Hey guys, welcome back! It’s the weekend and feeling more Fall-like here in the northeast than the last weekend of May. (Which is just fine with this Fall loving girl!)
Over the last two weeks, there’s been a few milestones happening in both my life and those around me. This weekend alone, both my mother and one of my closest friends hit milestone birthdays. (You know, the kind with a zero at the end of the number?) Of course both act decades younger than they are, so there’s that. 😬
The other milestone that happened was that I have actually cut over 100,000 words in my manuscript! With the average submission word count requested being between 80-130,000, I’ve literally cut an entire book from my book.
It boggles the mind that I wrote well over 400,000 words in a matter of months, let alone now trying to edit those words down into a story that makes sense after those cuts. But the fact that I’ve done this much makes me realize that I’ve done a lot more work than it feels like I have.
Let’s face it…when doing a task for a good length of time, after a while it can feel as if you’ve been standing still and not making any progress at all. When I decided to run the numbers after the fourth edit was complete last week, I was in shock. However, I was also so happy that I decided to run those numbers. I’ve been so frustrated thinking that I’m just not getting anywhere at all. Turns out, I really have been making a difference. Even if it’s just been 10 words here, a paragraph there. Inch by inch, I really have been productive. It was the first time I let out a deep breath in a long time.
Now on my fifth edit, I stalled a little again when another story came into my head. Thankfully, this is not just my own problem. I’ve been in touch with other authors who deal with this as well. (Always good to talk to others who are on a similar path for just such support.) So I started writing that one down, am now six chapters in and now that it’s cleared my head out a bit, I can now get back to the task at hand. I’ve worked too damned hard over this past year+ to just abandon this book.
I also have another completed book that I need to edit. That one, oh boy, that one means so much to me and I would love to get that book out as soon as I can. But just as this post has become a stream of ramblings, imagine what is inside my head and why I can’t do just one thing at a time.
Dealing with attention issues is a part of my journey. Thankfully I’ve started to work on that to help my focus and try to compartmentalize what I need to get done. Is it working? Eh, still trying. At least I’ve been able to recognize what needs to be done and how I can take the steps to continue down this road I’ve started on.
In the meantime, I thank you for letting me use this as a kind of therapy session. If you take nothing else from this post, I hope you take this…keep going. Even if it feels as if you’re not making progress? You are. Sometimes even the smallest steps can move you forward.
And that is where I will leave you for today. Until next time folks…cheers!
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To follow me on social, including #booktok and to check out my shops (you can even shop in this link as well), click: HERE
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If you’d like to check out the links on this site to shop or if you’d like to help support New Chapter Cove through my Ko-fi link, you can click on the logo.
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If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you so much and will see you soon! 🌸
Hey guys, welcome back! I hope everyone out there is doing well, doing some things that make you happy and just doing you. I am very happy to say that I’ve gotten back to my old routine and the two weeks of ‘floating’ have gone away. I’m now back to my rather OCD, Groundhog Day existence and really happy about it.
It’s funny, I used to be one of the most social people out there. For many years, I was out, every day/night, enjoying my friends and was always excited to get up knowing I’d be with them soon. I was also the one that organized many of the parties and reunions (I also did that as a job so I got damned good at it) and the best thing said to me by a friend after he flew in for one of our yearly get togethers? “I would never miss one of your parties!” If I haven’t said it lately, my friends are the best.
Things have changed, a lot. Since I got sick almost ten years ago now, I have trouble with being outside of the house. And since my recent relapse that started in August? I have gotten much worse.
I dread leaving my home. It’s not that I don’t want to see people I care about, I do. It just takes a lot of pep talks to get me out the door. I will lose sleep for days before I have to be somewhere, including doctors appointments. I’m not proud of this because I need to go, but I have been known to cancel an appointment because I stress out so much about being out in public.
Last week I had two days of testing. One was a reschedule because I had canceled the week before. I HAD to get these tests done. I had to. So I made the appointments close together, got my ass out the door and did what I had to do. I barely slept all week, but I got it done.
