Job Searching, Writing, and Sometimes Revision

Page two of my own ELEVEN revision notes.
(Picture intentionally blurry!)

Hello everybody!

As you may or may not know, I recently moved to California. I came out here to follow my dreams and to become a big name! (Just kidding. I moved here because I needed to get out of Illinois and my sister lives here with my brother-in-law.)

I thought I was ready for the real world when I was still in school, but now that I'm in it, I'm pretty much falling apart. Okay, well, I wouldn't say that, but I am stressed! I've applied to so many jobs, I've lost count! Because of all the time I've been working on applying to jobs, my writing has taken a back seat. Now, that doesn't meant I've stopped writing! I am definitely still writing! It's just not as much as I'd like to be.

I recently beta-ed my second Nano book to a friend. When I got it back, I had SEVEN single-spaced pages of revision notes. That's not including all the comments actually made ON the manuscript. After reading through them, I agreed with almost all of the notes/suggests/please-change-this-now's. So that's what I've been working on. It's not going to be done as fast as I had originally hoped, but it's coming along.

What's nice, and interesting, about another person looking at your work is, it bring a whole new light to your story. I realized things about my characters I wasn't even aware of. I fixed melodramatic story elements, that originally, I thought were perfect.

For instance, the ending of my manuscript ended in a HUGE way. In fact, it was the original thing I thought up in my mind that my story was based around. (Let's say it involves a crash and public transportation.) It was melodramatic and over the top, but it was the first thing I had ever thought up for this story.

When my friend read it, the only note she put was "Are you serious?" and I knew, deep down, that it was no longer right for the story I was trying to tell. Yes, my entire story grew around this incident, but there was something I hadn't noticed. My story had outgrown it. My story was so much more than that incident now.

So I cut it.

And my story has never looked better.

Exhausted like a... kitten?

picture owned by Ella Mullins

So I've picked this picture for two reasons. One: I LOVE cats. Who doesn't? Look at it! Sleeping there! Two: This is how I feel right now. I would like to apologize for not posting yesterday, but as most of you know, I'm sure, sometimes life throws your curve balls. It's really not anything to do with writing or such so I'll just go ahead and jump back into the groove of this blog!

I'm very excited to say I've been asked to read at the open mic on campus for the literary magazine that is going to be publishing me in May. I plan on reading a poem, which is nerve wracking, because I don't consider myself a poet. But it's an adventure!... right?

Another thing is, I've never read my work in front of a group of people before, so this ought to be interesting. I will either stutter, vomit, or cry. Possibly all three, you never know! I'm also not sure if I want to read something I've already written or something new. They don't want me to read what I'm getting published because they want me to read that at the release party! So many readings, so little time!

Besides all that news, I'm about 10k into editing my WIP! I want it to be ready to be sent out to beta's within a month of two. We'll see if that actually happens! I'm very determined to get it done though because I want to start querying to some agents soon!

How is everyone else's writing/editing going?