First I want to give a big thanks to those of you who volunteered last week to read my first fifty pages. The feedback I've gotten back so far has be uber helpful. Which means I haven't spent any time on my new WIP, I've thrown myself back into fine tuning Wanderlust.
In addition to tweaking those first fifty pages, I've been going line by line murdering weak verbs and practicing step 11 of the layering I talked about yesterday, trying to find the exact right way to say what I'm trying to say. It's a tedious process, but I've almost made it halfway through the manuscript and I am feeling good about the changes. It's amazing to me how one word change can make a sentence sound so much better. Examples from yesterday's revisions:
Before: Sweat, cold and clammy, covered her back.After: Sweat, cold and clammy, glazed her back.Before: He pinned her with his gaze.After: He speared her with his gaze.
Simple changes to a simple sentences, but there is something about finding that exact word I was looking for that gives me a little thrill. I just have to be careful that I'm finding a better word, not just a different word. I don't want the thing to read like a thesaurus.
Also, instead of using a thesaurus all the time, btw, I've started writing down verbs or turns of phrase that strike me as I come across them in my pleasure reading. Then after I'm done with writing a rough draft, I can Find/Search words I know I overuse like looked and walked and go to my list I've created to stimulate some ideas.
How is it that we writers have this ginormous vocabulary, but when writing the rough draft, all the damn words disappear and we suddenly have the word bank of a second grader?
Progress this week: Even though I didn't add word count to the new WIP. I did add 500 to the old one and have gone through almost a hundred pages of editing.
Plan for the coming week: Get through the whole manuscript and possibly plump up my ending. I had a few betas tell me that the story wrapped up a little quickly and they wanted to see more (at least that means they weren't like--*groan* thank God this is over.) I have room in my word count to do that, so I'm going to play around with it a bit.
Okay, and finally, a few AWARDS...
Natalie over at The Sound of Rain gifted me with the Heartfelt Award. Thanks so much!
Julie Dao over at Silver Lining passed along the Lovely Blog Award, which was, well, lovely of her. :)
And Gavin over at Insanity's Musings, sent the From Me To You award over. Thanks, you're too kind!
If you're not following these three people, you are so not hanging with the cool kids--go follow!
I am not energetic enough today to come up with specific blogs I'd like to pass these along to. My son climbed/fell out of his crib last week, so we've moved him to a toddler bed, which he thinks gives him free reign to wake up every hour crying and running around his room like a headless chicken in footie pajamas. So I'm existing on fumes today. Here he is on Halloween (as a rockstar). This is the "who me?" look he gives me when I go in his room and fuss him for getting up yet again.
*Pic removed
So for these awards, my favorite bloggers are those of you who take the time to comment on my posts and brighten my day. Therefore, if you comment today, feel free to select one of these awards for your own blog. I ♥ you all!
So what do you find yourself slaughtering when revising? Am I the only one whose vocabulary regresses to kindergarten quality while writing a rough draft?
**Today's Theme Song**
"Getting Away With Murder"-- Papa Roach
(player in sidebar, take a listen)
