Category: Writer Thoughts

Editing Tips, Writer Thoughts, Writing Tips

Avoiding Editing

Chantelle Griffin

No, I am not editing again. Well yes I am, but it’s one of those things where anything can be a distraction. I have never regretted editing. The finished product is always worth the toil. The cringing, the ‘did I really forget to a word how many times?’ I have a habit of leaving out ‘the’ in the middle of a sentence. It’s like a treasure hunt for to find all the lost words. The other habit is joining two thoughts together mid-sentence. If it takes more than 5 minutes to figure it out the sentence gets deleted. What was I thinking? Umm…

Unravelled Plans

The best part is finding out that the story makes sense. You have no idea how of a relief that is. On top of that I went head long into a large scene with many characters. Did that go according to plan? No… Did it cause panic and chaos? Absolutely! Somehow through all this the underlying story made sense. *Breathes a sigh of relief at the small miracle*

Rebellious Characters

It can be rather complicated trying to keep track of that much action. It was fun, surprising and annoying all at the same time. The dragon just wanted to melt snow. The wrong person died. The person who was supposed to be trouble ended up being nice. Don’t ask me how that happened. I have no idea. The best part of editing os reading the story and finding hidden gems that were all but forgotten.

Writer Thoughts

Continuing a Story

Chantelle Griffin

You may be wondering what I have been up to? There was the carefully thought out plan. Have a small break, work on another project, then begin editing. The only problem with this is less than week after finishing a first draft, I was itching to keep going with the story. Oops!

The Quandary

At the moment it’s all about figuring out how to cram in editing between writing. You see, book number 5 wants to write itself! How did that happen? All stories are different from beginning to end. Whether that’s fast or slow, easy or really annoying.

Changing Rhythm

Why would books in the same series by completely different to write? Each book contains a story that has some heavy lifting to do to enrich the overall plot. All the while characters grow and change. It’s complicated and this time it’s the penultimate story. There’s a serious reveal before the very last book in the serious and I am struggling not to write.

Writing Flow

Since things are a little topsy-turvy I thought I would go with the flow and see what eventuates. It may change things around a bit, but that’s half the fun of being a writer.

Setting Writing Goals, Writer Thoughts, Writing Tips

Deleting Words

Chantelle Griffin

The last couple of weeks I have been setting up a new laptop much to the cat’s amusement. It’s a cheap, easy to use replacement for the old secondhand one. That gave a warning before it was about to die. It didn’t take long for the cat to work out that the keyboard is low and comfortable to walk on. The cat’s favourite button is the ‘backspace’. It cannot understand why I have an issue with that. Needless to say it knows I have a habit of deleting the last two words I wrote.

Habits

Two words, and the writing session kicks in. Not what I was expecting to find, apparently I need an unfinished sentence… Hmm, I will have to think about that. Well what do you know, it works. Everyone has their own quirks and it’s taken a while to find mine. There are so many times when the process has had to stop and start. It makes finding the little nuances critical. It’s like finding that all important first step that leads to another, then another.

Keeping Track

There is nothing quite like keeping track and stickers are not for me. I have a highlighter pen, a calender, and jot down how many words I wrote. Gaps are part of the schedule, but it’s easier to acknowledge them than try and do too much. The cat has claimed half my desk and insists on glaring at me. While purring at the same time when I type away on the keyboard. The look says ‘you should be writing’. I continue because I really don’t want any more words deleted. Thank you cat for being so supportive and taking an interest in my keyboard.