Oh Dear... The Challenges of Rewriting

I just realized I have to totally rework The Inferiors.

Again.

The first time I had to fix it, luckily I'd only written the first 30K out of what's now 112,000 words.  It was challenging.  Rewriting something you've already written is ridiculously hard!

Fortunately, I only had to rewrite 30,000 words then.

Now?

I've got 112K to sift through.  Hopefully I can keep a lot of it.  There are a few parts I don't want to lose, but the entire thing needs to be shortened.  Reason?

I discovered that the "end" isn't actually a good place to end the story.

In my head, I have a timeline of all three books.  Originally, when I first started writing book 1, I had no idea it was going to be a trilogy.  It was all meant to be one book.  But when I began to hugely exceed the standard YA word count, I had to break it up.

Anyway, my mental timeline includes just about everything in the story, from beginning of book one to the end of book three.  And as I'm going over it, there's no way book 2 can end where it did!  (Trust me, I've read over it like four times and the current ending is lame anyway.)

So, in the end, I guess I'm not rewriting it all.  'Compressing it' is more accurate I guess.

Insecure Writer's Support Group Day!

Yes people, it's the first Wednesday of the month!  You know what that means... (if not, it's IWSG day, started by the awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh :)

So let's see.  What am I insecure about?

I could talk to you about querying, because I am terrible at writing query letters.  Then again, I've already sorta written two posts about that.

What else?

My sequel.

Yeah, sure I already finished The Inferiors (book 2 of my trilogy), but I just started editing it.  And by the stars*, I've got a ton of work to do.  There's so much I need to add.

And, I have no idea how to go about this.

The Inferiors could go one of two ways.  Either my characters will go rescue   (person you can't know about yet)   or they can go find more about the   (thing you'd only know about if you've read it)  .  Currently, I have them rescuing   (person you can't know about yet)  , but by that time, will the reader be fed up about not knowing about the   (thing you'd only know about if you've read it)  ?

It's good to keep the reader wanting more, but will I have them wanting so much they decide to give up on me?

I'm in a big mess.

Luckily, I get out of school on Friday, so I'll have an entire summer to figure this problem out.

So... what are you're insecurities?  Have you guys had the same issue I've had with my sequel?

Happy Wednesday :)

--Jess

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*That's an expression my characters use... lol.

R is for Revenge

R is for Revenge

Remorse.

Burning rage in my soul.

They took her from me.  I let the enemy take her from my arms.  If I had fought harder, maybe I could have saved her.  But this was not my decision to make.

These prison bars are strong, but they don’t imprison my hate.

And when I am free, they all shall feel my wrath.

***

Okay, so this little flash fic/poem thing was written from one of my characters POV in my sequel.  She's a really fun character to write... not because she's funny (quite the opposite, actually).  But it's more because she's so passionate.  Her daughter was taken away before she was imprisoned by the enemy, and she's determined to escape and then, well, pretty much destroy them.

Now, for the music and a few random things after.  This is In The Middle of the Night by my personal fav, Within Temptation:

Um... I'm not entirely sure what that picture is about, but this clip had the best sound quality out of all the other ones. So just ignore it and enjoy the music.

I'd like to apologize for posting so late today.  Fridays are our crazy days.  Not that the rest aren't crazy.  It's just that, out of all the others, Fridays are at the top.  It's our big skating day.

Speaking of skating, go check out my sister Alyssa's blog, Life is Good. Her whole A-Z theme is skating, and she's also competing in a big competition tomorrow, so wish her luck!

And if you want to know the crazy thing that happened to me yesterday, check this out. Actually, it happened more to my mom than it did to me, but still.  I would post about it, but I try not to be too repetitive-- I already do that enough in my novels!

Hope you guys have a Relaxing rest of the day (or evening, or morning, depending on where you live.)

--Jess

J is for Joy

J is for Joy

The stars are singing.

It’s a song too quiet to hear, but just knowing makes a difference. The sun shines through the clouds. I can’t see it, but I feel the rays on my skin.

Raindrops fall, like seeds of hope.

And I smile.

For the first time, I know that everything will be okay.

***

I'm sorry, guys. I just have a really hard time writing, well... happy things. I guess that's why the end of books are the hardest for me to write. Luckily book 1 of The Trials is only book 1 so it didn't have to end that happy.

Anyway, I'm really joyful today because yesterday, I hit 85,000 words in book 2, currently titled Light of the Dark! So yeah, I'm really really excited!! Maybe it's because it's a sequel, but writing this book has been a lot easier than writing book 1. It took me 10 months to write the first one. (I'm talking first draft.)

I started this book in November. (November!) And six months later, I'm almost done. That's like a four month improvement!

Now, as for the song. I don't usually listen to Jordin Sparks. I really only listen to European music. People like Within Temptation, Epica, Krypteria, After Forever... you know.

But.

I really like this song. Mostly because it sort of reminds me of writing. I guess it could be for anything, really, but it means more to me because that's what it reminded me of. So, give it up for One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks.

Because, writing can be frustrating sometimes. But we've got to keep pushing on, even if we're not exactly sure where we're going.

Have a Joyful day! And happy writing!!

--Jess

P.S.

My sister's middle name is Joy, so go check out her blog. She's also participating in the A to Z Challenge!

Sequel Issues...

Okay. If there's one thing about writing that I'd prefer to avoid, it would be rewriting. And I'm not talking about the rewriting you do while editing. I'm talking about full scale rewriting of everything you've already written.


