Keeping goals fluid

During April's session of Camp NaNoWriMo I focused on writing some short stories and new scenes for my first novel, the one I am currently working on revising, primarily because there was no way to set a goal of pages revised.  (It sounds like they may give us that option in July, though.)  I intended to finish revising -- both marking and making the revisions, as well as writing some more new scenes that I overlooked in the first draft -- by the end of June, so that I could start the new book in July.

Now, however, I am remembering again how long revisions take -- way longer than you would think, especially if you have a lot of fixing to do (which I feel I do).

Almost halfway!

'Gatsby' a visual feast for lovers of the 1920s

Last night I saw The Great Gatsby in the theater for the first time (and probably not the last -- I am fully intending to see it a couple more times before it leaves theaters).  I have been stalking this movie for almost a year, watching the previews repeatedly and devouring all the new photos as they've popped up online -- I was devastated when they pushed back its release from December 2012 to May 2013.  An extra six months to wait!  Inconceivable!

Plugging away

After the ups and downs of March and April, I seem to finally be back on track with my revisions.  I am a little more than a third of the way through my manuscript, and I have to say, I am marking up a lot of it in places -- from words, phrases, or punctuation I'm not happy with, to entire sections that I want to rewrite.  Sometimes I rewrite it by hand right there on the page, squeezing it into margins or writing it on the blank facing page (the back of the previous page); other times, when I can't think of how to improve it right then, I just draw big circles or brackets or arrows to indicate what I want to change later.

How NOT to win NaNoWriMo

Like this:

Now, granted, I only set my word count goal for the month at 10,000 -- I was also working on revisions, so the word count was only for new material that I would be writing (a couple of short stories and/or writing exercises, as well as new or completely rewritten scenes).  The word count shown on the graph represents two short stories and one rewritten scene.

Changed plans for Camp NaNoWriMo

Since I didn't finish revisions of Pandora's Box in March as planned, I decided to change my plans for the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo.  Now, instead of working on Book 2, I'm just going to keep working on revisions and rewrites.

Anomaly Con 2013

This weekend I went to my first Anomaly Con, a steampunk, sci-fi, and fantasy convention that's in its third year here in Denver.  I had a blast, dressing up in costumes and attending presentations and workshops for writers.  Yesterday, my third day at the convention, I dressed up in 1920s garb, even though it's not strictly steampunk.