Rejection and NEW STUFF (Accountabilibuddies)

RaggyCat said:

I I'll be interested to find out. if the upper stuff isn't so different from YA, I'll be encouraged (mind you, one of my favourite things about writing YA is the romance, and I know MG is somewhat more limited in that respect...).

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Me too! But I think you'll like these. The physical stuff is more limited, but there's lots of longing and fascination in all three that are really fun.

ChibiUsagi said:

Just had a thunderous realization that I could literally be done with with my WIP by now if I spent even 1/2 the time having anxiety attacks and stalling.


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LOL. Yeah, anxiety attacks might slow things down a bit.

Oh the nerves and pressure of submission are so hard. I truly think the only thing is to work as much as you can and also take care of yourself. Like lots of fresh air and movement and time away from all devices. Easier said than done, I know.

I'll be leaving this thread soon for edits on my first book. But I will be back! I've been talking to so many people about my second book, I guess that means I can't avoid writing it anymore.

Oh Chibi! The stalling and anxiety attacks sounds super familiar. Especially I imagine as I think one of the editors gave you a deadline to get back to you by that is coming up in a few days, yes?

Isobel, longing and fascination are good... but I also enjoy the physical stuff. Though, I feel slightly weird that the sexiest scene I've written to date was put together while my mother in law and son were in the room. I think I just tuned them out!

Atlantic, good luck when you turn to the edits! I hope you'll find them easy - edits have a bit of a different spin on them once you have a deal.

Just went on to add my progress from today - I'm basically done with my edits, though I might do a bit of tweaking over the weekend as I won't send until Monday morning now. I think I just need to let this MS go now (again). I have to say, Jeneral, you're bossing those edits - last week looks amazing for you!

Have a good (and perhaps productive weekend!) everyone!

Great job on your edits, Raggy! And thank you--I feel pretty good about mine too. I may even get done early, which is a little freaky, but nice.

I love the feeling of getting something done early, Jeneral - I hope you do it!

I really thought I'd have my edits done by now, but I'm taking the time to do one final, thorough read through before passing the MS to Agent. One of the things she is concerned about it the likability of my MC, which is a case of putting little thoughts, reactions, extra info in throughout the script, so although I *think* I did enough while editing, I think it's worth going through quickly again... I've already spotted one inconsistancy. o.o

That scrap of an idea I had for my climax has now become a full-blown idea. Must. Not. Write. Yet.

doooooooo itttttttt

Jeneral said:

doooooooo itttttttt

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Ok! ... wait, I mean no, I can’t possibly, I don’t write that way, but I suppose, maybe....

I think my fear is that I’ll lose it, especially since the climax of my last book was (is) the hardest part to write/rewrite. And with my editorial notes coming soon-ish, I will have to put aside my WIP.

But apparently it won’t be a problem after all, because Jeneral said I could do it, and she OBVIOUSLY knows what she’s talking about.

Jeneral said:

doooooooo itttttttt

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+!! :-D
Joking aside, I think write what you've got inspiration for right now, or at least jot a plan down. My experience is that timing never works out, and I always get pulled from one project to another at irritating points, so seizing the moment is usually the best course. Exciting to have your editorial notes though!

Today, I am trying to plan the next book. Sigh... It's not going so well. I know the basic shape of the plot, but that's about it. And the baby is being very fractious.

ShouldBeWriting said:

Jeneral said I could do it, and she OBVIOUSLY knows what she’s talking about.

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Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahahahaha!

But I do agree with RaggyCat that you could at least take some good notes on the idea, jot down an outline or something, so you have enough to work with when it's time to pick it up and run with it. I have a small notebook for a new project that I carry around with me so I can write down outlines of scenes or snippets of dialogue while I'm not technically "working" on it.

RaggyCat, good luck with planning! I have no advice re: babies as I never went that route.

I am almost done with my close readthrough, and I think once I make the tweaks I've been notating I can send it back to my editor at the top of next week. Yikes!

8.5 hours this week! It’s not quite my goal of 14 hours, but I’ll take it. Especially since I had the day job AND three after-work events this week.

That's AWESOME!

Edits are done and sent back. Whew. This coming week I am cleaning the house and relaxing, refilling the well before I jump back into my WIP for NaNoWriMo.

Notice I didn’t mention how clean my house is... or in this case isn’t? But priorities, right?

And a huge congrats on getting those edits in! And early, too, right? That must be such an amazing feeling!!!

A week early, which is super exciting! Now I just get to bite my nails and see if I made it worse!!

