Tag: amediting

Feedback request – An excerpt from my latest finished story.

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Hello

 

As mentioned in my last post yesterday, here is the first half of the first chapter of my demon vs hunters (searchers) tale the Searcher’s Want.  I would appreciate some feedback on it and as always if you choose to please keep it constructive. Thank You.

 

‘

No one in the bar tonight is paying much attention to the demon except for the barman who is making good tips off him, a few women hanging off his every well-groomed and disguised word, and the searcher Aaron Watch looking to kill him without causing alarms to ring in the process.

The Catcher demon has a talent for blending in, which has been perfected over the past four hundred years or so, and hiding in plain sight using their superior disguising and survival techniques that put humans off their scent and to attempt to, which has failed so far, to repel the searchers. The makeup and strategic use of clothes covered their true, green, scaly form and to cover their talons. The Catcher was dressed well but not so much as to stick out of the crowd.

“Can I buy you a drink?” A woman said, sitting next to the demon at the bar. The Mox bar is very busy for a Tuesday night and a place well known to be an easy pick up spot for anyone looking for something that didn’t mean anything.

“I would say you can. Whiskey, please. On the rocks.” The Catcher replied, in a perfected mancunian accent. Catcher’s had become very good at sounding charming, sophisticated, and most importantly, human. Aaron sipped his water as he watched intently.

“Coming right up. Oh barman, two whiskeys please.” She said, adjusting her top ever so slightly. Aaron watched the his eyes flash yellow for an instant before returning to the human blue it had adopted. Aaron knew from looking at her that she is prime meat for this monster. She’s tall, pretty, and has a curvy figure, which is all just about held in by a tight, ill-fitting dress. She was the type of woman that frequented this bar every night of the week. The type that had a look in their eye that said they were destined for something greater but had gotten very lost along the way.

“You shouldn’t stare, you know.” a woman said, leaning against the bar and blocking Aaron’s view. The bar curved round so he could sit at the end of it and watch discreetly. He had always been good at spotting women who fancied the look of him and moving away from them whilst fulfilling a search and kill order. He was not a great looking man but he was nice enough and a lot of women thought so too. Every so often he would take advantage of this but not tonight.

“You shouldn’t talk to strangers.” he replied, before taking a big gulp of water so he could see what the demon was up to.

“I could change that for you if you like?” she said, leaning in a little more. Aaron hadn’t taken a proper look at her yet as he was trying to keep as much of his eyes as possible on his target. The woman was still flirting with the Catcher and they had just started to drink their newly acquired whiskeys.

“And how could you do that?” Aaron said, giving her as much attention as he could spare. She is very elegant, he thought, and she has nice, almost clear, light brown skin and high cheek bones. She was has a toned physique which only just fitted into her dress but she is in proportion, unlike the catcher’s whiskey drinking prey. These kinds of women could either be prostitutes or actual women. It was difficult to tell in a place like The Mox Bar.

“By flirting with you a little bit and getting to know you.” She is an actual woman. She has bright, searching eyes and seemed to be putting on a false longing just for him. He’d taught himself, through many confrontations with demons and deceiving humans, to spot falseness in an expression and body language.

“You’re a cheeky one, aren’t you?” He said with a smile. Aaron had a slightly chiselled jaw and nice hazel eyes and teeth. His brown hair touched his ears in a by design scruffy way and she took her time eyeing this and the rest of him up, which he liked. If she kept smiling, he was in. If she became serious, she would be polite until she got her drink and then she would make an excuse to leave.

“Do you like that?” she purred, leaning in a little bit more. Aaron suddenly realised where he’d seen this before. He glanced over at his target, still entertaining his ample and potential meal, and glanced back at his. She followed his eyes across the bar.

“That’s Sarah. She had her eye on you as soon you walked in. We’ve both been without men for a while so we figured we’d help each other out. I however, when asked to chat you up for her, decided I wanted you instead. She then spotted the hunch back at the bar and went straight over. He’s cute, but you’re sexy.” Her eyes changed as she finished talking. In truth, he wasn’t really listening. He was making sure his demon was occupied and quickly surmised that he couldn’t kill him until he did something. If the catcher walked out with Sarah he’d have to follow. This would mean that he had to walk out with his woman and when all four of them met for the first time, the demon would run having immediately identified that he was a searcher. Searchers can identify demons from a long distance whereas demons can only identify searchers from a short one. It’s something Aaron wanted to avoid.

