the undead blog is raised! science!!!

Hey everyone! It’s been a crazy year.

I used to post on writing craft often, and eventually I stopped because I got to a point in my own work where I wondered if I really did know anything– if I was really in a place to discuss craft authoritatively. Having thought about this for a while (and written several more books in the interim), my answer would have to be yes I did– but learning that you don’t know as much as you once thought is also the labor pains that push you into a greater awareness. And I just totally grossed myself out with that analogy.

Point being, if you’re following this blog still, I’ll be making a lot of changes around here in the next week. Old information will be updated, pages will be shifted and moved, and I’ll start writing about writing craft and technique again. Plot analysis of movies and popular books, composition, fantasy, characterization, book reviews, spotlights, the works. And as always, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

I’m looking forward to being back!

Eliza Wyatt

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another november passed

Surprisingly, there’s no emotional ‘it’s over’ surge. You’d think there would be.

See you next year, NaNoWriMo!

obligatory new year’s post

A quick note on the new year. It’s hardly original, I know, but why fight tradition?

Major things done this year:

• Started a new job teaching computer science at the local college.
• Met my boyfriend, got engaged. Did I mention the engagement?
• Wrote the second half of Blue Crystal, version 3.0. Revised to 3.1.
• Let betas tear apart version 3.1. Started 3.2.
• Started ‘The Artificer’s Angels’! Currently have 56k on v1.0.

Goals for 2010:

• Finish Blue Crystal 3.2. Edit for typos.
• Take Blue Crystal agent shopping.
• Get married. One week in Germany, the next in Italy.
• Finish The Artificer’s Angels.
• Finish my Beta-Reader website. I’ll tell you guys more about that later.

Anyone else have any ambitious plans for next year?

1 day left – 100%

The revision is done. Blue Crystal now stands just over 96,200 words.

No more rough edits. No more large-scale rewrites. Edits are put off until after NaNoWriMo, but after that, I’ll scrub out whatever typos and awkwardness my test readers have found and prepare my query letter.

3 days left

1350 words written, typed on a ten-year-old laptop on my bedside.

I paid for that all-nighter by immediately catching the bug that my boyfriend came down with recently. I had a fever and a killer sore throat; we’ll see if I’m fit to teach tomorrow. I’m not sure. We’ll move my supposed percentage count up a bit more and see.

6 days left – about 96.8%

It’s a 1,000 word day. They were pretty hard to put down. Also, I’ve had a lot to think about atmosphere in writing. I had a tune in my head that I wanted to convey the mood of. How do you write, and make your words ring with the same emotional impact as an auditory piece?

the end

After months of sweat, tears, and very probably blood, I bring you the most beautiful image I’ve created in some time:

For those of you who may not understand what this is, allow me to explain. This is the last page of the last chapter of the last draft of my novel.

Three drafts, from 52k to 96k to finally 105k, bringing us up to over 250,000 words written on this novel over the last year and a half– my first version was written because of a spur-of-the-moment decision to join NaNoWriMo 2007.

It needs to be revised, proofread, ect..

I also think I’ll need an agent, or at least an agent-hunt list, by the end of the year. And a new project for this November.