confidence talking, hm? Yeah.]

In other news – my picture was in the paper thanks to mom. *grins* She announced my graduation, and there’s a picture of the whole family there with it. The pup’s bus driver wants to bring it by and have me autograph it for him. Hee!