To write is to be free
Had a supremely productive day today. I created two new ebook covers and went through my works with Grammarly. I feel like with each new cover creation I get better at design. Plus a Canva subscription helps 🙂
I’m hoping in the next few months I’ll get my writing mojo back and maybe finish at least one story I’ve got going on.
The month long free promo is over and the results are in. Fourteen copies of The Witch Room were downloaded and I’m happy with the results. Below is a picture of the Smashwords daily sales graph.
Because I liked how things went, I’ve decided to put another short story of mine up for free download. I published From the Mountain in ’17 and I hadn’t touched it until recently. But with the improvements I made with The Witch Room, I see the need to continue improving all my stories.
Since buying Grammarly I’ve seen how much it improves my writing. It made me think that I should go back and go over my old stories. This is the first story I’ve gone over. I figured a short story would be perfect. I found that I have a lot of issue with commas. Like where to put them or that I need to add them. Anyway, I went through the story and fixed many things. And I figured that since I was updating the manuscript, I should update the book cover. So I hop onto Canva and create a free cover by just adding the sketch drawing of the seaside cliff, the circle and adding a transparent vignette over the teal background. I’m surprised that I was able to put something together so quickly.
I also changed the name from The Witch’s Room to The Witch Room as I thought it sounded better. I updated the blurb and decided to celebrate this event I’ll make the short story free on Smashwords for a month. The coupon code is XG79P. I would really appreciate it if anyone who downloaded a copy would leave a review.
So I went and bought the premium version of Grammarly last night. I figured that since I want to go over all my work and revamp it, I should invest in some quality help (but on a budget). Well, if I had any inkling that there were parts I should improve on, I now have confirmation. Red and blue underlines everywhere. Makes me wonder how I managed to string two words together, let alone two sentences without sounding like a mess.
Here’s a joke. How do you show an impressionable writer with 10 years of writing experience that thinks they are somewhat decent, they’re actually still just a novice?
I’m dreading going back over Feet or Fins. Anyway, this one novella I’m working on, I can’t go a paragraph without at least three issues. Well the only way to fix them is to fix them. After my initial shock, I started going through the suggestions and saw that they kind of made sense. Sentence fragments, commas and the need the re-write bits and pieces.
Just goes to show that thinking up a story isn’t the same as expressing it well in the written form.
I went over my first novel, Feet or Fins, the other day and Jesus, did I let a bunch of stuff slide. Just using the editing tool in Word revealed so many errors. I was only planning on adding a chapter image I found in Canva. It was only a chapter heading, but I saw the dreaded red and blue squiggly lines.
I had to go back and fix a bunch of stuff. I can understand why people end up wanting to take down their first works. But I’m not ashamed of what I’ve created. I didn’t do a complete overhaul of the manuscript, just fixing up smaller grammar and punctuation. But I do think it has improved the story 🙂
What originally started as a 6-ish thousand intro to my longest manuscript ever, has turned into a nine and a half thousand word prequel to the same manuscript.
Every time I finish an edit I think to myself, good it’s almost done. But then I go back and edit it again and I’m like wtf? Why am I seeing all these mistakes and poor writing? I thought I got rid of it last time.
I guess the saying you never really finish a work, you just get tired of it, rings true (or there abouts).
Well, I have finished my latest draft and I think it’s pretty decent 🙂 Maybe I might even bring up my publication date 🙂 I had actually forgotten that the date was April 30th. I thought it was the 1st of April so I rushed through another edit and cover creation. But when I realised I was like ha! At least I’m up to date. So I think this story will be out by then or even sooner.
Just completed another draft of Becoming Stardust. I think it’s almost ready 🙂 I just need to create an ebook cover, but I’m having trouble picking an image.
It’s super snowy in Utrecht atm and work closed down on Sunday. But fortunately for me I had Saturday, Monday and Tuesday off, so with Sunday added, I had a four day break 🙂 Because everything is cold and miserable with a thick layer of snow I’m stuck inside, setting my laptop up on the kitchen table because it ended up being the warmest part of the house.
On Saturday I spent it adding to a novel that had been on the back burner since ’18. I’m not sure what genre it fits into atm, but maybe magical realism? It’s set in an alternative world with mostly current technology and focuses on a generation of individuals who are descended from a ruling class of people who possessed telepathy and telekineses, but had been massacred by the general population. So far the book is 60k but I’m planning on making it into either two long books or a trilogy. I’m going to finish the entire story first before publication.
On Sunday I spent it doing nothing and felt bad about it. I couldn’t seem to get my head in order and nothing happened.
On Monday I edited a 42 page novella (yes that many pages) that I completed last year. I made up a cover image for it and I think it will be ready for publication in a few more edits. The tag line for this tale is, A supernatural tale of lust and human sacrifice. I think I wrote the entire thing in under a week. It’s divided into five parts instead of chapters and it has a lot of bumping uglies in it lol. I think I might have to alter the end as it is more telling vs showing. But I would not be afraid to publish it as it.
On Tuesday I again did not do anything productive 😦
I completed the first draft of Becoming Stardust the day before my self-imposed deadline 🙂 Below is the image of what editing I did to this document. I tell you what; the editing was a mental chore. It’d take me hours to get through a section. I added 2k words and expanded a few scenes. I know I improved it and it’ll be a few more edits before it’s complete.
I’ve got my first project underway. It’s related to my YA sci-fi that I had written in 2016/17. I’ve taken the first 7,000 words from it and turned it into a prequel short story. It’s called Becoming Stardust, and the novel is being re-titled Stardust as opposed to theThe Cadetship. It was always felt a little out of place with the rest of the novel because of a time jump. Anyway, I’m editing it now and holy moly, it’s all a sea of red. I must have leveled up somewhat since I last touched this piece. I know that Stardust is going to be needing the same level of input which is why it won’t be published for a long time. Becoming Stardust is going to be free and I’m hoping for it to generate interest for Stardust.
I making a hard date of having it done and dusted on April 30th. So that is 107 days or 3 months and 17 days 🙂
Stephanie Haggarty 