The thing about this is, once I’m out, I’m ok. I will chat up the uber drivers, the receptionists or if at a gathering, I will enjoy the hell out of myself reconnecting with friends and extended family. It’s the getting out the door part that is the issue. I break out into a sweat, breathe worse than I normally do and try to come up with excuses of why I can’t leave. And not just that…I’ve been getting worse with responding to texts, DMs and emails. I just freeze up and this is so unlike me in so many ways. (My friends can definitely attest to this.)
Yes, I have been on anti anxiety meds in the past. Unfortunately they put about 50lbs on me and when you are under five feet tall? Well, let’s just say, I looked like an Oompa Loompa…or more like Augustus Gloop. You know, the kid that fell in the chocolate river and got stuck in the pipe? Yeah, that was me.
Anywhoo, I’m really trying to work on it. Not that I can do anything right now the way my health has been, I’m pretty much stuck here. But with the warmer weather comes more local gatherings and I’d really like to be a part of them again. I’ve missed going to little league games. Yelling and cheering in the stands while laughing with the parents. I’ve had plans for a 20th reunion of my friends in the works for a bit and even though I’ll be putting it together, it would be wrong of me not to show up! These are just the things that plague me daily and again, I am trying to work on it all. I think the fact that I can’t do anything right now has just gotten the best of me and once this passes (and it will pass, I will accept nothing less) I’ll be right back out there. My anxiety waves have come and gone before and I have no doubt that this one will as well.
Anyway, enough of this therapy session, let’s get on with something else now, shall we?
I said earlier in this post that I’ve gotten back into my routine. This has been so good for me as any deviation from it? I spiral. So getting back to my editing as well as reading is so important to me and I’ve been doing better with it.
The one thing about working on my own manuscript is that I keep getting discouraged. I had wanted this book to be a romcom but it’s taken on a more serious turn. Don’t get me wrong, there’s funny aspects of it, but just like life, it can’t all be funny.
I had a bit of a lightbulb moment just last night while reading the second book of a series I started last month. These books are so damned funny, I’ve had nights where I was afraid I’d wake up my neighbors laughing. However, this second book took a very dramatic turn that made me finally realize that yes, you can marry the dark with the light.
I came damned close to chucking half of my book. Just deleting it outright to change the direction to be more comedic. But as I’ve said in previous posts, this story that I’m writing also deals with issues that I feel need to be discussed and deleting that storyline would kill me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still so over my word count that a ton still needs to go. However deleting the drama to get to the laughs isn’t what this book needs. I still plan on writing a total romantic comedy after this. I will never let that dream die. But this is the story that I need to tell now and I can’t see myself deleting it after working on it for a year. So onward I go.
I’ve seen a quote many times that fits so well here: “Sometimes the right book comes to you at the right time.” How true this is. If it wasn’t for reading the one I’m reading now, I would have made a major mistake and now I can see where I need to go with my own book. There really is such a thing as an ‘a-ha moment!’ Go figure.
And that folks, is where I will leave you for today. Thank you as always for putting up with my ramblings. To anyone I owe messages to, I hope this explains my mindset lately and I’m sorry if I’ve been distant.
Also, I’d like to take a second to thank those who have supported my site through my Ko-fi link as well as shopping through my Amazon affiliate links. I’ll be putting together my storefront soon with recommended books and items that I hope you’ll check out and will keep you updated when it goes live.
Until next time…cheers!
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To follow me on socials, shop my links and more, click: HERE
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If you’d like to check out the Lucy Score Story Lake series I’ve been reading, click: HERE
Note: There’s two books now but a third will be out next year. Romcoms with a touch of drama and a touch of spice. I’ve become a huge fan of hers and this is now the fourth that has had me laughing and escaping.
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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you soon! 🙂
Hey guys, welcome back! And hey, welcome to May!! I’m still in shock that we are already five months into this year. It still feels like February to me.
Anywhoo, there has been a lot going on, which explains my staggered posts as of late (sorry) and I missed the year anniversary of when I began writing my current book. Btw, I say ‘current’ since the first one, that needs a ton of editing, was finished a while back.
