The hardest part is over, hurray for my dragons!

I've been a very bad dragon keeper and haven't updated this blog since last week, I know.  But I have some exciting news: with the help of my dragons, I'm finally done re-writing the end of my novel!  I had to do some serious revamping to change my story  from a one novel story to a three novels arch, and until now I had never been truly happy with the results.  Well, these times are over, the first installment of my dragons' adventures is now officially closed!  We went out on Friday with Dave and celebrated the event, as it was truly a relief for me to come up with a good ending to this volume.

I am giving myself a couple of days away from it before I start rewrite session Number 2, I tend to work better when my eyes are "new" again.  And then the never ending process of tweaking and correcting and rewriting and cutting and rewriting again is going to continue of course... I estimate I'm about 3 or 4 rewrites away from being ready to send the novel out--as you can see, I'm far from being done yet.  I also have to trim down at least 10'000 words to bring it down to 100'000 words, which is the limit to send out a first novel to an editor.  I haven't quite decided if I'm going to do the cutting down myself or hire a book doctor to do so, but I'll think of that when I'm done with the next few rewrites.

Don't tell anyone, and particularly not my dragons, but I'm already thinking about the first sequel and I have to force myself to stay away from it until I'm done with the first book.  I know that if I let myself go and seriously start on the sequel, the original manuscript will never be done.  I do however, furiously and scrupulously write down all the ideas and plot tweaks that come to my mind for the sequel, to come back to it on a later date.

So there, you have it! The current rewrite is going to take a little time, I suspect about a month, for I have to start thinking about those cuts and might need to do some rewriting for it to be seamless, but  that part shouldn't be difficult, just tedious.  I will try to keep you updated on the progress my dragons and I are making a couple of times a week.

Can I have some more RedBull for my dragons, please?

I don't know what my dragons ate last week end, but I wish I did!  They are ON A ROLL so far this week.  It's been a long time since I've been caught in such an inspiration frenzy, and the chapters are coming out of thin air and shed dragon scales.

Another two pretty important chapters were written today, and if my eyes weren't so badly hurting me right now, I'd even try to tackle a third one.  I'm so afraid this wonderful momentum isn't going to last!  My dragons are a little disappointed to have to stop for the day, but I won't help anyone by forcing my eyes, and they'll just have to understand.  The list of things I need to incorporate in the story before the end of this volume is shrinking day by day, and with God's help (and the help of my dragons, of course), this volume could be closed pretty soon.

I hate hate hate having to stop right now, but simply looking at the screen to type this post is painful.  Please, muses and dragons, forgive me--and please come back tomorrow!

Another pivotal chapter done!

Oh, I know what you're going to say.  You worked all day, and all you have to show for it is a single chapter?  Technically, you'd be right, of course: one single chapter is not much for a full day of work.  But in my defense, it's not just "any" chapter--it's a BIG one.  Figuratively and literally speaking, for it's over 8 pages long.  Every single last chapter of the MS from now and until the end of this volume has to be "everything".  It has to be strong, it has to maintain the tension, it has to be focused and sharp and perfect.  No pressure, right?  Which basically means every single last chapter of the MS from now on is going to be a herculean task to rewrite, and is going to go through about twenty extended rewamps during it's creation.  What did I say?  Rewrite?  Ah, yes, you've picked up on that, haven't you?  Well, when I originally wrote the novel, it was supposed to be a one segment story.  After NY and the Pitch&Shop conference, it was strongly recommended to me I make it a trilogy--which means that I have to rewrite the ending... completely.  Yay me, LOL!

What's so special about this chapter, you will ask?  Well, in this chapter, my dragon hero meets the King of Falmeers for the first time--and my dragon badly needs his help, too,  for he's running out of time.  The King has been evoked throughout the book, but never in depth.  Right now, he's only that very powerful monarch that rules over the Falmeers, the race that is told to be the source of one of the two poles of all Magic--nothing less.  So obviously, the King needs to make an entrance.  But I'm nearly at the end of this segment of the story, and I have to keep up the pace until the end not to lose that famous momentum I so carefully whipped up.  Which also means that if I don't want my momentum to deflate like a sad soufflé, I don't have three chapters to devote to meeting the Falmeers and doing character buildup for the King.  It all needs to happen fast.  Every paragraph, every sentence, every word has to count, and anything remotely redundant or slowing down the flow has to be mercilessly chopped away--something I, like most writers, hate doing.

Also, he's a Falmeer, not an Elf, despite the ears.  Which means he can't be just another Elron clone, that hangs out in robes in his living room on top of a tree, while he feasts on vegan burgers and tofu salad as he communes with Mother Nature.  He has to be different, and he has to exude Magic from every one of his Falmeer pores.  He has to eat bacon.  Basically, he has to be a badass.  Sorry, Elron.




