Friday, March 18, 2016

Editing//writing//crazy friends//excerpt

Hey everyone!!! Happy Friday!! Aren't Fridays absolutely wonderful?! It means the weekend is on the way, no school, and READING! I get the majority of my reading done during the weekend. Which is awesome, because then I can actually finish a book before the new week begins! 
Okay, I suppose I've talked enough about the weekend.  :)
As I mentioned before, I received The Silent Blade back from my wonderful beta readers in February. This past month I have been re-writing. And editing. And procrastinating. In fact, I was doing such a good job at that last one that a friend decided to motivate me. You see, this dear friend writes as well, and she has a couple stories I have been dying to read.  She decided that great way to motivate me would be to send  teasers for her stories to make me edit faster. Let's just say she comes up with some really really bad (in other words, great.) teasers. I sent her an email telling her just how cruel she was being in torturing me this way, and this is the reply I found in my email yesterday morning. 

Welcome to the motivational emails of Emily McConnell, the sort of emails that keep you on your toes and teach you responsibility and discipline. Subscribe to motivational emails with Emily today, and you will receive two emails a week to inspire you to edit more and procrastinate less! This offer will expire soon, so hurry and sign up today! Never again will you feel the urge to leave your editing behind, you will be determined to finish on time!

In other words she was telling me I totally deserved every bit of what she was putting me through. AUGH! I love my friends, but there are times I really, really,want to strangle them. Yesterday was one of those times.  We'll totally ignore the fact that it has helped me with my editing. 



Alrighty. I have a guest here on the blog today. A very unwilling guest, but a guest all the same. Well, a guest in the fictional sense of the word. I was able to find Kurt, my television announcer in one of my stories, and pull him up here. No, I didn't break his leg or anything. Anyway, he's here, and so I'll leave him to tell you all something. ;) 

Kurt glares at everyone in the audience. "Why am I here? You'd like to knowwouldn't you? So would I. I hate nothing more then a change of plans. You see, Jesseca likes to drag me around to do whatever she wants. She thinks I am here to personally serve her. I'm not, but I'll humor her this time." Shuffles around the papers in his hand. "Here it is. I am announcing a very short excerpt from The Silent Blade. Wait." He double checks the papers. "Wow. Okay, that is actually correct What a lousy thing to announce. Anyway, I do hope you find some enjoyment from it. I certainly didn't. I shall bid you farewell and wish you the happiest weekend you can have in such a horrid world." Door closes as he leaves the room. 

Umm, okay. Sorry, Kurt can be miserable when he wants to. I guess today was one of his bad days. Here's the excerpt he promised. He was correct in the fact that it is short. Very, very short. 


Before she could turn, an arm clasped her around the waist. She fought against, their hold, but it held her fast and lifted her up onto the front of a horse. Eira whirled around to see her captor and gasped. “Henry!” Her struggling increased all the more, but he held her in an iron grip.
“You’re going with me, my dear.” He kicked the horse and urged it into a gallop.
“No!”  She fought against the hand that held her captive, but he only seemed amused at her struggle. “There’s no getting away from me this time. Neither of your brothers nor your friend is here to save you now. And they won’t notice you’re gone for quite a while.”
“They’ll come.” Realizing her struggling was useless, she stopped and leaned as far away from him as possible.
“My dear Eira, in case you didn’t notice, they were all engaged in quite a struggle with Merek when I grabbed you and left. It will be quite some time before they notice you aren’t there.” He  smirked, obviously enjoying her discomfort.


And.  .that's it. What do you think? I know, it's not very much to be able to give an opinion about. ;) And since I am dying to know. . .what stage is your novel in? Do you enjoy editing? 
Have an amazing weekend!! :D 

14 comments:

  1. As I've mentioned before, I do not particularly enjoy editing my own work, but I do enjoy editing others works. My novel, well, lets just say that I haven't been able to work on it for awhile and lets just say that I have a slight case of writer's block. However, I have discovered that I am wonderful with coming up with way more ideas for stories to write than I will ever be able to do something with. I start them, and after the first few pages start something new even though I want to keep working on the previous story/ies. Any tips? Thanks for posting!

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    1. Yeah, for some reason it is ten times easier to edit someone else's work. ;)
      Augh! I know, right? I have enough ideas for a library full, but I have to push myself to finish even one story. *sigh*
      One thing that has helped me is having a friend who I send my chapters to once I finish them. Then I have their "encouragement" to get the next chapter finished. Plus they can give tips and help me if I'm stuck. It's kinda like having a beta reader before it's finished. Which is awesome! :D

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    2. Like I said, if you ever want another one of those "friends" that you want to send something to chapter by chapter, let me know! I really like your work!

