July Update

Melissa:
I'm late with updating for July, but I have good reason! I do! Really! I've been busy, working hard on re-writes of my steampunk fairy tale retelling. YES! It's hard to believe, I know.

I've feared re-writes in the worst way for a long time. I still do. But after a few passes I wanted this to be a huge leap toward finishing. I'm going through the print changes I've red marked and making new and necessary ones now, along with adding new sections to make things flow better and fill in a few holes. No, not all holes are gone, I know that. But I feel as I'm getting through a great deal of them. And maybe, just maybe, this story is shaping up into something. :)  (I know, it's that glory feeling at the moment and it will fade very soon, like when it's crushed.)

I've actually grown the story from about 66k to 75k words, and still climbing as I'm not done! Exciting! (Again, this will most likely get cut down again when I go through it with someone who knows what they are doing and not a friend.)

I'm surprised that I'm actually having fun with this round of re-writes. I feel as I have a clearer mind in where the story is going and what the characters are doing. I might, eventually make changes of POV as I'm seeing things differently with this round of works. But, first, I want to finish this and send to a friend (who knows what she's doing in books) to read and discuss. I know the words are still rough and it's not the best of stories (my reader will probably laugh so hard she'll fall off the couch) but at least I took the next step in the way of words.

What helped get me going? I was free of editing work for the month of July and Camp NaNoWriMo was happening. So, why not? I proposed 50k words in a month for Camp NaNoWriMo. And I made it!

How did I count words for that? Well, with re-writes I was reading, rather detailed and slowly, along with adding and deleting words. So, I took the sections read and adjusted at their total word count when done with the section and added each section I completed. I actually finished at just over 52k for NaNoWriMo.

My next goal, to finish these re-writes by the end of August and starting into my Christmas Business series to do the same.

Here's to a great month in words!