So there you have it, that's why I "only" wrote one chapter today.  You think it's easy?  You are welcome to try! :)

Ups and Downs and Double Flips...

Time to conclude yet another week of work. I have to say that the ride has been pretty rough this week, with lots of ups and downs and never really knowing if I was going to make it through. But all in all, if the week had been a road trip, I think that my dragons and I would have made it to our final destination--even if it meant we had to take a few detours and an occasional bus to get there.

Emotionally, it was a really hard week, going from days of really great writing, to days where I couldn't come up with a single word I was happy with. I don't understand how my mind can be so cooperative one day and simply refuse to align 5 coherent sentences together the next, but I guess that is something I'm going to have to learn to accept on the road to becoming a more seasoned writer.

The bottom line of these last couple of days for my dragons is still very good. I think I've managed to get myself out of a seriously deep ditch in the story that had been bugging me for quite some time. Kept on turning it over and over in my head and couldn't find a way out. And I knew that the bump was out there waiting for me at page 490 of my MS, that knowledge never left me as I was going through the rewrites and moving up in the chapters... It's kind of like a 40th birthday, you know it's out there waiting for you even when you're only 30, LOL!

Then during the last couple of days, something strange and magical happened and I could definitely feel tremors in the Force, ideas and concepts starting to form in my mind, yet staying right beyond my consciousness. Yesterday morning, it started to come together as I had worked my way through the rewrites up to that infamous page 490... I sat down in front of my screen at around  8am and started to write... and didn't stop until about 6pm on that evening. It was a BLAST! I knew I had other things that I had to do, important things, but I didn't want to lose my momentum. I tried to walk away a couple of times and tackle those other things I had on my to do list, you know basic stuff like BUY FOOD and COOK DINNER, yet didn't manage to stay away for long, and I am happy to report that the infamous pivotal point of the MS has finally been tamed and rewritten!

5 new chapters in all came out of that incredible day. I guess my dragons were really whispering in my ear. I wish they'd do that more often ;) I am truly convinced that the book is 10x stronger now than it was just a day ago, and it gave me a true boost of confidence as to the work I still have to do to get through the current rewrite.

A toast! To the dragons, to the muses, to the incredible joy of a good day of writing! And to my husband too, who had to have hot dogs and fries for his dinner last night and was so happy to see me happy that he didn't even mind :)

Week-End is over, back to work!

Yes, I know. I haven't posted an update since Friday, and I'm a bad, very bad dragon keeper. The call of the sun was simply too powerful to resist, and I took my dragons out for the week end, well hidden in my purse. How, will you ask, can one hide something as big as not only one dragon but several dragons in a woman's purse? Well, dragons are magical creatures, and therefore can decide where they want to hide--and this week end, they wanted to hide in my purse. You would be amazed at the sheer volume of things I manage to hide in my purse--sometimes, I think it has no bottom. Maybe it's magical too?

Anyway, we (me, my husband and my dragons) decided that we were going to enjoy ourselves and take it easy this week end, and I have to admit that it was WONDERFUL! I barely even cooked (breakfast really doesn't count). As much as I enjoy cooking, it was truly very nice to go out and enjoy something didn't have to make for a change. We also went to see a movie yesterday, "The Losers", which was a decent action flick. No real surprises in the script, but I didn't expect any. It served its purpose, which was to simply entertain for two hours. And after that, we strolled down the mall and I had a huge warm cinnamon bun covered in gooey icing--not my typical pastry choice by far, but it was truly satisfying.

But this morning... BACK TO WORK! I did very well on my rewrites today. Stayed at it for about 6 hours, and  worked through over 100 pages--it might not seem like much, but when you do rewrites, 100 pages is a LOT, trust me. I found several passages that needed cuts, and as much as I hate trimming down my work, I can tell that the end result reads a lot better. On that subject, I found out that it's much easier for me to bring myself to do cuts if I "save" the removed material. I have a dump file where I paste all the parts I'm trimming from the current work copy, and I'm keeping it all there until I maybe find another spot in the story I can use it. I might not, mind you--but it's comforting to know that it's not totally lost.

It's now past 3pm, and I have to go grocery shopping for the week. Right now, I'm as hungry as a dragon--I forgot to eat again, immersed in my rewriting, and I could really eat a big fat steak tonight. I'm thinking two nice, thick, and juicy bone-in ribeyes with a home made "maître-d'hotel" butter (garlic, parsley, salt and pepper). And maybe a couple of fresh cut fries. Nothing fancy, in any case. Wow, just writing it down made me even hungrier. Off to the butcher I go!


Edit: I just had to post a picture of the two HUMONGOUS 2inch thick bone-in ribeye steaks we ended up eating. Vegetarians are out of their friggin minds, I'm telling you!