2013 – M. Jandreau

Process Stalled

The editing process has come to sort of a screeching halt. It seems like that, anyway. I guess I didn’t anticipate that this would take so long. I finished the first draft 9 months ago and have been going through the editing process since.

So far, I’ve:

Had Austin read through the whole thing and do a rough edit to improve the story and fix any typographical errors.
Had a handful of friends and family read it for their feedback
Added to the ending a bit and added a few chapters throughout.
Began the full edit for the final draft.

It’s the final draft edit that seems to be sucking my will to live.

Honestly, the longer this whole process takes, the more discouraged I get and less likely I am to finish this thing. Which is pretty terrible, given the time and money I’ve invested into it. It’s just how I am, though. I lose interest when things take too long to finish.

I’m trying to stick it out, I’m just frustrated with the entire process and myself. I had hoped to be done by my birthday at the end of September. That slipped and I set the expected end date to December 31st, that clearly won’t happen as we’re only about 10% done with the final edits. Hopefully now that my editor’s on break from her teaching schedule, we can plow through the rest of it and be done.

Then all that’s left is the artwork (which I should probably have someone get started on) and publishing.

Then I can finally check off “become a published author” from my bucket list. I’ll likely finish up the second book sometime after that, but I think I’m going to need a break from this whole thing for at least a month or two once this is all done.

Or will I? I haven’t touched My Last Days in nearly 2 months, so perhaps I can just jump right back in there and finish that first draft. I know that one’s going to be kind of a nightmare to edit though, my thoughts have been all over the place and I recognize that I need some major help with that story. I’m about 40,000 words in and I still don’t really know what it’s about. I’ve just been typing and thinking like a madman when I was working on it. Hopefully it’ll come to me and won’t end up being about something that’s been beaten to death.

As the year comes to a close, I am thankful for all that I’ve accomplished. Not just in writing a first (and second) draft of something I’ve had kicking around in my head for the better part of my 20s, but also for other things in my life that I’ve finally gotten done. It’s been a whirlwind year and one that I’m (mostly) proud of. Here’s hoping that 2014 will be as great for you as I anticipate it will for me. Happy New Year!

Editing Seems to Take Forever

Through no fault of anyone’s, it seems like this whole editing process is taking way longer than I anticipated or want it to.

Six weeks ago, I put work on My Last Days on hold, so I could get back into the mindset of the characters for A Sour Chord, so the editing would be easier as each round of edits (a few chapters at a time) came in from my editor. From the get go, I had no idea that this process would take so long. I knew it’d take longer than the amount of time it took me to write the first draft, but I had no idea that it’d be by a factor of 8 or 9.

Since I’ve been feeling stagnant with things, I decided to jump back into My Last Days today and keep writing. My creative mind needs to keep moving or I’m likely to keep coming up with ideas for more stories to write when I’m done with these first two and seeing as how I have no idea if these’ll even sell, it’s probably not best to put the metaphorical cart before the horse, as they said in olden times.

It’s been six weeks since I last wrote anything in My Last Days, so it took some time this morning to reacquaint myself with the characters and where I was going with the story last time I wrote. I used iBooks (which is now available on my computer and not just my iPad and iPhone) and read through the first handful of chapters and the last handful that I’d written.

Then I began writing. I typed and typed and got stuck. I forced myself to get through close to 500 words before I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. I’m not sure if it’s because of the lack of writing over the last six weeks, or if I’m just not feeling the story, or what’s happening, but today is not a day where I’ll knock out a few thousand words.

I do feel a little bit better since I’ve written something but not as great as I’d like to feel and not as productive.

I guess I’ll try again tomorrow (or this afternoon if I feel up to it) and continue to chug away at the edits for A Sour Chord as they come in. I’m hoping that I’ll have the first book done sometime early in 2014 and make it available for sale. Fingers crossed that it gets done eventually.

My Last Days on Hold, Back to A Sour Chord

I didn’t realize it had been so long since I’d updated the progress blog here. Over the last three weeks, a bit has changed with things.

My new (wonderful) editor, Lauren, sent me her initial feedback earlier in this month, which I’ve read at least half a dozen times by now. I agreed on most of what she said and will work a lot of her feedback into the story as we go through the (hopefully) final rewrite in the next month or two.