“You keep looking over there. What can I do to keep you looking over here?” She said, brushing her hands against her chest nonchalantly. Aaron was interested and to find a woman who looked like she did and wasn’t a prostitute didn’t happen every day.

“Could I have your number?” he said, hoping to get the number and leave. He would wait outside for the demon and complete the order there.

“You can, but under one condition. You kiss me in such a way that would make me want to give it to you.”

“Kiss you in such a way? You don’t usually come here, do you? Or dress…in such a way.” She immediately got the sarcasm, which he was secretly thankful for. At this, her face changed and she noticeably calmed down. He glanced over and he could see that the demon was starting to charm Sarah now.

“No I don’t. I’m a secretary at a law firm in town. I usually wear suits or just casual jeans and such. I only came here because Sarah wanted to and she’s in the mood for sex.”

“That’s fair enough but you don’t have to dress like that. You could come in wearing your pyjamas and still be the prettiest woman in the room.” A more natural looking smile crossed her face and she leaned back taking something out of her handbag from over her shoulder.

“Here. It’s my business card. Call me and we’ll have a proper date.”

“Yes we will.” He’d been told enough times that he’s a ‘smooth operator’ but never really understood it. She stood up and straightened her long brown hair before moving some behind her ear. She walked off towards Sarah and the demon. Aaron looked at the card. ‘Isabella Woodley – Williams Kim & Associates Barristers and Solicitors.’ “Isabella.” He put the card in his pocket and looked back at the demon. Isabella walked over and put a hand gently on Sarah’s shoulder and whispered in her ear. Sarah nodded and as Isabella turned to walk away she stopped dead and looked at the demons neck. Aaron knew what it was immediately. Some of its make-up had smudged to reveal the green scaly skin underneath.

“What is that?” Isabella said, looking frightened. She looked over at Aaron and frowned. Did she know this was why he was there? Instinctively, Aaron got up and started to walk over to them. The demon turned and spotted him, downed his drink, and quickly walked out of the bar ahead of him. As Aaron passed, trying to look casual before a full on pursuit began, Isabella continued to frown as she watched him leave.

‘

 

And the edit is done!

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Hello

 

After 41 days, the first edit of my humans versus demons yarn is completed. Oh how I smiled when I read the last word. Though I have enjoyed the process, I am glad it’s over. I’m looking forward to a break from writing and I will start back up again, be it either by writing a new story or editing The Searcher’s Want again, next year.

Wait…more edits…NO!!!!!

I knew I would have to edit my story at least ten times before I could maybe possibly send it to a proof reader to go over it. I’ve outlined that I’ll have to edit for; characters, description, locations, dialogue, punctuation, grammar, and probably a whole host of other things I’ll come up with once all those edits are done. But if I can keep each edit to around 40 days, I could have it done quicker than I think. I have to say I did not think I would be able to do it such a short time. I could actually make it shorter, which I now intend to do in the New Year. A few times I did feel like editing more but didn’t want to rush it. I felt it was easier to edit at a calm pace as not to rush the thing. And a few other times I decided to go to sleep instead. Sleep is good.

Anyway, I finished the edit! Here’s a few pictures of what is going on in my head right now as I think about how I’ve finished my first full story edit. Maybe. Bye!

20653-44412 Celebration 1 monkey-human-smile

November never ends.

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Hello

 

Alas November 2014 is done and dusted. Farewell to you. You are one of my favourite months. You make me become more focused on my writing than any other month could dream of. Over the past two years I’ve completed two NaNoWriMo’s and done my own editing challenge in the month of November. But though the calendar has moved on and tells me it’s December, I feel like you’re still around.

That’s because you chuffin are. Aren’t you?

I gave myself the task of editing my NaNoWriMo 2012 story The Searchers Want, a tale of demons and those who search and kill them to protect the earth they all live on, and initially I was well on course to complete the edit in one month. I was sticking to my plan. I was doing well. But now I find myself with two more chapters to edit but no more November left to edit them in. How did this happen?

