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I’ve been quiet this last month, sorry about that — had to get my head down and focus on a difficult rewrite. But now that’s done and dusted, I get to dive into a shiny new WIP.

Tonight’s blog hop is called ‘Previously’ and is organised by Miss Cole, with lovely banner by Carrisa Taylor.

Previously in Writing

Finished my big rewrite this week, cutting down a book from 97,700 words to a very trim 83,000 and tightening it overall. It wasn’t an easy redraft, but I was really surprised by how much better it was by the end of it. And afterwards, I was SO TIRED, ye gods.

Howl's Moving Castle GIF of Howl Sleeping

But after a few days, I’m getting my creative energy back and getting pumped up to work on new stories. I’ve hit my 15k wordcount goal for the month with days to spare! It’s going to be a fun March!

Previously In Reading

At the start of the month I finished excellent sci-fi beta read, but I can’t talk about that other than to mention it was SUPER RAD and you should buy it’s predecessor, SERENGETI. It’s a brilliant fun sci-fi novel about a sentient AI warship trying to survive with a makeshift crew of robots, and it’s got this brilliant WALL-E sense of humour to it.

It’s basically been wizard month around here, starting the month with Diana Wynne Jone’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (amazing, and much funnier than the also-brilliant Studio Ghibli movie) followed by Naomi Novik’s UPROOTED.

Howl's Moving Castle GIF

Both books were amazing, and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite… though I think UPROOTED would win because oh my gosh, the magic system is *SO GOOD* and there’s some really interesting elements of politics and social class throughout.

I love the believably, frustratingly clumsy protagonist who likes to organise books by colour. The Polish and Celtic culture. The strength of the prose!

I love that part of the story is a self-centred “genius” guy coming to terms with the fact that people learns things differently. He’s so frustrated that a woman learns differently to him. He’s textbook orientated & she just wants to bloody DO IT. Over and over again, you see this problem where Agnieszka is belittled and overlooked because, no matter how strong she is, her magic doesn’t follow the accepted way of doing things.

I’ve been knee-deep in reading about how we treat kids in school, particularly how the structure of education regularly makes life hell for kids who aren’t neurotypical, especially kids on the autistic spectrum. Everyone learns in different ways, and there’s no wrong way to learn if it works for you. I really appreciated how Uprooted included that as part of its world-building, with this thriving, living sort of magic that can be learnt in so many different ways.

Also, it’s got a SUPER PRETTY hardcover that uses gold foil brilliantly.

UpRooted UK Hardback Cover

Previously In Art

It’s been a fairly quiet month on the art front — something I’m looking to remedy as we head into the next month — but I did get this quick piece done of a merrow, a type of Scottish mermaid.

This is Seònaid. Her clan take their colourings from the orca they swim with, and she’s kinder than she looks. A+ seamonster buddy.

A black-skinned, feminine seamonster

Also, a quick perspective practice piece from the very end of January of Anna, giant robot engineer.

AnnaPerspective

Next Time In Goals

It’s been a really satisfyingly productive month, and I hope to keep that momentum going through March as I try some new projects and revise some old ones. I’m also looking forward to upping my art game a bit and trying out Illustrator a bit more instead of my usual sketchy style. So here’s my goals for the month ahead:

1) Write 20k.
2) Read at least two books.
3) Make some art!

It’s Writing Wednesday again, and today we’re all about the good news.

What I’m Writing

I finally finished Draft five of my Machines VS Monsters project on the 26th of September, removing or rewriting 24,000 words and adding 31,344 new words. By the end of it was basically a new book.

Today’s agenda Finish 5th draft ✔ Send to betas ✔ Roast a chicken ✔ 🐔 Time to bury myself in my queue of awesome beta reads. 📚

— Emma Maree (@EMaree) September 27, 2015

I started it on the 16th of July, thought there was about three weeks in July and August where no writing happened because I was busy panicking about the driving test and then enjoying the freedom afterwards.

Celebratory end-of-edit Funko (with necklace of +5 editing skills made by @Rockwell_JB) . A wendigo joins the crew! pic.twitter.com/5fTJElh5vx — Emma Maree (@EMaree) September 27, 2015

It’s a good feeling. I’m basking it in while it lasts, before my beta readers bring me back down to reality.

Next week’s agenda: the focus is on catching up with my beta reading, but let’s say 5,000 new words? Aye, let’s go for that.

What I’m Reading

My head’s been firmly in the beta-reading game over the last few weeks, with nothing new to report on the book front. I’m still keeping up on various news and advice articles though, so let’s share a few of those.

If you’re going to read anything today, make it this gorgeous article about why you shouldn’t give up on your writing. Why you should stop focusing on success and instead work on what you love. “Be a lovely odd duck instead, one who hardly notices if people are booing or cheering.”

Recognize that it is a privilege to be a poorly-selling author nobody knows of and who’s barely making it. YOU GET TO WRITE FUCKING BOOKS. — Bad Boy Raeder (@LeahRaeder) September 17, 2015

Author and illustrator Jackie Morris had a gorgeous article about why powerful heroines star in her fairytale retellings.

V.E. Schwab, author of A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC, blogged a day in the life of eighteen different authors. I love how different all the schedules are! Adam Christopher’s was the most intruiging, to me — lots of things there I’d like to try.

There was the article “Dear Self-Published Author: Do NOT Write Four Books a Year“, which (despite the clickbaity title) had some really interest points about quality vs speed. Then Chuck Wendig responded with a great article about how you *can* write fast while still writing quality work, and his bibliography is definitely proof of that.

In the end, you do you, writer friends. Everyone has their own system, and all these ‘you should’ and ‘you shouldn’t’ posts do nothing but muddy the water.

Kameron Hurley had an eye-opening look at the business numbers behind her writing. That lady is an inspiration. Chuck Wendig responded with another post about the financial peaks and valleys of the writer life.

Delilah S Dawson had some interesting posts about writing endings, and writing a series. It was interesting advice, though Miss Cole’s recent blogging about the opposite was also inspirational.

Every writer is different! That’s one thing I love about this community.

I also revisited Chuck Wendig’s post on endings, because that’s where I am right now, and he and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. 10 of his points are here, with the full 25 available in his book.

That’s ten articles I really enjoyed this week, and highly recommend to others.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

The end of the year is coming up damn fast. I’ve got a roundup post for the end of September that’ll go up tomorrow, and I’m setting my sights now on the YA Buccaneer’s Fall Writing Boot Camp, a chance to get stuck into a new project.

September’s been a whirlwind of a month, going SO MUCH faster than I ever expected it to go. But in the end, I achieved my goals for the month, and that’s a damn good feeling (and a rare one!).

How’ve you done this month? What are you looking forward to in October?

monsters vs machines

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