GHOSTLY WHISPERS # 14 - July 25, 2012

“So Mary, what do you think about boys?” asked Samantha.

Given her experience with Jonathan and kissing him, Mary didn’t know what to say.                       

 Boys. Boys. What can I tell them about how I feel about them?  I definitely can’t tell them about my kissing Jonathan. They don’t know anything about me. I guess I’ll have to lie.

“Boys?  You want to know what I think about them.  I feel the same way you do. Doing things with your relatives, including your brother is okay, but not with any other boy.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait until we get much older to kiss any of them or to have any of them kissing us,” remarked Emma.

Wow! It seems I’ve already kissed a boy and none of them have. I’m glad I didn’t tell them about Jonathan. If I did, they’d ask me a ton of questions. And I definitely can never tell them about George kissing me.

JUST EXPERIENCED A SLIGHT DERAILMENT

As I stated in my last post I had just received two batches back from my editor [four chapters]. I spent a small part of that day [about 2 hours] reviewing what she had done. The next day [July 20th] I spent about four more hours reviewing the remaining pages I did not do the day before. I took a break, however once I went back to continue writing the remaining few pages for my novel, I realized something I had no anticipated earlier.

In the last chapter, as I’ve already told you, I had been able to write seven pages in one day. The seemed to flow at a breakneck speed onto the screen I had been sitting in forth of. Now wanting to start writing anew, I realized the chapter had not gone the way I had originally planned. Although the product I had been better, I feel as if my writing has been derailed.I’m now at a standstill, trying to get my bearings of where I should go from here. The end of my story is still in sight, no different then it had been before, I merely have to think of a way to clear away the [mental] blockage which my breakneck speed writing had created. Once this has been accomplished I can “slowly” bring my writing speed back to normal, writing my usual three to four pages again.

Thanks for following me as I approach the final destination, the terminal at the final period of my novel. And if possible, I’d appreciate a mention of my blog here. This might sound selfish and somewhat conceited, but I would love having a throng of people waiting for me when I arrive. :-) :-) :-)

AND NOW FOR A SHORT GAME OF TENNIS

Call it a short game of tennis or a game of ping pong, but in recent days I've sent five chapters to my editor in three emails, chapters 30/31 , chapters 32/33 and lastly chapter 34. I received the first two batches of chapters back from my editor over the weekend. Today I decided to put aside any thought of writing of any new material for my novel, and instead concentrate on review of the edits and changes I received from her.

Reviewing I believe, and you may or may not agree, is harder [more time consuming] than writing something anew. Not only are you reading the changes, you're also looking to see if anything has been changed in what you had originally wanted to communicate in those words. At the same time you're now making these changes permanent.

Well after about six hours of being a slave to this endeavor, I'm happy to say I've reach the end. Now for a brief rest until tomorrow, where I'm either going to be a slave to my own words again, or I'll be allowed to create additional new pages leading to that all important final period.

THE DAM HAS JUST BURST !!!

Yesterday morning I woke up early thinking about the ideas which were floating in my mind regarding Jonathan. I sat down at my computer, and before I knew it I had typed four pages in a little over an hour. The words just flowed from my mind, through my fingertips and onto the screen in front of me. It's a good thing this happen, as the rest of my day would be filled with other things I needed to do.

When I sat back down at my computer a little pass 11:20 PM, the words flowed again which ended with my typing three pages and finishing this chapter in a little over an hour. :-)

Hopefully today will be just as productive as yesterday, but even if I type just three pages, I'd be satisfied.

OUT OF STEAM

I had made a steady progress from July 6th, typing three doubled-spaced pages a day. The words were floating from my mind to the keyboard of my computer—appearing on the screen for me to see. But alas, after seven days, the steam I had going through these last few miles of the “tunnel” finally gave out, and I’ve crept to a dead stop on Friday the 13th of all days [BTW - I”M NOT SUPERSTITIOUS]. It feels like being on a huge roller coaster where you’ve just come down a looong descend and now must struggle up the next ascend before becoming able to coast downwards again.

