Beautiful Books ~ January 2017

Hellooooo people! Happy Friday to ye. 

So I kind of didn't do the first part of Beautiful Books (I really thought I did, but now I can't find it so... *shrugs*), but I'm doing this because...I want to. And because it gives me another opportunity to ramble about Dandelion Dust :D 

~ Questions ~ 

What were your writing achievements last year?

Um...War Tears grew by 50-55k words. I wrote Love Needs No Words and won that contest. I started a bunch of stuff, wrote some short stories, and did Camp NaNo for the first time ever. :D 

What’s on your writerly “to-do list” for 2017?

Oh wow. So much stuff. XD Here's the general idea... 

-- finish writing Dandelion Dust (check! 34k) 

-- finish writing War Tears (goal: 100k) 

-- write On Eagle's Wings (goal 30-35k) 

-- finish Redeemed By the Messiah (goal: 20-25k) 

-- finish If There is No Second Chance (goal: 20k) 

-- finish To Win Her Heart (goal: 40k) 

-- write War Tears' sequel (goal: 80-100k) 

-- and who knows what else... 

Tell us about your top-priority writing projects for this year!

That would be Dandelion Dust and War Tears. :) Blurbs and some details can be found under the writing tab. I would like to get through the second draft of both. :) 

How do you hope to improve as a writer? Where do you see yourself at the end of 2017?

Improve – finish more projects and start less. Or, at least, combine some ideas so I don't have an additional 40+ 500 words documents by the start of 2018. 

Where do I see myself? Hopefully, as a better writer. More committed. More consistent. *smiles* Published? We'll see. 

Describe your general editing process.

Weeeelllll...seeing as how, up until now, the longest thing I've edited was about 7,500 words (Love Needs No Words) I haven't had that much experience, if you will, editing. So I guess I...fix grammatical errors, re-write where needed, add details, look for and change bad sentences, and remedy all those 'minor inconsistencies'...ya know, where Faith starts out a scene as it being midnight and twenty minutes later the characters are eating lunch? *nods* Those. 

On a scale of 1-10, how do you think this draft turned out?

9? Honestly, I'm thrilled with how Dandelion Dust has been going so far. I'm not at all disgusted with the first draft like I thought I would be. Although I do have a list of things to add/work on when I edit. And I haven't even start yet. :P 

What aspect of your draft needs the most work?

The ending? I'm pretty pleased with the epilogue, but those last couples chapters? Ehhh, not so much. One of the scenes that I really want to turn out well, is kind of falling flat right now. But that can change. XD 

What do you like the most about your draft?

The whole thing? The fact that I wrote it in 25 days? Agghh, I don't know...it's my precious. I do really like chapter 2. And the end of chapter 6. And the epilogue. :P 

What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?

Beta-readers! And another edit. And then maybe self-publishing. Although...hiding it in a dark whole forever might not be such a bad idea now that ya mention it... ;) 

What’s your top piece of advice for those just finished writing a first draft?

TAKE A BREAK!! Seriously. It helps. Put your masterpiece aside and don't let yourself so much as fix grammatical errors. Revel in your accomplishment. Shout it from the rooftops. Read, sleep, eat, just...don't edit until it's time. ;) 

Also, I sorta forgot to mention this before, but I'll be closing the 2017 Blog Survey on the 31st. So if you haven't filled it out already, now would be an awesome time to get on that. XD 

A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious weekend to you all!! 

~Faith