So here it is, a year later. Hundreds of thousands of words written and thousands cut and lately it seems I’ve really been making some good progress on it. I think one of the things I’m starting to allow myself to do is take a night off here and there. I started pushing myself so hard to try and get this finished, that I started to lose the spark of the story and it felt more like a chore than anything else. After having to take a few nights off because I wasn’t feeling well, I picked it back up again and suddenly I was able to rework and cut a lot of stuff. After that happened, I realized that there would be nights I just didn’t have it in me to work on the book and told myself that it would be ok if I put it away for the night. The next time I opened it back up again? More progress. So see, there is a reason to take time off from things. To relax and recharge!
Now for some news of the odd persuasion and warning, there will be four letter words coming…in the last couple of weeks, I was suddenly contacted by someone using the name of one of my favorite authors. I will not say which one because I don’t want the real person to have to deal with this, although she has been alerted.
I’ve mentioned before that I have a great love of TikTok. That I’ve met online some wonderful people out there all doing the same things I have. For my small business account, myself and other owners have chatted and learned from each other about suppliers, or tips and tricks that have really come in handy. And on my #booktok account for this website that you’re on now, I’ve followed and am followed by other authors and we’ve had fun commiserating on editing woes and character issues as well as learning about new releases and book recommendations. So imagine my surprise when I got a direct message from one of my favorites!
Yeah it’s not her.
I’m acquainted with several scams on social by those trying to push fake small business help, always starting with messages like, ‘hey I went to your shop and I love your products!’ You know, utter bullshit.
Now I’m not going to lie, the first time I was messaged by ‘fake author’ for half a beat I got hopeful. She/he/whoever it actually was started off strong. ‘I like to talk with other authors’ kind of message. Sure, right? I mean, I talk to others, why can’t it be her? However, without letting out too much, because I don’t want this to be a ‘how to scam 101’ class, it was so blatantly not the real person it was astonishing.
You may ask, how did I deal with such a person? I had some fun of course. I played the part of uber fan girl. Acting about 30 years younger than I actually am, swooning over said author and making it sound as if I was so honored that they reached out to me. (I had a lot of fun.)
It didn’t take long for the sideways sales pitch to creep in. Without saying too much to me, the questions began. How long have I been working on my book? Who does the marketing? Who is editing? Who is designing the cover? Who designed my website? Who is doing the book launch video? You know, typical things a famous author would ask a complete unknown while oddly, never talking about her own work. Just a barrage of questions sent my way. (Insert eye roll here.)
Let me also tell you this, I follow the real author on her other socials. And the kicker of all of this? Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to make public because again, I don’t want to give this person any tips on how do fake someone’s identity. But it was this…as of this post, the real author? Is not on TikTok. She does the occasional videos for her publishing house, but that’s it.
That’s not to say she won’t in the future, but as of now, she’s not on the platform.
The faker is stealing her graphics though, which really pisses me off. Frankly, the whole thing pisses me off. If you want to scam people, then don’t use someone else’s identity. Especially that of a woman who has worked damned hard to get to where she is now! Scamming leads to reputation hits and some idiots out there ARE going to believe that this is the real woman messaging them. If you do real services such as editing, etc, why pretend to be someone else? Do it legit. Don’t take down someone else because you are too chicken shit to do it the right way. And if you don’t and are just trying to get some unsuspecting person to pay for nonexistent services? Well then that’s just crap. Oh and remember, karma is a bitch.
I did block her so there’s that.
I find it funny. I live my life in the dark hours and in bed 99% of my time and yet, I still have opportunities to live some crazy adventures. And not just in books either!
Yes, always trying to look on the bright side of things, because why not?
And that is where I will leave you for today. Thanks so much for coming back to visit with me and if this is your first time here? Welcome! I hope you’ll come back again. Oh and be sure to check out the links below the post.
Until next time…cheers!
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To follow my socials including my #booktok and to shop my linktree shop click: HERE
Btw, you can also click the product links around this site as well. You’ll find the blank journals and apparel I designed, as well as book recommendations that yes, I need to update to add lots more.
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Need a gift of jewelry for Mother’s Day, the grad or the bride? Click the eBay tab: HERE
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For my other shops featuring things I’ve designed, click: HERE
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If you’d like to support this site, you can click on the Ko-Fi logo or click: HERE
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If you’ve made it this far, I greatly appreciate it and will see you soon! 🌸
Hey guys, welcome back and welcome to March! We’ve made it through the dredges of the Winter months and Spring is on the horizon. Of course there is still lots of unpredictable weather ahead and I’m fine with it. I love a good stretch of dark, rainy weather. But then, I’m a vampire and am not too fond of sunlight.