Well, I know how it happened. Life and illness hindered my progress. Though I am very pleased to have edited around 70,000 words in a month. I can’t complain really. I’ll have the rest of the edit done by the end of 2014 at least. Then, I’ll start all over again in 2015 after a short break of probably a week. This plan reminded me of how good writing breaks can be. I have always felt fresh and invigorated when I start to write again after taking a complete break. One of the blogs I follow, a lovely blog by the name of http://rlsharpe.wordpress.com/, recently posted about taking a break (http://rlsharpe.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/writing-tip-wednesday-taking-writing-breaks/) and I am now ready for a break of my own. Once this edit is done, I’ll break and then get back to it. I’m hoping to start research into time travel theories for my attempt at a sci-fi story based on the same. I’m fully prepared for it to frazzle my mind. Wish me luck.

Right. Back to the edit. Bye!

The Edit VS Man Flu.

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Hello

 

Since last time I have been keeping to my edit plan. I’ve managed to do some editing each day and I now find myself at chapter 20 of 25. I’ll have chapter 20 read through and edited by the end of today but I should’ve had it done a couple of days ago. And here’s why…

It does annoy me that I don’t get to see my Sister, Brother in law and wild Nephew more often. But they would have to live in Sheffield wouldn’t they? No, Sheffield’s lovely and it’s their home. I just never seem to be able to get time off to sort something out. So when I heard they were coming to visit my parents and I could go up and see them that I was delighted. Awesome! I get to see them. Maybe wild Nephew won’t give me that ‘Who are you?’ look this time? Nah. Of course he did. But I got to spend time with him so it’s all good. It’s great to see how grown up he is. And once he and his parents had left to go back to Sheff-side I waved them goodbye thinking I wouldn’t see them again until Christmas.

But oh no, I wasn’t that lucky.

Because you see the wild Nephew, I’m sure it was him, left part him with me and my parents before he left. The cold and flu part more popularly known as the dreaded Man Flu. Now, I went to visit my parents this past weekend hoping that the aches I had been experiencing in the week prior would go away. That it was all a result of the exercise I’d been doing for the three days back to back previously. But alas no. As I prepared to go on the Saturday I had gotten worse. And my parents had also gotten the bug. So we all spent the weekend feeling ill together as a family. Togetherness and all that. Then, Monday comes around. ‘I’m okay to go into work.’ I say. ‘No you’re not you idiot’ says my body and head CLEARLY. I didn’t listen. Went in work, had an awful, yet surprisingly productive, day. Got home. Went to bed. Had Tuesday off work to recover. Went in today feeling a lot better but was late because I thought I’d left the water running. Which I hadn’t done. Because I’ve never done that. This now means I owe 1 hour back to my employer.

And this all means that I missed a few priceless days of editing.

I’m not too disheartened though. As long as I keep up my edit something each day plan I’ll have it done by the beginning of December. It’s not so bad actually…but Man Flu sucks. And I missed a fire alarm at work yesterday. As a fire warden, it’s always amusing to see how wrong most people get it when one goes off. Anyway…

Lovely to have you read a post of mine as always. Good Bye!

And the Edit goes on La de da de de, la de da de da

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Hello

 

So, as I’ve mentioned before I’m editing a story for the month of November and it’s moving along steadily. I have been doing NaNoWriMo for the past two years but I fancied a change.

As the edit has gone on I’ve picked up on a few things that will need researching and looking into in future. I’ve made a note of these things and they just so happen to be very important to the overall story. I’m considering doing an editing month for December more and more. Well, December through to January as December has a couple of birthday’s and Christmas parties that require my attendance. The research will cover my lead characters sister and her involvement in the whole thing and how the searcher general came to find the recipe for immortality. I’m about 2/3 of the way with the immortality back story and about half way with the sister back story. Hopefully by the end of the edit I’ll have a better idea of what I had planned for her.