Yesterday became a day of rest, clearing my mind of all distractions in the hope of getting a new clean slate on which I can write anew. And today Sunday, is a different day, a different day which I spent most of at the Nyack Street Fair, in Nyack, New York.

Although, the sky was threatening, it didn’t rain. All-in-all it was a great day where I bought some goodies and ate some great Thai food. The best thing of all was meeting a vendor named Jonathan…a name of a character in the beginning of my story who Mary kissed in the corner of the children’s department at Macy’s a day before she had moved away. His named echoed in my mind as I drove home, an echoing which stay me the idea of how I can continue my story while at the same time bring him back into, abeit it will be only for a cameo, it will provide some closure to what had occurred earlier.

With this idea giving birth to additional ideas I can definitely renew my writing tomorrow after sleeping on everything through the night.

THANKS for being here :-) :-) :-)

THINKING OF MY NEXT TO DO ITEM

With chapters 30-33 now in the hands of editor, and with me being on target writing three pages a day, I'm sitting here reflecting on what I should do next.

Of course I know I have at least one more read through making sure I've got all my "I"s dotted, and that all my "T"s have been crossed. At the same time I know I must check for continunity, making sure my timeline is in place and things have not occurred out of sequence somewhere along the way from typing my first capital letter to the typing of my last name. I also know I have to make sure that none my characters have suddenly changed places, or have sudden become alive again [unless they happen to be a ghost] having died previously in my story. All of these things are given and are relatively easy to handle, but...

Yes, but the question I have in my mind now is, "How do I handle the typing of the 80-100 word synopsis needed for my book? How do I cut something I've given birth to, cut something I've 'nutured' and have seen grow from a speck of an idea into what I have now, into so few words? How am I going to be able to get down to the pure essence of what I've written without my bias about it coming into play?

So, I'm thinking the best thing to do right now would be to sleep on it, and perhaps somehow the solution to this enigma will come to me in a dream--a dream which needs to become an reality.

GETTING CLOSER EACH DAY

YES, things are getting closer and closer each day. Yesterday I completed writing my second chapter [CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE], for a total of twenty-one pages since I began writing again on July 6th. I'm on schedule so far with my daily writing target, however, at the same time I've realized I'm going to need a few more pages than I had originally planned. Oh well such things happen every day to authors, and I am no exception.

Having completed this chapter I've emailed my editor to advise I'd be sending her these two chapters later on today. I also emailed her, to find out whether we've worked on Chapters 30/31 already, as I can't find any editing for these chapters.

Right now, I'll be taking a brief rest and then it's on to reading the emails in my various accounts and checking on my twitter account where I'm quickly getting to my 2,000th follower.

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

I had another day's delay on the fifth, something came up which I didn't expect. So I started my trek to the end of the proverbial tunnel a day late on Friday, July 6th. Since then I've completed another ten pages, and realized I might need five more pages than I had origianally. But then, such is the life of writing a story, it ends when it ends, and there's no shortcuts you can take to get there. This means, if everything stays on track, and I write only three pages a day, rather than the four I'd have liked to write, it means that my last period will be typed on Sunday.

THANKS for following me here as I get closer to the day I can see my words in print. I should be posting another snippet in a few days.

Caio

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

With my latest stint at Grand Jury done, and with the Fouth of July holiday over, peace has more or less settled into my life and I can begin writing the final pages of my first endeavor at a YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel. I've got a basic outline done, but as my words actually hit the page, unforeseen changes might still occur, changes which I will have to attend to. One thing I'd like to accomplish is having the last words of the novel be its title. This might be easier said than done because I want these last words to sound natural to the story itself rather than being forced.

So stay tuned to this blog, I'll be posting more snippets from my novel until it's finally released.

THANKS for being a follower, it's greatly appreciated.

Robin Leigh Morgan
[as you didn't know]