editing

Cutting – Rearranging – Fall Reading

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Photo credit: Hudsoncrafted on Pixabay.

Hey guys, welcome back! Hope everyone out there is doing well! Just here for a quick post to say hello and give a fast update on my progress. So far? It’s been a trainwreck.

It seems that cutting words from the manuscript is proving to be a vicious challenge. I am having so much trouble trying to figure out where cuts should take place! I had to cut the book into two sections so I could fit the entire thing into the app to work on. In the first section, I cut over 3000 words…ok good start. This week in the second section? At one point I added words! It was unintentional of course. I was trying to reword a paragraph and ended up with a higher word count. As I get closer to the last chapters, I’m having trouble with where to make cuts in them.

The one light at the end of this twisted tunnel is that I think I’ve figured out a sideways solution to this situation. Rearrange the chapters, the dialogue, the story and then doing major cuts with the old work. I believe that by possibly making the book into a sort of jigsaw puzzle, my problem may be resolved. In the meantime, I’m finding myself getting distracted and getting off track during the process and that is a red flag for me. I do have a bit of ADD but while I’ve been working on this book, I’ve been laser focused on it. To suddenly be distracted? That worries me that it will take me much longer to get this finished than I had hoped. Of course, it could just be the panicking of the cuts that has my mind going in different directions.

The one thing that will always ground me of course is reading. As I said in my last post, I had been rereading a series to gear up for the newest addition to it and now that it finally arrived? I’m diving in all the way. So far this book is exactly what I’ve been waiting for and I’m excited to keep going with it. The one thing about this series is that it has kept me grounded with my own writing, both this reading and the previous one and right now, I’m holding onto that. I have absolutely no idea if that makes any sense, but then again, my brain is currently mush right now.

Anyway, I can’t recommend doing something like reading for yourself to escape more. Escaping, even mentally, can help in so many other ways. It’s how we reset our minds for other things like the dreaded word…responsibility. So whatever your escape of choice is: listening to music, crafting something, picking up a book, going for a walk, it all helps you reset to be your best self. Now that Fall is here, maybe going pumpkin or apple picking, watching something scary, or decorating for Halloween is the way to go! 

And that is where I will leave you for today. Short, sweet and a little off course, but as always, I hope you’ve gotten something out of this post.

Until next time folks…Cheers!!!

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To follow me on social including my increasingly growing Booktok: linktr.ee/promosocially

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To check out the series I’m reading, hit the 2025 On the Bookshelf tab up above on the site to see what I’ve been reading this year. The series is under the author Laurie Gilmore, just click her name to find the books!

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Need something new to read? I’m a proud PangoBooks ambassador! Click on my link to get $5 off of your first order. PangoBooks is a great way to buy used books super cheap and you can sell them as well: https://pangobooks.com/NEWCHAPTERCOVE

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To find some fun Halloween and Fall themed designs (that I’ve designed) on stickers, tshirts, mugs and so much more, you can check out my shops: linktr.ee/stuffwemade

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If you’ve gotten this far, I thank you! Thanks for being here and I’ll see you real soon. 🎃

Words – Words – More Words

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Hey guys, welcome back! I once again dropped the ball after not having posted twice last week, but I was both celebrating the finishing of the first draft and then did a deep dive into editing hell. lol I’ve also still been sick, so between trying to do massive word count cuts in the manuscript and trying to breathe, I’ve been laying low.

It’s been quite a daunting revelation this whole word count issue. If you missed my previous post, I completed the first draft of my manuscript that I began in April and went wayyyy over the word count that is normally accepted by the industry. And by way over, I mean, well over 300,000 words. So I am here to tell you that editing hell is a real place and you don’t need a passport to get there!

However, I am here to say that in the first week, I’ve already cut close to 3000 words and have figured out places where big chunks could also be taken out. I’m not going to lie, this is all killing me. To me, there is a definite progression to my story, as it should be of course and everything written (in my mind at least) is important to the story as a whole.

I’ve tried finding places where I could just cut the book into several, but then it wouldn’t make sense. Yes, there will be a sequel/possible series from these characters, but this is the first one. The one with the background stories, the one with the whole ‘getting to know you’ stuff. The one that is supposed to have the readers wanting to come back for more! (I don’t want to cut anything!) And I’ll be honest here and tell you that on more than one occasion, as I sit in the dark and become merciless with the delete button, I stop and do a little whining and apologize to my characters…you know, like a grown up.