I have also found that I may or may not have been trying to come up with my own language whilst writing the first draft of my human vs demon yarn, The Searcher’s Want. Some of the sentences, and paragraphs for that matter, just didn’t seem to make any sense. I’m being as ruthless as I can be and have deleted plenty of full sentences but I came across one paragraph and I could not stop frowning. What the hell is that? I found myself going back over the last paragraph or two to see what would make sense. It’s sorted now. Until the next edit anyway.

I also found that I had made one chapter 14 pages long. Now, that isn’t longer than any chapter I’ve ever read or written but when you’re editing a story that averages 8 pages per chapter, it’s a lot. I cut and chopped and changed some things round and it’s all evened out. Though my task is that little bit bigger than before. It’s all part of the fun I suppose. *groan

Anyway, I’m going to get back to it. Have a good week.

 

Cheers

Oh editing, how I love and hate thee so.

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Hello

 

So, it’s NaNoWriMo 2014. Well, it is for a fair amount of people but for me it’s NaNoEdMo 2014. As in, National Novel Editing Month. I’m aiming to finish the first edit of a story I started for, and completed shortly after, NaNoWriMo 2012. And to my progress…

It’s coming along nicely. I’m sticking to my schedule and I’ve now, just this morning in fact, finished editing Chapter 11. I’m going to start Chapter 12 later today. I gave myself the goal of editing half a chapter each time I sat down to edit and, though I thought it would be a little bit too much, it’s turned out to be a manageable amount. I don’t feel overwhelmed at how much I’ve got to edit by the end of the month as the bite sized chunks I’ve concocted are just right. I am glad I’ve not changed my mind over this as I’m very happy with the world I’ve created within my story. Part of me thought I’d throw it all away. Maybe I still will. But I’m going to try and not think about that for now. Possibly.

Even though I am enjoying the edit so far, sometimes I wonder what I’m on about. By that I mean, some lines I’ve come across that I’ve written some two years ago make no actual sense to anything on this earth. Some of them looked to be the sentence equivalent of a Magic Eye picture but the opposite way round. From a distance it looks like a normal sentence, all making sense and such. But as you get closer, you realise that it’s complete rubbish! Why did I write those words in that random order in the first place? It does give me a test though, which is to try and figure out what the line should be (for now) so it fits in with everything around it. Thankfully it didn’t take me too long but I was scratching my head for a while. That’s what editing all about right?

Ok. I’m off to edit some more. I hope you all have a good week and if you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo this year that you’re on target.

Good Pie.

 

As NaNoWriMo approaches I get ready to dodge it.

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Hello

 

As you probably know NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. Now, I would usually take part like I have done for the past two years but this year I’m going to do something different. Instead of writing 50,000 words, I’m going to edit them.

Well, it might turn out to be more than that but I intend to edit much if not all of the novel I started to write during my first NaNoWriMo back in 2012. That story’s first draft was finished the following May and I’ve recently began to edit it as you may know. It then occurred to me that I could get the first edit done by the end of 2014 or even the end of November if I dedicate myself to it like I have done to NaNoWriMo 2012 and 2013.

The rate I’m currently editing my story could be quicker I admit. Sometimes I just want to lounge about and do nothing and that but as I have been lounging about I’ve thought that this edit isn’t going at a bad pace. I’m managing to edit four pages or half a chapter each time I do it. If I did this each day for November, I could come close to, if not completely finish, the first edit. I’m thinking I can easily do it now.

But wait. I know I’ll have to do some research during this time to help flesh out a main part of the plot and to write out the complete back story for a support character whose story directly effects our hero. I could do that in December actually. Wait, looks like I have a plan. Edit for all of November and research and write back story for part of December and probably into January.

Would you look at that? An actual plan I can stick to. It’s a shame that there isn’t a website dedicated to a National Novel Editing Month. Maybe there is but I don’t need to fish it out, I’m committed to this now all on my own.

To those of you attempting NaNoWriMo, good luck and all the best. If it’s your first go, make sure you have a good seating position whilst typing. My back was killing me after I did my first attempt. Worth it though.

Good bye

Somehow….I didn’t get much done really. Or did I?

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Hello

 

Looking back over my last post I realise I’ve only partially stuck to my new routine over the past week.