Anywhooooo….been trudging along with stuff and trying to find the humor in the everyday nonsense that is life. After all, if we do not do this, we would spontaneously combust and really, who has the time for that?
The one area where my humor is currently lacking is my book. No not in the content, after all, I have it pegged as a romcom (albeit with some serious undertones), but with the execution. I mentioned in previous posts that I’ve found a solution to my word cutting issue. Well, that has since gone out the window.
My solution so far this week has been to try and clear my head a bit. Watch more meditation and ASMR videos (yes, I love ASMR, so relaxing) and recently I’ve found someone on YouTube who deals with art therapy. Using different art techniques to focus on the task at hand to clear your mind up for other things. I love this idea as I used to create things to do just that. Refocus my energy to open myself up to new ideas.
I do this a lot while I’m making dinner or in the shower or even reading. Suddenly an idea comes to me and it’s the eureka moment I crave. I’ve thought of many plot lines while doing other things. In fact, over the weekend I came up with another story idea and had to get it out of my head. I ended up writing two chapters of it which actually felt great as I’ve greatly missed the writing part of writing. However, it didn’t help me with the task at hand.
Anyway, when I got into this rut of just reading my manuscript over and over and not coming up with something that would help me, having this artist woman say exactly what I used to say to myself? It was like a mini eureka moment. I mean, how have I not been doing this? It’s my pattern after all! When I used to make jewelry, I’d come up with so many ideas for other things. When I design a new card or sticker or bookmark for my creative business, I become clear headed about life stuff. However, sometimes it takes an outsider to give you that virtual slap against your head to jiggle your brain into action. Now I just need to find that trigger that lets me know how to get from point A to point B in my book.
In the meantime, I’ve been revisiting some other small business owners’ socials that I’ve followed for a while to learn how to create new products and how to integrate certain things into the shops that I have now. I’m thinking that this incredible bout of editor’s block may end up helping me in other ways. I just really, REALLY want to finish this book.
If you’ve been following me, you know of my passion for this work of mine. I love it. I really do. And I think the fact that my mind won’t get off the endgame of it…having it published and in the readers’ hands…is now more of a distraction than motivation. As someone who has trouble with focus, I need to get back to the motivation of it.
So here I am, hoping that by writing this post and getting my worries out into the universe, my mind will clear up even more and I will suddenly get the revelation that I so greatly need. Because I know it’s there. I can see it off in the distance waiting for me. Now I just need to figure out the best way to find it.
And that is where I will leave you for today. I know that most posts, I try to leave you with a bit of motivation. I really strive for that and do hope you got something from this post as a whole. However, every now and then, a ramble such as this just needs to be let out and I thank you for being here to read these ramblings.
Until next time…cheers!
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To follow me on social including my #booktok, click: HERE
(You’ll also find my StuffWeFind link to my eBay listings on there as well where I sell vintage and estate jewelry.)
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If you’d like to help support this site, you can shop though any of the Amazon links, you find around here or head to my Ko-Fi (click logo on the page) click: HERE
Hey guys, welcome back! So since the last time I was here with you all, we got a ‘little’ snow. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that we in the Northeast US were inundated with a bit of flakeage. I gotta say, it was really something to watch.
I’m a snow person. I really am. My inner kid still looks to see if there will be school the next day and a huge part of me wishes I could go out and play in it. Instead, I made a big cup of cocoa and watched overnight as the winds picked up and the snow got to white out conditions…and I enjoyed every damned minute of it. Part of it was that the Olympics were over and I had nothing to watch anymore, so I dove deep into the intensity of the storm. Nature is incredible and should be respected and watching this storm? Reminded me of just that.
As fierce as the winds of that storm were, when we received even more snow yesterday, it was a much different type. Heavy but quiet. The kind that highlights every tree branch making the outdoors look like an Ansel Adam’s black and white photograph, creating light and shadows where there were none before.
One of my favorite things about snow is the quiet it creates. Nature’s own insulation from the noise of life. The only sound you hear are the flakes landing onto each other creating a blanket of silence. It is peaceful. It is somehow warm despite the cold. It is a time to stop and reflect and look at the new vision it has created…a wonderland of white that reminds us that nature…is…beautiful.
