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

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.

happy singles awareness day!

Alright, I’m a day early. It’s probably tomorrow off in Russia, though, so the title stays.

This is just a short update on the novel progress. I’m now sitting at 92,645 words. I’ve just finished chapter eleven last night. I’ve got two more chapters before the book is done, so I’m predicting that this draft will hit about 105k. 1,000 words a day, and I should be done before March.

Also, I’m very pleased with my reveal. I’d been worried about handling it right. Now for the grand finale!

Oh, and happy singles awareness day. 🙂

end of november

… And the beginning of December.

NaNoWriMo. It actually seemed to get easier, since last year. Not working full-time probably had something to do with that. I laughed, I cried, I killed off large portions of my cast. At one point I realized that I’d started a chapter wrong, and instead of erasing, put in a page break, wrote ‘chapter six’ over again (still haven’t titled that one) and started it again.

It seemed to have turned out alright, though.

Fifty thousand words. That’s half the size of your typical fantasy novel. And it’s half of mine; I need to finish.

Instead of officially joining NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month), I’ll be holding the same pace through December. Since I’ve figured out that it’s the personal graph that keeps me going, I’ve recreated the NaNo graphic in Photoshop to reflect December as well. My absent status in the blogging world will continue… but I’ll be back for the new year.

How’d the rest of you do?

checking in

By tonight, I’ll be at or above 35,000 words on my novel, roughly 1400 from where I’m standing now. I’m frequently a bit below par, but I blame that to writing late at night, past the midnight line. I’m not dead, just very, very focused. Sorry I haven’t been around a lot!

I’ve said this before, but I think I need to say it again. Complete rewrites are beautiful, wonderful things. They’re a lot, a lot of work, but the improvement to the plot and composition are fabulous, and well worth it.

Since I’m finally very happy with my plot and the balance between characters, I’m going to keep up my NaNo pace through December (I’ve heard of a NaNoFiMo– National Novel Finishing Month– next month). Depending on how long this new draft takes me, I’ll be done a little before or a little after the new year.

So, based on that, January through March are going to be editing and revising months. I’ll start agent-shopping this April.

Wish me luck!