While all of this is going on, I’ve still been reading a ton and since I’m in the process of rereading a series that I’ve already read two other times, I’m really paying attention this time to how the author connects the stories. Trying to figure out how I can do that with my own. By the way, I’m reading these books again because there is a new one that just came out and I want to familiarize myself with the characters again. Also because they are great Fall reads and I need the escape. Not that I need to justify it, but yet, here I am doing just that.

I’ve also become late to the party and currently obsessed with Hamilton. Only took me ten years to watch this and now I can’t stop. I’ve also developed the mantra, “what would Lin-Manuel do” when it comes to editing. I’m sure with the way his genius mind works, many of the songs were freestyled first and then edited down. I’ve now dubbed him my own personal yoda and if he is reading this right now? Hi! Wish Hamilton had been around when I was still involved with theater myself, but that’s ok. I now sing the songs around my house daily.

I don’t know if you can tell from this post but between the editing and my illness? I’m slightly losing it. I’m working so hard on this book and trying to make it its best while also trying like hell to make sure I don’t cut or rework things into something that makes no sense. I’m not sleeping right as the score of Hamilton plays over and over in my head and then mixes with the scenes I eithe just got rid of in the book or scenes that I’ve now realized I can get rid of without it affecting the story.

Writing was the easy part for me. The rest is heartache. Hopefully what I am left with is something that will not only want to be read, but more importantly, that I can be proud of. Because if I’m not, then what the hell is this all for anyway, right?

And that is where I will leave you for today. Sorry if it went to a weird place, but that’s the kind of place I’m in right now. I think we very now and then, it’s ok to go there. It’s what makes life less boring.

Until next week…cheers all! 😉

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If you’d like to follow me on social, including my (happily) growing booktok: linktr.ee/promosocially 

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To read the Dream Harbor series I’m currently reading, start with book one…The Pumpkin Spice Cafe. Small town romance with a bit of spice and quirky characters. (Btw, they get a little spicier as the series goes on. Not dark by any means, but don’t let the cozy covers fool you. These are adult books.) As of this post, the ebook is currently free on prime reading and you can go to author Laurie Gilmore’s page to find the order in which to read them. To check out the first book, click: HERE

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To find some fun Halloween and Fall items that I’ve designed, you can find them across my shops: linktr.ee/stuffwemade 

First Draft – Word Count – Totally Screwed

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Photo credit: annekarakash on Pixabay.

Hey all, welcome back, hope you all had a great weekend. I’m going to jump right in, because I’m so excited to announce that I have finished the first draft of my book! Woo-hoo!

I still can’t believe it’s done and of course now the hard work really needs to happen, the serious editing. If you’ve been following along here, you know that I’ve been editing like crazy throughout this process including over the course of five rereads of the manuscript. However, just as I feared, I went over the word count goal. Not even by a little bit either.

From doing all of my research on how to get published traditionally, when submitting to a literary agent, there is a magical word count number that will get you noticed. Depending on the genre and the agent, it can be from 80,000 to 140,000 with the sweet spot being about 100,000. Mine isn’t even close to this.

When I checked my count, I was more than shocked to find that since April, I have written, (are you ready?) 437,404 words! And no, that is not a typo.

I knew I was in trouble when I was combining the chapters into one document and Google docs wouldn’t allow any more chapters into it. Did you know that there is a 1.5mil character limit in docs? Well, now you do. And so do I! I had to break the book up into two separate files.

I’ve done editing work in the past for others and have been brutal when I needed to be. But this is my own work. To me, every word is needed for the story to unfold properly. I’m now rethinking this of course. It is unbelievable to me that I have to cut almost 340,000 words of my own work. I have only rarely in my life used the word unfathomable, but I think this occasion calls for it.

Apparently I write the way I talk and if you know me in person, you know this to be true.

So now comes phase two. Lots of cutting, lots of red ink on printed pages and lots of my work going down the drain as I figure out how to shape this story into something that will not only get the attention of an agent, but will make sense and be readable to my future audience. To say that I’m totally screwed is an understatement but I am up for the challenge!

