I’m pretty sure it nearly killed me. I spent most of this morning and early afternoon recovering from multiple sleepless nights desperately trying to finish the manuscript ready for beta reading. Why? Because I have so much else to do and if I didn’t finish the manuscript by early this week, I didn’t know when I’d get the time again.

However, I’m victorious! And while about two weeks later than I said I’d get it done, I still managed to finish it! Now it’s on to my next major project to complete before August (I hope there’s no more late nights ahead *sigh* I have to get in practice of waking up way too early for anyone who is a Night Owl): finishing my unit planning.

This is a pirate story, and don’t let anyone else tell you different. It all started on a boat…
“This, madam,” the first mate said, “is the HMS Hawk. It is a schooner, not just ‘a boat.’”
I rolled my eyes. Where did I find people like this? And why couldn’t I leave things well enough alone? “So it’s a sailboat, then?”

Yeah, random, but given a few seconds I could come up with characters, which is just a short hop away from “workable, beginning plot ideas.” So I’d better back off now before I start naming the first mate (Timothy) or figuring out the setting (steampunk alt. world)…

Argh! I’m doing it already! Run! Run while you can!

“Oh, and I edited the sex scene a little…just edited, though. I didn’t try to increase the length or anything!” Eh? Get it? Get it? *elbow nudge* (John’s reply was to groan and say, “I didn’t hear that.” Never did appreciate a good pun.)

I’m still snickering. I don’t care, I think I’m funny.

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Versus Chapter 1:

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Versus Chapter 31 (currently the last chapter):

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Ignoring for a moment that it’s an Internet quiz and therefore should be taken with a grain of salt, should I wonder if this is a sign of a fluctuating writing style? Meh, I’ll chalk it up to Internet quiz and be amused that my trippiest chapter (the prologue) comes up as Stephen King.

Then, just cause I was curious, I analyzed the 2nd chapter of the 2nd book, which has a sex scene in it, and to my amusement, here’s the result:

I write like
Harry Harrison

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

And perhaps most overwhelming: that her characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have become the example of the perfect couple for hundreds, if not thousands, of women and probably quite a few men.

What would that be like? Especially for someone who had to struggle to even get her name on her own work without people disbelieving that she wrote it. Probably better we’ll never find out, she may just keel over from the shock of it. But I’d like to think she’d say something incredibly witty and go off to take a vacation in Bath.

I replied, “Trust me, I’ve been thinking about that all week.”

He gave me a beautiful smile as he put my book in a bag and told me to have a lovely day. I walked out of the store feeling happier than when I had entered it and thought how nice it was to meet kind people.

During my drive, the sun was setting and I had to pull of the road for a moment to enjoy the view.

Taken on my cell phone camera, so it's not a great picture, but still the colors!

On the way back, the odometer of my faithful Saturn turned to 100k. Honestly, this is the first time a car of mine has hit 100k (well, I’ve owned two cars, but since the first was stolen, I don’t really count that) and a part of me was worried it would just break down the moment the numbers rolled over. It worries me a little, considering that I now have a job 75 miles away and will be commuting quite a lot. I hope the Saturn will be able to take it.

Don’t worry, I didn’t take the picture while I was driving.

I spent a good portion of the day having lunch with a friend and then walking around Barnes & Nobles afterwards instead of…you got it, editing. So, now, I’m playing catch-up this evening. I hate editing in the evenings since that’s when John’s home and it’s harder to concentrate with someone else puttering around, especially in an apartment. In the mornings and afternoons, the apartment is blissfully quiet and I can really concentrate (although I often have to leave because while the house is empty, there’s all kinds of things to do there, like catch up on my DVR recordings, clean, my various arts & crafts, reading, playing video games, etc. — just to name a few).

Blah, I can’t even concentrate on this blog post. I’m going to pour myself another cup of raspberry lemonade, read for a little while, then start editing The Blood Queen.

The problem with critique groups is it’s a bunch of people trying to find the same schedules to work on creative material. Unless all of you are in the same place with that creativity, then you’re going to have problems. When I mean “the same place,” I don’t mean talent-wise, I mean with where you see yourself with your writing. Is it a hobby? Are you doing it for eventual publication? How seriously do you take it? And of course, on top of that, how well do you take direction? How much time can you put into critiquing? A lot of the time, it seems very few people in our group had serious plans for publication, and then there’s been a few people (luckily all gone now) that have been unable to take critique direction.¹

Critique Group John also talked about our one-chapter-every-two-weeks format, which is also something I’ve had problems with. It’s very hard to get through a novel when you’re sending two chapters a month (and when we had eight members, that number dropped to one chapter a month). After all, that means for an average 80,000 word novel, with every chapter being…oh, say 4,000 words, you’re looking at finishing the last chapter of that novel 10 months later (20 months if you’re just sending in one chapter). For a lot of us, that means the novel has completely changed by the time the group reads the end. Or, it means that the group has difficulty remembering some of the finer details that happened in the beginning. For my own novel, I had a quick “outline guide” ready. Granted, after all this chapter-by-chapter critiquing, there’s the beta read at the end. That’s a whole novel critique instead of line-by-line edits. The beta read is to look at the overall picture, point out things like characterization and weak plot points. But, sometimes I wonder whether it wouldn’t be better to just do a beta read from the get go?

It was pointed out that submitting it chapter-by-chapter makes one stick to a writing schedule. I can’t deny that I’ve often used the excuse “Well, I have to send something into the group” as a way to produce something when I’m particularly busy. However, many professional authors will tell you that the way to become a writer is discipline. Write every day,² much like people say “20 minutes of movement/activity/exercising a day.” I try to do both — exercise and write. And, at the risk of sounding snobby, if you’re serious about writing for publication, you really should be writing more than 4,000-or-so words every 10 days.

However, in the end, we didn’t come up with an answer to Critique Group John’s concerns, or our own. The critique group will continue as it has always continued, and I know that our current schedule tempts newcomers easier than my secret preference³ not that I’m complaining. I think I’ll be very happy for the one-chapter-every-two-weeks process when I start my new job.⁴

However, like all good things, it eventually came to an end and so when I got my driver’s license, I began going to fireworks shows myself. Perhaps it was fitting that this first step of freedom was used to celebrate America’s Independence Day? Or maybe I’m waxing poetic for no reason? Anyway, one of John and my first dates were actually spent on a picnic blanket next to a man-made lake watching the fireworks. I remember we had found a spot next to the train bridge and the train had stopped to also watch the fireworks with the crowd. When the show finished, it blew its horn and everyone cheered.

This year, although John and I couldn’t see the fireworks together, we saw the same ones at different locations. I went to S.’s house and had a wonderful meal. Her backyard is huge — it can probably fit my entire apartment with room  to spare — and from this vantage point that overlooks the city, we saw the fireworks. Maybe not within spitting distance, but still a marvelous time.

When I think of the 4th of July, I have a lot of wonderful memories.

If you celebrate Independence Day, I hope yours was filled with good food, good people, and a good show.