Printing My First Draft

Proof I wrote for 5 months

 I am on a pauper's editing budget. I can't afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for editing. Not on this book. Hopefully by Book 2 I can send my book off for editing, if not then definitely Book 3.

I *know* the book needs editing. That isn't an issue. I am going to do my very best and use as many quality assurance skills I can to help improve the methodology.

First, I outlined my plot. I tried to check my story for holes before I ever wrote a word. Okay, before I wrote more than a few scenes. Writing a few scenes helped me feel the tone of the book, which helped in story boarding. There's layers to editing and I have two editing books that list them. Things like plot, setting, characterization, dialogue. Each chapter will get each layer. The book as a whole will get each layer. I am going to make it the best writing I possibly can.

This is how THICK 225 pages is!!!

Here is where I will print again****

Then come the pre-readers. I am thinking about doing a typo/grammar mistake contest with my 5 pre-readers. Whoever finds the most issues gets a $25 Gift card. And everyone gets a signed copy of the paperback. No idea if they will go for this or not....

Then I will check for typos, each chapter, out of sequence, as many times as it takes until I don't see any more. Not over and over again right away. It will be more like Chapter 3 is checked, I find 2 typos, I mark them. I check other chapters. Then, I come back to Chapter 3, I find another typo, so it will get another run, and just do this systematically until I run out of chapters failing the typo check.

Then I will layout. If I catch anything in the layout, I will fix it. Then print the layout (maybe, unless it's cheaper to buy the mock up from Amazon....).

And that's the best I can do on a shoe-string budget. All in all, I should publish this book for about $500 in expenses....




*** Next time, although this is gorgeous, I'm going to just opt to have the pages printed and hole punched for the first draft. That way as I edit I can print at home and insert them. That should cut the cost from $21 to about $15 or less.

"CANCELLED" arriving SEPTEMBER 2011. A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby.

Day 9 - Self-Published Covers and Crazy Characters Taking Control

I'll change things up tonight and handle the publishing side first. On your right is the cutesy blueprint of a baby I made in GIMP following a Youtube tutorial. It has dawned on me that putting a baby on the cover is just too difficult. First, babies while cute, are awkward photographs. Second, my story is really about the cancelled wedding because of the baby. But the baby by itself would be no big deal. 


This leaves me with what is the nuts and bolts of my story? A cancelled wedding. And that leads me to what I think will be the final cover design: a glossy, snazzy wedding invitation for Johnathan and Alexis with a big, fat CANCELLED across the front! That is a front cover image that I would pick up. A blue print baby? Upon seeing it, no, honestly, I wouldn't pick it up and read the back. Cancelled wedding invitation? Oh give me the dirt! And that plays into my trainwreck romance brand! 

Day 6: I Hate Narrative, Can I Still Be a Writer?

Available for purchase in HD at Dreamstime.com,
used as part of free images licensing.

Maybe it's the impatient reader in me, but I can't stand narrative. Not even remarkably, well-written narrative. It bores me. I skip over it. Seriously. Even when I read other works, over and over again, I always find new bits I missed, guess where? The narrative. 


I wrote Chapter 4 today, the rough version. 3,750 words. Only 2500-3000 will make the final cut. Why are my chapters so short? Because I am fulfilling the request of one my biggest supporters and best friends (she writes the blog I follow called Daily Devotionals) who as a busy Mom only has time to read 10-15 pages of a book before conking out for the night. She prefers books that let her finish a chapter in that time span. As at least one guaranteed reader, her wish is my command.

Day 5 - What I Don't Like

Taking the weekend off from writing (mostly), was a good plan. Yesterday, my husband and I "rocked our faces off" at our local rock station's rock fest. Madam Adam, Haelstorm, Skillet, Theory of a Deadman, and Stone Sour were all phenomenal. I didn't really care for The Art of Dying. The lead singer kinda scared me, not in a good way.

I head banged, was clobbered a good two or three times by crowd surfers, and have a bruise to sport on my left foot. I was fierce! I didn't yield my ground; those little teeny-boppers had to say "Excuse me" before this Mom was willing to let them go in front of her! (It's only fair, I'm 5'8''). And the punk kid in the flannel shirt that didn't say excuse me? Yeah, he got the stink eye every time he came and went and I talked total smack about him the entire time. He turned a few times, but didn't say anything. Yeah that's right, I've given BIRTH kid, 27 hours with two failed epidurals. Whachu gotta say???? 


So what's going on in the writing department?