The writing part of my routine has moved as slowly as ever. This is due in no small part to working over-time on Saturday, wanting to chill on Sunday, and starting back on the weights again Monday through till Today. Now, I don’t lift a crazy amount of weights but after 6 months of not using them at all, it’s made me pretty tired and lacking in the energy to write. Though I know this will change once exercise is as much a part of my routine as writing, reading and editing, I’m hoping it will come sooner rather than later. I’m feeling tired now as I write this post. I have managed to write a character profile for the hero of my time travel piece. Once I get my internet sorted, as in unlimited and not with a cap on it, I’m looking forward to going head long into time travel research. Who knows what I’ll come out with or even if my mind can handle it.

The editing part of the routine is going along as always. I’ve just finished Chapter 7 as it goes. It ended pretty poorly and I noticed how I’m very aware of the style of my story. My hero was on a hunt when he got distracted by his would be love interest. I added this in because it’s happened to me before. Not the hunt thing the distracted by love interest thing. I’m glad this is in as I hope it gets across how normal my seemingly abnormal hero can be. Like I said, the chapter ended pretty poorly and when I edited it, I removed three lines and put in one new one. I’ve read enough about having to be ruthless whilst editing and to make sure everything left in is useful to the story and I think I’m getting the hang of it.

The reading part of the routine is coming along nicely. Along with moving onto the latest edition of Writing Magazine, which has an interesting article regarding how Amazon could help authors instead of hindering them that was pretty interesting (thank you Tom Ellis author of the Parish & Richards crime series) I have been moving on with my current book to read, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument by Corey Taylor. As in, the lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour aka The Great Big Mouth. Now, I picked this up because I’ve heard a lot about how tough and diverse his upbringing was and listened to how he has used it to help his song writing but my curiosity wanted to know more. And so far I’ve not been disappointed. Some of things he’s gotten up to so far, I’m up to chapter about Sloth if you’ve read it before, are…well…all over the place, which is how I like my reading to be. He does this with structure and he writes so well I’m glad I forked out the money for it. To think I forgot I had it until I came across it when I last moved house.

Ok. That’s me for the time being. Have a good week.

Cheers

Getting a routine going.

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Helllo

 

How do I get a routine going? Do I just start doing stuff and hope it all falls into place or do I stick to a plan and never waver from it whatsoever?

I’m not sure really. After a week of trying to stick to a routine which encompassed doing three things every evening I’m having a mixed time of it.

Firstly, the routine in question. I decided, after going back to my parents’ house for a weekend and finding two Writing Magazine’s for October and November and having not finished reading September’s, I needed to crack on. I didn’t want to rush for obvious reasons but I did need to get to the reading and that. So it was that I said to myself I will read some of my magazine every evening. I will also edit a few pages of my story and start to write another one.

I’m not doing too badly so far. I’m reading the magazine more frequently and getting, as usual, all kinds of helpful hints and tips from the articles and reader’s letters. One letter had me re editing something I’d only ten minutes prior edited. I pretty much slagged off a venue in Manchester and remembered, if I sell copies of my book someday, that I can’t do that unless I’d liked to get sued. Thankfully it was a quick edit to change from a negative to a neutral stand point on the particular place. This shows me that at least one part of my routine is working.

So far as editing goes, that’s moving along as well but not as fast as I’d like. It’s all my fault but what can I say, life keeps getting in the way. I didn’t sleep very well last night so I got to bed early the next, I played on my Xbox all night, I was drinking at a beer festival all day Sunday and was hung over all day Monday, you know the drill. I’m hoping to catch up with my editing this weekend and am looking forward to my own, made up, NaEdMo (National Editing Month) extravaganza. More on NaEdMo closer to the time.

The writing has gone even slower. I’ve started to make notes, which has led to having to do plan to do extensive research on time travel in the future, for a sci-fi story I’ve wanted write for a while. I’m not going to mention anything about it but for anyone who’s written a story with time travel in it, it does seem to be a bit of a mess. I’m sure whatever I come up with will be ripe for someone to pick holes in. Most time travel stories are whether they are air tight with their logic or not.

Right I’m done. Thanks for reading. Have a good week.