After editing book 1, my characters had changed into (hopefully) less flat people. They've grown quite a bit compared to what they were in my first draft. The thing is, I started writing book 2 before I was done editing book 1 which probably wasn't the smartest idea. So I've got a lot of things to change.


My problem is this. How do you find a way to say a lot of the same things in a completely different way?


I know it sounds like a silly question because we do it all the time when we edit. But for some reason, this is different for me. Am I just over thinking it? Or do you guys feel the same way?


Have you ever had to completely rewrite your book? How do you get it done?


--Jess

Now What?

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who volunteered for beta reading for me over the weekend!! I really appreciate it!!


Okay, now to business. First of all, I finished my book on Friday!! The one problem was, after I finished it, I had no idea what to do. Now, I'm not saying I didn't have a lot to do. In fact, I had an entire book to finish reading and all of book 2 to write. But, it felt wrong not having to work on my first book ever.


I found myself wandering around, pretending to re-read everything I'd written, but couldn't bring myself to focus. I think I was kind of in shock. How on earth do you recover after working your butt off for an entire year on a single novel? Of course, I've still got book 2 to write, but still...


What do you guys do after writing a novel? Do you take a break or just jump into the next project?


--Jess

Passed My Tests!!

Hello, guys! First of all, I thought that with the new year, my blog should get a new look. I get bored of my layout pretty easily, but hopefully I'll keep this one for a while. Anyway, for those of you who read my last post, I took a skating test today, and I passed! So I'm really excited!


I also wanted to tell you guys some of my New Year's Resolutions. One of them is to blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday no matter what. Okay, unless the power goes out and I can't access the internet or something. Another is to be done writing my sequel by the end of the year. It doesn't have to be edited, but I want to be done drafting.


So, those are a few of my goals, but I've really got a lot more. Anyway, I'm just really happy and excited right now!! What a wonderful way to start off the new year :)


Have a great day!


--Jess

NaNoWriMo Day 11

First of all, I have to say that it's 11/11/11. November 11, 2011. This kind of day only comes around once every hundred years, so enjoy it!


Anyway, here's my NaNo Status Check:


GOAL: 50,000
TOTAL WORDS WRITTEN: 20,000
WORDS REMAINING: 30,000
DAYS REMAINING: 20
MOOD: A little stuck, but getting through


I'm pretty excited that I'm already 20,000 words through my sequel, but I'm a little stuck. I'm all caught up with my skeleton (my extremely detailed sketch), and when I was writing more of it, I got completely stuck. I've had the overall story planned out in my head for some time, but I'm not entirely sure how to get to the end!


As I was writing, I started to feel like some of the conversations were pointless. I started to see that I had already written things that I'd need to cut out. And it kind of hit me that I might not be moving the story along fast enough.


Of course, I'll never give up hope with my writing, but I hit that point that point that makes you wonder who is really going to care. Is my story interesting enough? Is it too cliched? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong?


It's hard to push your doubts aside. It's hard to ignore that inner voice that begs for a reply. But all in all, I wouldn't be able to turn back even if I wanted to. I already wrote a novel. I've passed the point of no return.


The point is a cliched point of course. But it's a cliche that we tend to forget. The point is that we are doing this because we love it. In the end, it's really doesn't matter who loves what you write, or who doesn't love what you write.


So on that note, I better get back to work!


--Jess

NaNoWriMo is Here!

Hey everyone! I'm super excited right now because... NaNoWriMo is here!! My username is just Jessica McKendry so if you want to become my writing buddy click HERE or look me up!


Okay, I should really get to work now!


Happy writing!


--Jess

Back In The Blogosphere

Wow, we're finally here and I'm loving the coffee and rain! Hopefully I'm back for good. Well, at least until the month in temporary housing is up, but let's not worry about that right now.


Okay, now to business.


I am exactly halfway done with editing my novel (give or take a chapter)! I can't believe I've already come this far, it's so exciting! I'm struggling to not explode from excitement because we're living in Seattle and because I'm halfway done! (Or maybe thats from the mocha latte I drank earlier...)


Anyway, I'm kind of torn. For the entire way here, we've only had one laptop (I ordered my own yesterday so that shouldn't be a problem anymore). So while my mom was writing on the computer, I really couldn't work on my current story. I was tempted to just watch the TV with my brother and sister, but Food Network doesn't hold my attention for very long. I'm not exactly the 'cooking' type. Besides, I've been feeling in a creative mood all week. The perfect time to write, right?


As of today, I've written down ten to fifteen different story ideas, all of them completely separate from my current novel. Each has about a paragraph of back-story and where I want the story to go. I'm proud of myself for that, but a little overwhelmed. What the heck am I going to do with ten new story ideas?


And that's not all. I've got the first few chapters of my sequel planned out. Like completely planned out. All I've got to do is write it.


So why don't I just go for it?


To be honest, I'm actually afraid for my first book. Am I giving it enough attention? Am I giving it too much attention? Should I start book two or just continue focusing on book one? Or should I take a break from this entire story after finishing my second draft and write something completely different? There are things in book two that would definitely help me edit book one but would I be cheating book one from my undivided attention? Gosh I'm so confused.


Do you guys have any advice? How far along are you in writing/editing a novel when you feel comfortable starting something new? Do you write the sequel right after book one or do you take a break and write something different?


I love hearing what you've got to say!


--Jess


P.S.
I'm trying to come up with a better blogging schedule. I think I'll be posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but we'll see. Thanks for stopping by!