Thursday, November 10, 2011

Argh! Time Constraints

Why, oh why can't there be several more hours in a day? 24 hours...seriously? And 6-8 of those we're sleeping, unless we're insomniacs. I often only sleep 4-5 hours myself, but not consistently enough to consider thinking I'm an official insomniac...it's just Mommiac. Depending on the number of kids the acute Mommiac symptoms can last 18-25 years and then to some lesser extent forever.

Any-who.

I've hit a fork in the road. I know which path I have to take -- due to deadlines -- but it's frustrating. I have to sit NaNoWriMo aside for a week or so for manuscript edits.

I received the last response from my friends and beta readers on November 2. They were awesome to take the time out of their own busy 24 hours to read through and give feedback. I always do a quick look-see at the responses and then set it all aside for about a week or so. This gives me time to mentally prepare for the changes that need to be made.

So, starting tomorrow I will be diving into the final edits for Echoes of Regret. This time will be a bit harder. I'm coming into this a changed woman. There are disabilities I'm still trying to recover from as a result of the brain surgery in April. This edit will help me determine the extent of recovery I will have to do, which in turn might affect my publishing goals for the next year.

But enough of that depressing bit.

There's not too many changes I need to make to Echoes of Regret. Mostly it's weird grammar mistakes my brain doesn't compute these days (using he/she intermittently as one example). There are some subplots and gaps in my antagonist storyline that I need to beef up. And then some facts/story points I took for granted and carried over from book 1, Revelations of Tomorrow, that I didn't clarify enough.

Oh, and I have to finish my cover art input sheet so Desert Breeze's groovy artist can make yet another fantastic cover. She does a really great job tying the look and feel of series and trilogies so I'm excited to see how Revelations of Tomorrow compares to Echoes of Regret.

I knew this would happen at the same time as NaNoWriMo and prepared for it. It still sucks, but it is what it is. I'll be picking up my NaNoWriMo and catching up during the week of Thanksgiving, which I have off.

So wish me luck folks. (Don't worry, I have band aids and antiseptic on hand in case Captain Noah Bonney gets pissed off at the changes I'm making.)

6 comments:

  1. If only we writers could go through some kind of time warp that gave us more hours to work with, right? Just take it a page at a time and try not to get overwhelmed by the big picture. At least, that's what I keep telling myself, lol.

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  2. ...Or have that device from "Tommyknockers" that types out dreams
    ...Or the TARDIS (Plus if you had The Doctor around you'd have potential story ideas for eons)
    However, I don't think a loop in the time/space continuum would work because you'd be back at square one every time...

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  3. Oh man, I hear you. That mommy thing (and the grandma thing) feels like it takes up all of the hours I have. But if something's more important than writing time, I'm glad it's that. :)

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  4. I'm a #nanofail too! Promo for the first week, then line edits on another story...will be happy to get any words at all.

    My kids are all older but even so they take oodles of time! I'm having knee surgery in Dec. So will have several weeks of down time followed by a gradual return to work, hoping to get some big word counts then.

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  5. @Allie: OMG... Allie! A time warp would be fabulous.

    @ Sarah: I'm not sure I want all my dreams typed out...heehee, I might be put in an insane asylum. TARDIS would be cool but I get motion sickness, so The Doctor might kick me out.

    @ Colette: I hear you. The mommy stuff is the kind of busy I don't mind at all. I only get so much time. My oldest is a Junior now, leaving only a year before he leaves the nest, so whenever he wants my time I gladly give it.

    @Melisse: Man, you're busy, busy! I hope you get some words in this month, but make sure not to overdo it with the surgery. Remember, healing and recovery comes first.

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  6. Hi AR -- late to the party, but I'm here and I do agree. I'd love to stretch time. Maybe use a temporal line of some kind? It seems that I don't get enough done even when I have down time! It's crazy, really.

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