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  2. That was in fact a very "bad" teaser Jessica!
    I'm on the last chapter of my middle-sized story. I enjoy editing other people's works but not my own, because... I tend to hate myself, get discouraged, think my story is worthless, and all sorts of other horrible stuff that invariably end in editor's block.

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    1. Haha, well. . .I kinda wanted it to be that way. ;P I love giving bad teasers. B-) But I absolutely HATE it when someone does it to me! Although I'm sure I deserve the pay-back. ;)
      Oh, yay! Stories are so much fun to finish!! Yeah, that is easy to do. But if God has given you the git of writing, then nothing is worthless! And every thing you write gives you more practice! Keep up the good work!! :D

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    2. Thanks, that's encouraging.

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  3. Ohhh I loved your excerpt! And wow, what a dedicated friend you have to work sooo hard to help you with your editing. I am so proud of that friend of yours, she is quite wonderful if I do say so myself. B-) That didn't sound conceited or anything...

    Editing. Well, I have a hate/hate relationship with editing. I have gotten a lot more disciplined with it over the last year and do actually get it done, but let's just say the queen of procrastination usually puts it off until she has nothing else to do. ;) I'm currently editing my novel "Ivan" by hand (doing a manuscript edit at last!), and working on finishing up computer editing of "Volume One, I-6: Legend of the Mornellys". Should be done with that within two or three weeks hopefully. Still need to do a final edit of "Free". ;) Editing, editing, editing.

    I'll be praying for you and your editing and I hope that friend of yours keeps you on your toes and continues to help you edit faster! ;) :D I loved the clip you showed us and I loved Kurt,I think he and a certain Luka would get along great. ;) Oh, who is Luka? Well, I guess you'll find out in Snow Day... ;) :D :D

    TEASERS! :D

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    1. Oh, I'm sure you agree with her. I need to find her double (if she has one) and get her on your case. B-) She has helped, and I'm sure she'd be of great help to you as well. She knows how proud of her you are, and she'd immensely happy to hear your praise. ;)

      AUGH! WHY DON'T WE LIKE EDITING?!?!?! What is it with writers and editing? Seriously, I need to solve the age-long problem somehow before I die. ;)
      You--you're working on the manuscript copy??? AHH!!!! I love "Ivan" so much! It's my favorite of all your works!! Oh, and just out of curiosity. . .where did you order the manuscript copy?

      Thank you! All keep all of your editing in my prayers as well! :) And I'm sure she will.
      You're horrible. *strangles Emily* I feel sooo much better now. B-)

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  4. I laughed so hard reading this!! Motivational emails? Responsibility and discipline? I think I need this! Not just for writing but for virtually everything. ;)
    Aw, poor Kurt! Getting dragged around as Jesseca's...announcer? ;)

    What stage is my novel in? Um, first draft. And at the rate I'm going it will be for... 5 years? Maybe 10. B-) No, I do not enjoy editing. At the current moment I enjoy nothing that has to do with words. >_<

    Loved the post, Jesseca!! :)

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    1. I'm glad you found it amusing. I found it rather infuriating. I know, if I had this motivation for everything in life, I'd be in medical school by now. :P But yeah. . .it would help!
      Hey, I had to go and find him. He was hiding. . .again! Don't pity him, he doesn't deserve it.

      No, it will be finished in the next year or so. I plan on personally making sure of it. B-) IF I HAVE TO COME AND WRITE YOUR THOUGHTS FOR YOU I WILL!!! Ahem. Sorry, I got carried away.

      Thanks. ;) I'm glad you enjoyed it; thanks for your help!

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  5. Yes, Fridays are pretty great. :) I usually get quite a bit of reading done on the weekend too. :)
    I really enjoyed the excerpt! I can't wait to read more!
    Have a great rest of you weekend, Jesseca! :)

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    1. Weekends and books are the best!
      Oh, thanks! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! :D :D
      You too! :)

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  6. I can't wait to have this book in my hands! B-)
    Editing...*groan* don't even get me started. There ALWAYS seems to be something somewhere in your book that alludes you to the bitter end...you don't realize it's a mistake until you're proof-reading it that last time and realize *grr* that it's been there all along. Then you have to wait yet another week or month before publishing your book.

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    1. I promise, once it's published, you shall be one of the first to know! It will be soon. . .hopefully. . .prayerfully. ;)
      YES IT'S HORRIBLE! I still can't believe how many mistakes others find when they read my work. I'm like "What?! I've read through this more times then I care to count and I still didn't see it!" Augh.

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