Now, for a brief update about the E-Book
I said it before. It’s not easy, this writing thing.
Between the writing, editing, and the rewriting I can honestly say I’m going a bit crazy. My deadline for senior project completion is rapidly approaching and I’m starting to feel, well, a little concern.
Okay, no, I’m freaking out.
This time around, in order to avoid the pitfalls of last time. I have enlisted the help of a lot of people, from friends and family to teachers and journalist, everyone has been pitching in to bring this project to completion. It is utterly amazing! Everyone finds something different, has opinions and suggestions, and has something they like and dislike. From character dialogue, to world descriptions, all the way down to sentence syntax. Their input has been priceless in helping solve and work the story out.
Now there is the occasional squabble that breaks out. Last Monday, a group of my friends got together to help me edit the first two part of the novella. It was 7 hours of bickering and me being completely confused over grammar changes (again, I don’t understand grammar). And when it came to some action scenes, well they couldn’t believe some moves were possible so we’d act them out (As seen below).
After that 7 hours, I dove into my network of people and found one of my journalist friend’s business card. He agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to help copy edit the work. I thought there was nothing left for him to do, after my friends and I had spent so much time on it. Wrong! He still found stuff we missed! And there was still stuff to work on when I sent it off to my editor again.
You see, no matter how much you rewrite and rework, there is always something wrong somewhere. And it can leave you a little discouraged. I’m constantly wondering when the work will be done. Truth be told, I have to make that decision myself or I’ll be forever trapped in an endless loop of work.
The second thing I realized, or was pointed out to me by my teacher, I’m an unconventional writer. Or as she like to put it,
I’m a writer, who doesn’t know how to write.
She didn’t mean it with any kind of malice. It is simply a fact. I have barely any grammar skills, my knowledge of sentence syntax is laughable, and my written vocabulary is no better than a 5th grader’s (If that). Now some of this can be chalked up to my schooling and dyslexia, when most kids in 4th grade were learning what a comma was, I was in a separate class learning what an “A” looked like. The rest is just my pure laziness that likes to strike at the worst time.
However, do to the strangeness of my schooling and disability, I have developed my own writing style and I like to believe that every author or writer has their own voice / style. I have learned, through various avenues, that my particular style isn’t for everyone and can be rather frustrating for the more grammar aficionado . That being said, my style has led to some rather nasty confrontations with various people too.
So, I have decided to go one step crazier.
I am posting right here, right now the first 19 pages of my e-book.
That’s right, you read it!
I am opening up and letting you, my fabulous friends, read and comment.
No, really, please leave a comment. I promise I won’t block you, no matter how nasty they are (please keep cussing to a minimum) or how much I disagree with them. Your input is valuable for future work. But please keep in mind. This is ONLY the first 19 pages. Meaning, this is not the entire story, so no jumping to conclusions! The next part will be up by next week, and the final part sometime after that.
Again leave your comments below, if you feel like it, and no worries if you don’t. Though if you do leave comments (A total of 30 comments, 1 comment per person), I will record my happy dance and post it.
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I’m still learning, but I don’t think I’m doing to bad.