Of course the real challenge is also going to be not writing the sequel while I’m editing this one…although I have thought about using what I cut from this work in the next book. Seems sensible, no?

Anywhoo, that’s what’s going on here. While I’m more than happy and ecstatic that this book is now in its next phase, I’m already panicked about the work that needs to be done. For now? I’m going to enjoy the accomplishment and maybe, take the night off.

And that is where I’m leaving you for today. Until next time…cheers! ☺️

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If you’d like to follow me on social and check out my shops: linktr.ee/promosocially

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If you’d like to help support this site, you can click on the Ko-Fi icon on the site or click: HERE

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Looking for some cool Fall and Halloween stuff? I have lots that I’ve designed that you can see in my other shops at: linktr.ee/stuffwemade

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And if you’ve made it this far, I thank you. I very much appreciate your following along the journey with me. Thanks again and see you all soon! 🍁 

Anniversary – Reworking – Finish Line?

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Photo credit: Edgar from Pixabay

Hey guys, welcome back! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know we here in the Northeast for the most part had great weather. Of course, we here know that can change hour by hour so we revel in it when it’s good. Especially this time of the year!

I’ve personally still been sick. I had posted a few weeks back that I was dealing with something and this has been with me since. Ironically, it’s been going on just as I hit the anniversary of when my life was changed by illness. If you’ve read my ‘Bit of Personal History’ page in the About section of this site, you know that I’ve had quite a health journey over the last 9 years. (Ok the page still says 6, but that’s because I wrote it three years ago.) Well, this particular illness now is hanging on and it’s been frustrating as hell. Not that it is stopping me from writing and working on my book, but still, this happening at my favorite time of the year is really pissing me off. Sorry, but it is. But on to other things…

I’ve mentioned several times that I’m in a cycle of reading and rereading and rereading my manuscript. I’ve become rather obsessive doing this and again I want to drive this point home…YOU CAN NEVER READ YOUR OWN WORK ENOUGH! 

Even with going on more than several times of reading this book, I keep finding things to fix, to add, to cut and of course, the dreaded missed typos that I may have missed the other eight or nine times I’ve read the thing. That’s ok though. What I’m finding, is that the jokes are still landing. The tears, both happy and sad, still fall in the right places and I’m genuinely surprised at lines I’ve written several months ago. I go into each read through fresh and I think that is helping the process.

I just finished another one right before I started to write this post. Sure enough, the last few chapters (not the ending, I’ll get to that in a minute), had me all over the emotional map and I was feeling all the feelings. I’d been waiting to read these last few for days, having been stuck on a few previous chapters for over a week, reworking them quite a bit. So when I got to these last ones, I surprised myself with what I had written. It had been a while since I read them and while I was dreading them, I ended up being happy with what was on the pages.

Let me go back a second…not dreading them in the sense that I thought they were bad. Just that they were the newest I had written and so little had been edited. Plus, to be honest, I hadn’t read through the last five or so chapters. I honestly forgot a lot of what was there. However, I’m glad I did because I really am happy with how this story has progressed and now that I’ve done this latest read? It is time to start gearing up for the finish line.

I’m not looking forward to finishing this book. I know I’ve said that several times that I don’t want the story to end. However, the past couple of days, I’ve come up with what I think will be the ending for this one and how I can bring these characters back for a sequel/series. It is finally starting to come together in my head and the only problem with that of course, is that I want to start writing the next book! Of course, I still have to finish both this one and finish editing my first novel. And that one needs a tremendous amount of work. Plus, I don’t want to leave these current characters. If I go back to my previous book, I will lose the momentum of this current one…really I’ve written myself into a vicious cycle.

This is the problem that I know a lot of us have. We get more story ideas and soon, our files are filled with started books, while very few are finished. That’s me. Right here. If you were to go into my docs, you’d find quite a few novels begun and only one fully completed.

I’m so determined to finish this current one and get it sent off with my query letter as soon as I can. I’m getting excited for it now. I really am. I know there’s still a lot of formatting, cuts and more to happen before I can send it off, but just knowing that it’s getting close is keeping me going! (It also makes me a little nauseous as well from nerves, but hey that’s life right?)

