Words & Wonders (44)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- I edited 127 pages of PERSEYUA this week. I finished adding my third edits, so I'm moving onto my 4th edits and then it's just beta reading and a final read through. And then I will be DONE. Thank Gods - more than ready to move on.

- Wrote my 4 page PERSEYUA synopsis. It almost killed me but now it's done.

- Written 1,713 words of LibraryHeist. This is my favourite book yet.

- It's technically not writing but I designed two killer covers in the past few days. I can't show you either of them, but they're coming this year for sure. (The TLM bind up of books 1-3 is prettier than all my other books put together!!)

In my life:

- I'm dying to be done with PERSEYUA so I can spend more time reading!! I'm going to treat myself to double my current amount of reading time.

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- I Just Don't Identify With The Character. Read it!!!
- Lessons From A Year Writing Full Time

A Book I've Loved Lately:

Super sweet romance, awesome mythical creatures, and a bit of mystery thrown in. Not to mention intersectionality - f/f romance, POC, and a non-western setting! A must read.

What have you written this week?

~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (43)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- I edited 158 pages of PERSEYUA this week. Pushing through and dying to be done.

- Written 3,782 words of LibraryHeist and I love it so much. This could be my favourite book yet. (If it IS a book - still not sure if novel or novella.)

In my life:

- Had a better week, health-wise. Turns out you need actual sleep to function as a human being? Huh, who knew????

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- This brilliant post on coding. Read it!! Actually just read the whole blog.
- On trunked manuscripts by Jodi Meadows
- Diving Headfirst Into The Query Trenches
- Summarising Your Novel
- This super informative post about Purim, which I knew nothing about.

A Book I've Loved Lately:

This book took me totally by surprise. I expected a standard fantasy novel BUT NO. Exquisite, swoony romance, a realistically sheltered princess (i.e. locked in tower), a blind MC who doesn't get miraculously cured by magic, and a thoroughly fascinating world where darkness has fallen and there is no sunlight - only dark and the monsters inside it. Do yourself a favour and read it!

What have you written this week?

~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (42)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

ESSENTIAL READING: 

An In Depth Look at Sexism in YA

Putting this at the top so it doesn't get missed. Read this, whether you're a writer or a reader, or YA or adult or MG, no matter your gender. This is important, and the subject matter is disgusting, but the writing is exceptional.

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- As I explained last week, I stalled in the middle of PERSEYUA's second draft, so I moved onto the next round of edits. I did 113 pages this week, a low count because of sickness.

- Written 2,769 words of LibraryHeist and I love it. Thinking I'll take a month out of my schedule between editing PERSEYUA and POWERS for LH to give me a creative boost/recharge. Gods know I need it.

In my life:

- Sick, and sick, and more sick. It's just been one of those weeks.

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- It's Not Just You, by Dahlia Adler
- This post on middles by Jodi Meadows
- More from Jodi, this time on endings
- Another endings post for the heck of it, this by Susan Dennard

What have you written this week?

~Saruuh

Words & Wonders (41)

Welcome to Words & Wonders, a weekly journal of writing updates, links I've found useful or interesting, and book recommendations. I hope W&W will prove to be useful to you writers out there as well as offering an insight into my writing progress for my readers. Don't forget to leave a comment with your own writing progress!

In the Writing Cave, this week:

- Oh boy. I had a pretty big crash mid week. I ran out of energy with my 2nd edits of PERSEYUA and instead of it taking  2 hours to edit 20 pages, it took me 5+ hours to do 10 pages. I smartly changed my focus because I HATE wasting time, so now I'm putting the first half of the book (to which I'd already added my 2nd draft changes) through a fourth round of edits. 

Then I plan to go back and finish the 2nd drafting (which is actually technically a third draft but names are a pain) and then fourth-edit THAT. Which is mighty confusing and a long way around but as long as it's done by May and I can send it on submission, it's alright. 

I ended up doing 147 pages all around.

- I wanted to work on THE CLONE BRIDE story that I mentioned last week but didn't have time. I did write 600 words of a story affectionately named LibraryHeist though, for no good reason. The main character kinda came out of nowhere and I had to write her. I'm thinking this is gonna be a novella/very short novel in the Fissure world (of LITGA and PERSEYUA)

In my life:

- Slowly catching up with life things after two crappy sicknesses

- Listening to a LOT of PVRIS. Also I, Prevail and Asking Alexandria's song The Black (which has single-handedly made me love a band I never liked before and made me want to buy their new album which is out this month!)

On the internet, this week I found useful:

- More like this week I forgot to collect links so there's nothing. Oops

A Book I've Loved Lately:

Good old fashioned fantasy. One of my favourite books read this year. If you haven't read it yet, why the heck not? Last I checked it was £0.99 for Kindle - treat yourself!

What have you written this week?
~Saruuh