Week in Review (#8)

WEEK IN REVIEW

Time for "Week in Review"....


Last Week's Writing

I continued to edit and revise my YA fantasy novella Pink Knight, adding around 1,000 words to the overall word count. It's already reading much better and more detailed. I've been doing my editing from my Kindle because it gives me a different angle to see my writing and the story. Everytime I had left out a word, I noticed it on my Kindle, but couldn't for the life of me see it in my Word document.

There were so many things I either didn't think about putting into the 1st draft, or completely forgot to add them, so this 2nd draft is getting all that much needed extra stuff in there. I was feeling so discouraged about the lack of a potential audience for my novella last week, but I really feel tremendously better about that now that I realize I'll just have to keep writing and keep writing until I write some book series that finally resonates with people. If Pink Knight doesn't work out, something else I'll write in the future will and it's a matter of time until I get it right, provided I don't give up. 

Thanks for all your encouragement about that last week, everyone!

Last Week's Reading

I finished reading The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and it really left a big impression on me. It's a very unique story and a good commentary on how women are treated in male-dominated cultures. It's so sad to see the robot woman, Mattie, try so hard to obtain her independence just to realize that she only got it because her creator granted it to her. She's a machine, so she doesn't have the natural born right to human freedom. Also, it has a super sad ending that I wish had played out differently. It's my main gripe about the story. 

Still, it was such a great read and it has inspired me to take a novel I had abandoned earlier this year (Ironworks) in a very different direction. I always intended to add cyborgs into that story, but I might just make them more prominent now. I love how the relationship Mattie has with her creator is so utterly strange because none of us can relate to knowing our creator, personally, whoever you believe that creator to be. 

This Week

I'll be finishing up my 2nd draft of Pink Knight and hoping that all my much needed additions help it seem more detailed and interesting. I'm hoping to get my beta readers to critique it in chapter chunks and answer certain questions after each chapter so I can see if the story is staying on-track, or going off the rails. I got the idea from Wired for Story by Lisa Cron and it sounds like a brilliant idea. Read that book if you want to know how to write a proper story.

Otherwise, this week I'll be reading for fun books like Torn by Amanda Hocking (Trylle Trilogy, #2) and The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan. I'm loving The Faerie Guardian!


That's my week. Thanks for reading and for your support. Anyone planning on doing NaNoWriMo in November? If only they had the editing/revising version of that, I might have been able to join.  Good luck to those participating!