Tea: Bit of Courage (Green Tea with Sunflower pedals)
Current Book: Star of Fortune by Nora Roberts
My Writing: Editing Chapter 22 of Book 2
Music in the background: The Watcher by Healing Ether
Today's Story: Piece by Piece
It seems silly to start a blog, when I have teaching prep to do, a classroom library to update to encourage students to find the same joy of finding adventure that I do, a novel to finish and polish, and a family to mold, but I needed a way to release my world from the heaviness inside my psyche. However, I was not ready for the social media diary--that's cringy to me. No offence to those who make it work for them, but for me, it is impersonal. I have found in my writing that I need to feel like I'm talking to someone, not to a population of people, because lets be honest, we NEVER tell the same thing to two different people. One person I may say yes jump off the cliff and make sure the bunji is attached, where as I'd tell another friend she needed to step away from the ledge. So here I am, being personal and using my own whole in the wall space to start a real life blog Steeped in Stories, where writers are forged, and every story is steeped to change us just a little, over a cup of tea.
I'll start off this blog by being very personal and raw. Writing terrifies me, yet it is the only thing that sets my soul free. Free to dream, free to express, free to change the world as I know it. I have a huge respect for those who can go out and write a story in a couple months and publish it the next day. FOR ME, I have to mull it over and process it in my veins first. Same thing when I finish reading someone elses story. Each piece of literature makes me think and ponder the world or what I would do in that situation. I fall in love with the characters and they dynamics between them as the survive their journey together. There are authors I refuse to read anymore because they broke my trust as a reader. There are also books and authors I will champion until the day I die, like Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. Uggg, that may be a blog post all of its own one day. Back to the point, I need the time to process the emotions that each adventure took me through. My own books are no different.
I published Moors Deep over a year ago, the second book in the series, and I should be happy about it. Yet, here I am at 10 o'clock at night, struggling to get through my own story, because the 'story of the story' is hindering my ability to love this book--and that breaks me in a whole new way. For ten years, I have dreamt of this story and what happens next to Warriam and Anora. The choices, the hiccups, the reunion they will get, but I have hit a road block on the "professional" side that has put my passion for writing to a stop.
How did you publish your book and are now editing it, you ask? I commishioned a narrator to read my stories (the next logical step I thought to share my story in a different format) and with her first read though, she said there are a lot of mistakes and formatting issues within the story that it made it difficult to read. She said she could read it to where the words and inflection will match the book, but if someone goes to read it, it will be wrong. So I pulled them off the market and hired her to edit my novels. Book One took 4 months. I was excited, and the momentum was there. Book Two is going on 11 months. Ten of those months the narrator/editor went MIA. No story, no contact, no progress--and all my money wasted.
This of course sent me through a slew of emotions. Anger, sadness and fear being at the top of the list. I had paid for both novels to be edited in full after book one was completed. Yet, when book two derail I tornado'ed and nearly quit writing altogether. I spend two years of my savings to pay for the first editor that never finalized the edits. Then, I spent another year of savings on the current editor, who seemed to be on the same path. Of course, we had words and came to a new agreement after she explained her own very human story to me, but the fear lingers, and even though it is my turn to finish and agree to edits, there is no contact.
With it being my turn to finalize edits on this book and it terrifies me. It is taking forever and my passion for this novel has dwendled because of the 'story of the story' that challenged my joy ever step of the way.
The things I've learned through this four year process:
1. Find a repretable editor that charges fair wages. They all say they charge by the word but clarify what that mean! My my first editor charged every time she read that word, so six read-through's is 6x the cost, as opposed to a by the job price.
2. HAVE A CONTRACT --be explicit AND have a termination clause. They may be cool people but the minute business (money) is involved, NO ONE is your friend.
3. Be okay firing someone that is bleeding you of money and/or energy. You owe them nothing.
4. Seperate the story of the story from your novel. It is hard to do, but much like a child in the middle of arguing parents, the child is not at fault--nor is the novel.
5. Trust your gut. If it feels like a bad situation, get out of it.
After journaling and realizing this in myself, I have a goal of only editing one chapter a day. I'm three days into it and I'm finally feeling the heartbeat of the story again. I wish people could love it as much as I do, but much like a mother, no one loves their babies more.
Thank you for sticking around and more to come on the adventure of a writer-reader. Until next time, keep the kettle on and find a good book to fall into.
Gracie
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