In order to get back into the mindset of A Sour Chord, I’ve ceased working on My Last Days. Not for good, just so that I can get my mind back into that of my characters from A Sour Chord. I don’t know of many (if any) authors that write two books at the same time and it’s probably because it’s so difficult to jump back and forth between sets of characters, stories, locations, etc.

As of now, I’m waiting on Lauren to start sending me detailed feedback on a chapter-by-chapter basis. That’ll allow me to go through and either edit or flat-out rewrite parts of the book to get to the goal that we’re setting out for the ending. The overall ending won’t change (I stood my ground on that, despite her recommendation to change it), but the story that gets us there will change a little bit.

What I’ve learned during the editing process

It’s difficult to find an editor — I didn’t factor cost into this at all, I’d gladly have spent whatever it took to find someone that I felt would take this seriously — despite just being something I’m doing on a whim. I counted my emails and I emailed back and forth with 15 editors before finding something that I felt took me seriously enough to want to do the project. Many of them were either outrageous in their pricing, didn’t want to offer me a sample edit (why would you pay someone when you don’t know what their style of editing is?), or said they’d get back to me and never did. A very frustrating process.
Go with your gut — if an editor comes across as pushy or difficult during this process, they’re probably going to be pushy or difficult to work with too. I’m glad I didn’t go with a handful of them that were really unpleasant via their emails.
It takes a long time — I finished writing the book nearly six months ago, hoping to have it published by now. It’s left me feeling somewhat defeated that I missed my own (admittedly completely arbitrary) goal. Having friends read it and give me their input as well as the actual editing process has been mentally draining, but hopefully worth it in the long run.

From here, the final edit/draft will be completed. The cover will be designed. The book will be on sale. And hopefully, just hopefully, at least a couple of people will buy it.

Then I’ll finish My Last Days and start this whole horrible process all over again.

My Last Days Continues!

word-count Over the last three weeks, I’ve been chugging away at My Last Days, trying to get through the first draft. You can see the recent word count history there on the right. A couple of big days early on, but I’ve been slowing and missing days due to “real life” getting in the way. It’s been a busy month for me and I’m just now getting back to writing every day.

I’m about 40% done now and am finding it more difficult than it was to get through A Sour Chord’s first draft. Maybe because I had already known how that one would end and what all the main plot points were since I wrote the short story so long ago. With My Last Days, I’m honestly making it up as I go along.

My goal is to hit 100,000 words with the first draft, though I think I’ll probably end up closer to 80,000 when I’ve written all that I think the story needs. I may try to push it a little bit, though. If the editing process is anything like A Sour Chord’s first edit, I’ll lose a few thousand words that get cut out during that process, so I think I’m shooting for more so the end result is a more readable book that doesn’t feel too short.

I wrote another 1,502 words this morning in a single chapter and have planned out the next three chapters to help me through the rest of this week. I realize that at some point I’ll have to go back through and re-think the entire story, its meaning, and organize the chapters into a more sensical order. Right now I think I’m just writing haphazardly to get the words out onto the paper.

I wonder if other authors struggle with their second book more than their first. I’d imagine so. I think most people that write have a big idea for their first novel and power through it and then get to the second and hope they have as good of an idea as their first.

On the A Sour Chord front, editing continues there. My editor, Lauren, is working through her first edit and then will go back and do a full line-by-line edit, and probably hate every sentence I’ve written, but hey, that’s what you pay an editor for!

I’m behind my own personal schedule with having A Sour Chord available, but that’s due to my ignorance on how this whole process works. I thought I could power through it more quickly than was really possible. I’m learning a lot as I’m going through things and am thankful that my life leads me the opportunities to not only learn this process, but to follow through with it.

More updates coming soon and hopefully a sample chapter (once we have a final draft of one!) will go up on the site as soon as possible. Thanks for checking in!

A Sour Chord update & Progress on My Last Days

It didn’t occur to me until I just typed the title of this post that both of my first two books have three word titles. Completely unintentional, I assure you.

Since my last update, a number of things have happened. So let’s catch you up, shall we?