Having said all of that, while kids had the days off because of the weather, I was here toiling away at my manuscript. I approached it a bit differently this time after learning a few things from an editor I follow on TikTok.
Let me just say this, I love TikTok. I know many think it’s just a place for silly dance challenges, crazy people doing crazy things for attention and of course, there is a part of it that is like that. However, there are SO many other ways to use the platform.
As a former social media specialist, I would have killed to have this platform available when I was working. I didn’t like doing videos back then. As someone who doesn’t like to be on camera herself, I felt limited. However, it is such a different atmosphere now, that you don’t need to be visible and the creativity of TikTok alone is endless.
I started using it with my small businesses as a free way to promote my products, send out updates and better yet, meet other small business owners. I learned so much from these folks, I really did. When I decided to start a creative business (stickers, cards, bookmarks, clothing, etc) I looked to these folks both on TikTok and YouTube to find the best ways to start out with little money. To find out where to get some things made and find discounts share and swap tips and we even buy from each other.
When I began getting deeply serious about my writing, I decided to start a #booktok. For those of you who don’t know, booktok is a subdivision of sorts of the main platform dedicated to readers and writers alike.
From the reader standpoint, I’ve discovered new authors to read, popular books I might be interested in (as I’m always looking out to add to my TBR) and then came the best discovery of all…author profiles.
I’ve connected with other authors, both beginning and established, as well as publishers and editors. One of the best things about finding other authors from around the world? Finding out that many of the struggles we face? Universal. We are not alone in doing the crazy things we do, including having astronomical word counts.
Recently after posting a video of my own with my current read, my feed brought up an editor I honestly forgot I was following. She shares quick tips that are so damned helpful, it’s like taking a master class for free. When this particular tip played, I watched it several times to let it sink in. I then went to my own book and started from the beginning again.
That one fast tip helped me cut almost 5000 more words from the first 20 chapters alone! Something so simple yet I wasn’t seeing it. Sometimes, that’s what we need whether we realize it or not. Another perspective to push you in the right direction.
I’ve read my own manuscript upwards of a dozen times. I get lost in the story instead of the cuts I’m supposed to be making so often, I’m convinced this is one of the reasons it is taking me so much longer to figure out how to get this done. This one editing tip out of hundreds I’ve watched both by her and others, woke me up. Opened my eyes to something I was doing over and over again and never even realized it.
Once I paid attention to how I was saying something in dialogue or description, it clicked. I was yelling at the screen about how often I do this. How there is no need for over describing a scene, or explaining laughter when the reader should experience it for themselves. As someone with an editing background herself, I should be more than aware of this. Again, perspective.
After the first few cuts, it got so much easier. I was a madwoman on a mission. I was going through the chapters much faster cutting this, cutting that and soon the word counts were getting lower. Make no mistake, I still have hundreds of thousands to get rid of, or move to the sequel, but to see the progress move along this much faster than it has been in a while? The relief is real.
Now I’m not saying the book will be ready to submit next week. TONS of work still left to go. But at least I have a new starting point of how to do my edits. And because of this, I’ve also been rewriting scenes that are making the book take shape in a new way. Adding more depth to the characters that should have been acknowledged long ago while also decreasing the word count.
So I say, if you think that TikTok is just a doom scrolling time waster? Sure. It can be that. I’ve certainly spent hours escaping life watching cute animals and other stuff as well. It can be a fun app. But there is so much more to it and learning from others and supporting one another? These are the added bonuses of social media in any form. I am personally grateful to those I have learned from and look forward to more lessons that will help me get out of my own head and make the progress I know I can make.
And that is where I will leave you for today. Thanks for being here and I hope some of this resonated with you! Until next time…cheers!
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If you’d like to follow me on social, including my #booktok, click: HERE
Btw, you can find both my social links as well as my linktree shop in that link.
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If you’d like to see what my small businesses are about? Click: HERE
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If you’d like to help support this site, you can click the product links around the site or the Ko-Fi logo. Or you can click: HERE
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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you! It means so much that you spend some of your time here with me. Stay safe and warm folks! ⛄️
New Chapter Cove 