Spent my afternoon re-drawing an old piece.
ORIGINAL:
REDRAW:
In the process, I realised this character’s design is basically a younger Freddie Lounds from Hannibal.
Eh. I’m cool with it. :)
divide the sky
NaNoEdMo is DONE
MISSION SUCCESS. My edits are done. Completed. Finished. Finally over.
TIME FOR CELEBRATORY POST-EDIT ART COMMISSION SHARING.
Okay, that celebratory art is all well and good, but that’s not as party-like as it could be. Can we add more party?
Of course we can, I have a photoshop wizard for a fiancé.
MUCH BETTER.
Now that NaNoEdMo (aka “the month of edits and ice cream”) is finished, I’m going to spend some time doing catch-up on beta reading. The plan is to start on the ALL THE BROKEN THINGS edit soon, but with a bit of stubbornness I should be able to convince myself to take the weekend off. For reading. And video games.
And, y’know, all that sleep I’ve missed out on.
How are your NaNoWriMo or November writing tasks going? I’d love to hear!
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Today’s commission was by Jennilah, a young student artist who is absolutely lovely to work with. Her commission info is here.
My friend Jenny Haines, a professional artist, also has a sale on for commissioned art. She has a huge range of styles, and you can check out her work here and her rates here.
ART: DIVIDE THE SKY, Comic Page 1
At World Fantasy Con 2013 (the place where I’ve been hiding since Wednesday), I babbled more than once about how the comic panels with Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill were making me want to give comics a try again.
I’ve had a plan for a very short (5 – 10 pages) DIVIDE THE SKY comic for a while, but a lot of the panels were tricky to draw. So last night I gave myself permission to suck at it, to be scribble-y and messy and daft, and I finally put digital pen to digital paper.
Here’s page one of DIVIDE, which has a (slightly) lighter tone than the novel it’s based on. Will there be more? Hopefully! I had a lot of fun doing this.
Your Regularly Scheduled Emma Update
We’re seven days into August already! Kind of alarming, isn’t it? Here’s a slightly delayed What’s Up Wednesday post to confuse you this Thursday.
What I’m Reading
I’m on a comic book kick, having finished Hawkeye Vol.2 and Saga Vol.2. I’m slowly getting back into reading, but time’s not been on my side for getting stuck into a good book.
Also, every lightbulb in the house keeps blowing. Reading is surprisingly difficult without lightbulbs… also, I should probably be worried this is foreshadowing a horror movie moment where all the lights go out at once.
What I’m Writing
THE REVISIONS ARE DONE THE REVISIONS ARE DONE THE REVISIONS ARE DONE
*fireworks* *confetti*
The revisions are over and done, and the story is out to the lovely betas, who I trust to tell me exactly how far I have to go. I’m looking forward to it.
(Also, if you’re interested in being a beta reader for the second round, just let me know!)
While DIVIDE’so out with betas, I’ve been sinking my teeth into an edit of ALL THE BROKEN THINGS. It’s really good to be working on some new-ish material, but at the same time it’s unnerving to have something so raw and unpolished to work on.
What Inspires Me Right Now
I went to see Laura Lam perform a reading in Inverness yesterday! It was really lovely meeting her, and the Inverness Book Festival audience asked some really interesting questions.
Also, Chuck Wedig’s had some great blogs out lately, answering the big questions like Can You Force Art? and Are You A Real Writer?.
What Else I’ve Been Up To
Driving lessons are still going well! However, I’ve been lousy with the flu for a few days.
I also joined WriteOnCon! It’ll get its own post when I get round to it, but if you’re taking part you can find my account here, my query here, and my 1st 250 words here.
Commissioned Art: Anna and Tyler
I have some new commissioned art to show! The lovely Alexia drew these super-cute photos of Anna (ALL THE BROKEN THINGS aka the Giant Robots project) and Tyler (DIVIDE THE SKY).
Half-Way to Editing Victory
The longhand, hard-copy edit of DIVIDE THE SKY‘s most recent draft is done. This was an in-depth edit of an 80,000 word manuscript, focussing on everything from typos to major structure issues. DIVIDE’s been through a few rewrites already, I had clear plans for this revision and could afford to set a fast pace.
I set myself a tight timescale to get this done, and I had to learn a lot about my process. I’m going ramble on indulgently about this now, because I love breaking down my own process so I can figure out what I did right and see how my process changes between projects.
I learned:
- That my editing times aren’t as terrible as I thought.
- That a hard-copy, longhand edit is necessary to stop me getting distracted by the magical world of the Internet.
- That percentages and fractions are extremely motivating. It’s fine to say ‘I’ve done 50 pages’, but it be able to say ‘I’m a fifth of the way through’ or ‘I’m 30% done’ was so much more satisfying. I kept a spreadsheet up so I could motivate myself with the numbers. Maths was my friend, for once!
- Having time off from work is super useful for these tight deadlines. I took a few days off from editing, such as the 12th, where real life just took priority over edits, but having time off from the day job through the 10th – 15th July really helped me keep motivated to get this done.
- That I still had time to goof off and watch far too much anime, though my reading, gaming and social time suffered.
- When it came to adding in scenes, it worked better if I just jotted down a quick scene outline and moved on rather than focussing on writing new sections. Those scenes will get polished during the electronic edit.
To break the timescale down:
- Edit started on the 24th of June. Finished the chapter one edits by the end of that day, and hoped that I could maintain a steady chapter-a-day editing rate to get through all 42 chapters.
- That was wishful thinking. The first three chapters were hands-down the hardest to edit and they dragged on.
- Hit 50 pages done on the 4th July. Up until this point, I was trying to type up my edits as I went, but this was too distracting so I started focussing entirely on the written edit.
- By the 9th, I was 100 pages in and more than a third of the way through. I wasn’t looking forward to editing the ending, though…
- By the 11th, 655 done. Under a hundred pages to go.
- Hit 81% on the 18th and powered through to the ending, which was surprisingly easy to edit. Victory at 1am!
- About three different red pens died for the cause. Rest in Peace, red pens. Your sacrifice will be remembered.
Looks like I did manage that chapter-a-day rate, though as usual with writing-related tactics I did it in bursts instead of a steady daily rate.
Now, I wonder if I can meet my one-month deadline and get the electronic edit done by the 24th… only one way to find out. In the morning, it’ll be straight back to work!