I launched this here website. It’s not entirely finished as a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that I built is relying on the first book being done and for sale.
I finally found an editor that I’ve hired to do the final edit before the book can go on sale. Turns out one of my good buddy’s fiance is getting her Master’s in Creative Writing, so that’s a good fit. I look forward to being done with that process — the whole editing part has been my least favorite so far.
I’ve made progress on the second book — My Last Days — which I’m 25,000+ words into. You can see the progress of the word count there on the right in the progress bar (along with the progress bar on A Sour Chord.)

What’s next on my agenda?

Finish the edit for A Sour Chord
Have the cover art designed
Publish the book and hope someone buys it (other than my mom.)
Continue working on My Last Days and repeat the process.

Is it wrong or am I insane that I already have an idea for the next book after My Last Days? I keep coming up with these ideas of stories that I knew or told or heard when I was younger and think they’d make good books. Since this whole process is rather easy, I figure why not? I’m in my 30s now and have the time and resources to do it, so why not be an author? I may not be the next Stephen King or J. K. Rowling, but I’m doing the best I can!

Third Draft really complete this time!!

As I sit here watching Die Hard on this fine Saturday morning, I thought I’d post an update on where things are.

I finished the third draft early this week. There’s around eight new chapters and three or four have been expanded further, but were previously existing chapters.

I’ve also spoken with a few more editors and am planning to make a final choice shortly, once I hear back from one more (that came highly recommended). Pretty exciting stuff!

At this point, I’m just looking forward to being done with this whole part of the process.

I’ve started thinking through ideas for book covers and have discussed it with the designer who’ll be doing the work — she had some ideas, as well. So hopefully we’ll move forward with that in time for the edit to be complete.

It’s looking more and more like this is going to take longer than I originally thought, which bums me out a bit. But it’s a learning process and I’ll know better for next time, I suppose.

I can’t wait for you all to read the final book. It’s something I’ve come to love over the last five months and I hope you will, too!

Third Draft Complete!

Based on the feedback I received from the four folks that finished reading A Sour Chord, I’ve revised the book to complete the third draft. I’m really pleased with the first feedback!

I sent out the book to a total of 7 people and heard back from 4, so I’ve done some revisions based on that feedback.

At this point, I don’t think the other three folks will send along their feedback, so I proceeded without them.

Based on that feedback, I wrote four more chapters, expanded on three, and gave some more backstory to certain parts of things. I think, at this point, I’m 100% done. So what’s left?

Hire a real editor. Someone that’ll go through, read the whole thing, and tell me what needs to change.
Have the cover artwork done.
Incorporate editor’s changes.
Publish.

I’m shooting to have this whole thing done by the end of September, but I think that’ll be a bit tight, given how long the editing process has taken so far. We’ll see.

I’m happy with the progress and third draft. I can’t wait to get this out there and see what others think.

Friends are reading A Sour Chord!

So much has happened in the last week! Let’s get you all caught up, shall we?

For starters, I’ve sent out the book to half a dozen friends to read and give me their feedback. Not so much on the grammar and typo side, but of the story itself. They’ve been chugging along pretty quickly. I haven’t gotten any feedback yet, but I did set up a survey to capture their feedback and am anxiously awaiting some results to help nail down some final touches!

I also finished the second draft! I went through and re-read the entire thing last week, tweaking phrasing, word usage, and adding a chapter that I thought I wrote but didn’t.

Once I gather everyone’s feedback, I’ll do a third edit before sending it off to an official editor to get their feedback and make changes before going live with sales.

I’m beyond excited and I can’t wait!

Second Edit Complete!

It’s been a month since my last update and I’ve been hard at work on reconfiguring parts of the story.

Since the last update, a number of things have changed and gotten completed;

Our female lead has gotten a name change — I never liked the name I originally picked, so I went through a brainstorming session (bringing in some others’ opinions, as well) and finally came up with her new name.
The band’s name has been finalized as well — the name in the first draft was a placeholder and I knew that from the very first time I typed that name. The name I picked I feel is strong and fits better with the characters that make up the band.
The second draft is complete — I reworked some of the bits and pieces to make the story tie together a little better. I still have a couple of ideas for things I may change, but I want to get some feedback first. Which brings us to:
I solicited some feedback from friends on the finalized second draft. I have about half a dozen people reading through the book now who are going to provide their feedback to me. I look forward to hearing what other people thought.