I would love to say what a great thing it is to have so many ideas. In many ways, it is. But it can also be more than overwhelming. For myself, it reminds me to take a step back. Reevaluate what’s important right now. I’m big on pro/con lists. I’m also big at writing down new ideas until they are out of my head, thus the several started novels in my docs files. (Insert head slap here.) This is where I should mention that I also keep reading a ton to get my mind off of all of this. The beauty of that of course is that it clears my mind for what’s next. So whether it’s reading, going for a run, watching a ball game or binging a show, doing something else can clear your head and find the answer you need. For me, while reading another book, out of nowhere I was sparked with the idea for my ending. I know a marketing guy who used to get his ideas from running. Creatives need other outlets to fuel their work. Right now, if my other outlets could help me get to my own finish line? I will be forever grateful.

And that is where I will leave you for today. Thank you so much for being here and following! Until next time…Cheers!

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To follow me on social including #booktok: linktr.ee/promosocially

(you can also shop my linktree shop through there as well)

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If you’d like to help support the site, you can shop the links on here for gift ideas, blank journals and more. You can also use my Ko-Fi link by clicking: HERE

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If you’ve gotten this far, I appreciate it and will see you soon! Thanks all. ☺️

Blank – Focused – Writing Obsessed

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Photo credit: congerdesign at Pixabay

Hey guys, welcome back! I hope everyone’s September is going well so far. I’ve been loving the cooler weather and reading during the rainy nights we’ve finally been getting. I’ll admit though, my mind has been blanking on what to write here, so let’s see where this post goes today, shall we?

While creating posts for the site has proven to be somewhat of a challenge lately, I’ve been uber focused on my book. I can’t stop thinking about it, working on it and it’s even affecting my sleep and dreams lately. It’s also starting to blur the lines between what’s real and what happened in a chapter…although that could be the meds I’ve been taking lately for an illness that just won’t seem to go away. (I’d like to chalk it up to that instead of losing touch with reality.)

In my previous posts I’ve talked about how I keep rereading my manuscript. I’m still doing that and in the process, have been rewriting sections, editing and adding to the text as a whole. Suddenly scenes that I thought were complete, are now really taking shape even more. If I haven’t said this before I will say it now: YOU CAN NEVER READ YOUR WORK ENOUGH!

Seriously, keep reading your work over and over again!

No matter how many times I read through these chapters, I continually find odd typos here and there that I’ve missed the other five-six times I’ve read it. I’m finding that scenes that I thought were fine previously, really weren’t and needed more detail. Character traits that seemed perfect in the past, I’m now realizing, wow, I missed something there! And never forget, continuity issues!!

I am constantly finding issues with continuity that I had no clue were completely off. If the story doesn’t make sense to you, it sure as hell won’t make sense to your future readers.

It amazes me that the more I read this book and the more I think I’m coming to the end where I can finally submit this work somewhere, the more I’m finding that it needs work. The more I freak out that I’m going to miss something major that will prevent me from getting this sold. The stress has creeped in and taken hold and I’m already dealing with a lot on the personal front and it is just adding to it. Life never stops moving and I have to keep telling myself that this is my own doing. That I created this issue myself and yet, this is so damned important to me. I just want it to be the best it can be so it can lead to something greater and eventually stop the other stress that is going on in my life.

I’m slightly losing it. But knowing this is the first step, amiright? So here I am admitting that yes, I am obsessed with my own work. There, I’ve said it. I feel a little better! Score one for being aware enough to write about an obsession for writing. (Did that even make sense?)

I follow many other authors on #booktok and one thing I love about doing that is knowing that I’m not the only one who is struggling like this. That’s one of the reasons why I started writing about my journey here. To possibly help other writers know that hey, it’s not just you going through this! We are all a little off center as most creatives are. It’s what makes us, us. It’s what drives us to create new works and want to share ourselves with others. We are not in this alone. Really, we’re not. So just keep doing you.

And that is where I will leave you for tonight. So see? Sometimes you can stare at the blank page with no ideas and end up writing something that is not only cathartic to you personally but that may just help someone else in the process!

Hope you got something out of this post and until next time…Cheers!

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If you’d like to follow me on social, including my #booktok: Click HERE

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Looking for some fun Fall, Halloween and holiday items? I’ve designed a ton and you can find them by clicking on the shop links: HERE

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And finally, if you’ve made it this far, I thank you so much. Every view, share, like and follow is appreciated more than you can ever know. See you soon! 🥰