Happy September and Happy Labor Day.
Last month I did something I have never done before…a writing retreat. I did this because I needed to rewrite my November release. I wrote this series several years ago, when I was just starting my writing career. My writing style changed and the characters needed to be seasoned.
Most of the characters I write are Christian and are figuring out life while loving God. However, this series needed a lot of work. The story sounded a little preachy and that’s not what I wanted.
I had a 100K plus word book that was horribly written and incomplete. When I put this book on my production schedule for this year. I thought it just needed to be cleaned up. I had no idea it needed to be rewritten.
I took a break from my last project before starting on this one. Once I started reading to refresh my memory. I realized I was going to need more time to complete it. I pushed the release date out as fas as I could…November 29th. I’m not exactly pleased with the release date, but I’ve got no choice. I’m releasing a non-holiday romance during the holiday season.
How did I do with my writing retreat? I ended the week a few words short of 40K. I missed my goal of 60-65K words, but I was pleased with what I accomplished.
So here I am at the midnight hour trying to finish my book. The original book had some good parts which I was able to use. Let me clarify. Although the original book in its entirety wasn’t good, I still wanted to use the core story. When I made the decision, to do a major rewrite, it opened the door to a new ending and the possibility of another book. Or maybe a spin off for one of the characters.
The other thing I’m doing I probably shouldn’t is add to the series without reading the previous books. I know this isn’t very wise, but I was able to get away with it, because the book isn’t really a continuation, but more of a connected book. Not reading the other books in the series may not seem like the smartest thing to do, but only time will tell.
I was a little concerned about the word count because I’m close to 100K words. Then I checked the other books and was reminded they are 90K+, which made me feel a lot better about the word count.
As of this post, I am 3300+ words away from the end. I set a goal of today to complete the book and begin the first round of edits. Let’s see what happens.
Some of Tracy’s Books
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I have a few questions for you.
How’s your mailing list?
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Let’s get right into it. It’s that time of year when people make a lot of empty promises to themselves in the form of resolutions. Then they berate themselves when they come up short around the three month mark. The other thing they do in January is recap.
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Congratulations to everyone who participated in NANO. Whether you finished or not, isn’t the point. What matters is that you made the effort. I successfully finished NANO. I completed it with 50K+ words, however that wasn’t my number one goal.
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Welcome to November. Or more commonly known to writers as NANO month. I’m doing NANO for the fourth year in a row.
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Happy September and Happy Labor Day. Last month I did something I have never done before…a writing retreat. I did this because I needed to rewrite my November release. I wrote this series several years ago, when I was just starting my writing career. My writing style changed and the characters needed to be seasoned. […]
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