I’m still right on schedule for end of September, I think. Though, at this point, I’m at the mercy of other people. I’m hopeful I’ll have enough time to finish by then. Things that are left to do:

Create the artwork for the cover.
Do a final edit.
Have a professional editor read through it.
Publish to Kindle, iBooks and Barnes & Noble store.
(Eventually) record an audio book version (assuming there’s any interest in such a thing.)

I’m getting both nervous and excited. Only one person has read the book entirely through so far and I’m freaking out a bit having six more people read it. I can’t wait to hear what they think!

First Edit Complete!

I was so excited about the progress this week (not to mention busy) that I didn’t have a chance to write a blog about this week’s big milestone: the first edit is complete!

Austin really pulled through and edited the last half of the book in about a week, and I managed to get through all his notes and changes in two days. My eyes are still bothering me from it but I managed to get it done anyway.

While chatting with him as I went through his edits, he let me know that he felt like I took greater care towards the end, saying that the last few chapters had very few edits. Which I found a bit surprising given that the last few chapters seemed to just fly out all at once — I blinked and before I knew it, I had the last chapters and was done.

My one question (so far) to him was whether or not he could predict the outcome — which he couldn’t. I enjoyed that. My whole point (with the story) was the surprise the reader and to end it on a note that would be unexpected but (hopefully) satisfying.

To prepare for the next round of edits I’ve printed a hard copy (which to my surprise was 226 pages and a whole black ink cartridge in my shiny new Epson printer) so I can mark it up with pen. I’ll be on a plane in a little over a week to Vegas for a long weekend and will be doing some story and character editing on the flight there and the flight back. I figure I should have enough time to write some notes and get down some thoughts after I get through a full reading for myself.

I’m really excited that I’m moving through this process at a greater speed now and with Austin’s notes, I feel like I’m almost unstoppable.

In case you’re wondering what the book looks link printed, here’s a picture I took:

Editing Continues and Some Thoughts

I’ve been chugging away at the edits that Austin sent over before he left for a vacation in Greece (I know, I’m jealous too!) and I’d guesstimate I’m a little less than halfway through the list of edits he had.

So far I’ve trimmed a few thousand words out through the various edits, which I think is good.

Going back through and editing has allowed me to read a lot of the actual book myself. It’s helped me realize that there’s some changes I’d like to make.

Most notably, I want to change my lead female’s name — for reasons I won’t get into here.

I also want to change the name of the band — as a placeholder I’ve been using Resolute Resolve, which makes no sense and is flat-out stupid. I’ve known since I started writing that this would be a placeholder, I just have to spend the time to come up with a different name.

I need to revisit describing some of the characters — I’ve done this twice so far already, but need to do it again as now months after writing some of the characters I’m having a hard time remembering what I wanted them to look like.

The story needs some work — there’s certain keys that I wanted to hit to make sure that the end is really powerful. It’s not a twist in the traditional sense, but I think the ending comes as somewhat of a surprise. My hopes is that I pulled it off well, but I know that there’s some work that needs to be done.

I’m still pretty well on schedule for where I wanted to be at this time. I’m hopeful that when Austin gets back from vacation we can plow through the rest of the edits, and then I can use my (fancy new) printer to fire off a printed copy to mark up with a pen.

I was hoping I could do that on the plane on the way to my vacation at the end of the month, but I don’t think that’ll work out with the timing. Perhaps I’m wrong, but time will tell.

Just about halfway through

I’ve been chugging away at doing my first read through and am just about halfway there. It’s such a surreal experience to read your own work, especially since I’ve been reading it on the iPad.

Though I decided the other day that once I’m done with Austin’s edits (which should hopefully be soon), I’m going to print a hard copy to markup with my changes. I’ve been finding things as I’m reading through that would be easier to just jot down on paper, and go back and make those changes. Nothing major, but little things here and there: this reads funny, this character was taller earlier. That sort of stuff.

I also started interviewing some editors through a number of online services, and will hopefully be able to nail that down before I’m done with the actual first draft.

The whole process is taking quite a bit longer than I anticipated and I still have quite a bit of work to go. But I’ll get there. Seeing as how I don’t have a deadline or a publisher to report to, there’s no immediate rush on getting everything done at a specific date or time. Being my own “boss” has its rewards.