ShouldBe and Jeneral, well done on the awesome progress! Jeneral, I think you are smart to take a week out - I bet you really enjoy that time before launching into the next thing. And yeah, cleaning, I view this as a thing of priorities, too... for me it usually comes very low. As long as the kitchen is clean tends to be my motto...

I'm really hoping to do a good couple of hours planning tomorrow. Failing that, I'm going to see my parents this week, and my mum is brilliant to talk over/plan things with, so that'll be good if I am stuck.

My husband and I are terrible housekeepers as it is. But this time of year is even worse, as he's on a big yearly project at work that's an incredible amount of overtime for him, and I scramble to do everything else while he's basically just working and sleeping for the next few weeks. My real goal was to finish my edits before all that kicked in and I just made it under the wire. And I'm hoping to get the house in semi-decent shape before NaNo trashes my free time all over again.

Good luck with the planning, RaggyCat! And I love that you have a brainstorming mom!

Congrats on the edits, Jeneral!

I'm suppose to be doing 1000 other things before I get my edits, but instead, I'm tinkering with my second book again. I really have to stop this....

Ah, it sounds like the house can wait, Jeneral, if you and your husband are both so busy - I've often thought it would be nice if cats could be conscripted into helping with cleaning but that's not really in their job description, as it were. The funny thing is with housekeeping is that I normally don't mind it when I do it, but the getting round to doing it is... challenging.

Atlantic, I know the tinkering well - there comes a point where you have to be strict with yourself, otherwise it lasts forever...

I did about 2 hours good planning on the new book today, though I do fear this new planning is taking it away from the original premise somewhat and making it less original... Fortunately tomorrow I go to my parents so I will call in the brainstorming services of Mum to make sure I haven't gone totally off-track!

I’ve hit a wall. About 38,000 words in and I realize a crucial change that will improve my book. Characters will be dropped. Backstory changed. Etc... But now I don’t know whether to go back and make the changes or plow ahead and pretend like they’ve been made. So my response to my indecision has been to not write at all for almost a week.

ShouldBeWriting said:

I’ve hit a wall. About 38,000 words in and I realize a crucial change that will improve my book. Characters will be dropped. Backstory changed. Etc... But now I don’t know whether to go back and make the changes or plow ahead and pretend like they’ve been made. So my response to my indecision has been to not write at all for almost a week.

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When something like that happens to me I plow ahead like I made the changes already. Maybe put a note or two in the draft to mark the spots where things change. But if I go back and tinker I feel like I won't finish the draft. I look at it as having a jump on the revision, since you already know what's going to change! Good luck! I know that stalled-out feeling.

Hey! I think I am finally ready to start dipping in on this thread again now. After having a torrid time planning this new MS and having scrapped and revised it multiple times I'm now getting a plan that feels right and has me excited (who knew that switching a death from a suicide to a murder would make all the difference?). The plan is quite fullsome now, and I think I need to start digging into writing now, as I always uncover more inspiration and new ideas when I write.

How are you guys doing with your new projects? Did you get past your block, ShouldBe?

RaggyCat said:

Hey! I think I am finally ready to start dipping in on this thread again now. After having a torrid time planning this new MS and having scrapped and revised it multiple times I'm now getting a plan that feels right and has me excited (who knew that switching a death from a suicide to a murder would make all the difference?). The plan is quite fullsome now, and I think I need to start digging into writing now, as I always uncover more inspiration and new ideas when I write.

How are you guys doing with your new projects? Did you get past your block, ShouldBe?

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I took a short break from writing to better plot my second half of my book... and am anxiously awaiting my editorial notes for book 1. But I’m at 40,000 words and starting again today. Or tomorrow. Really. How’s everyone else doing?

ShouldBeWriting said:

I took a short break from writing to better plot my second half of my book... and am anxiously awaiting my editorial notes for book 1. But I’m at 40,000 words and starting again today. Or tomorrow. Really. How’s everyone else doing?

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I'm exactly there too. About 45,000 words into book 2, but edit notes for book 1 should come in any minute now, so I'm kind of twiddling my fingers.

Well, we survived my husband's hellish work schedule, and I'm sort of half-heartedly doing NaNo. I had to tweak and turn in my outline for Book 2 by the 15th, so I concentrated on that for a few days. I'm closing in on 20K in the first draft of Book 2, and it's going pretty well. I have the rest of it pretty well outlined so it's just a matter of snatching free time to write it down. Our holidays are pretty quiet so I'm hoping I can make some progress. I should be hearing back about Book 1 revisions soonish too.