I have been stressing out over the formatting process of this novel all day. I've been going through it and it looks amazing. I mean, really looks great...but...
It shrunk. By almost 60 pages. The formatting has crunched my 200 paged novel into a mere 139 on my Nook. However, I downloaded it onto my Kindle on my phone and it's more like 2,296 tiny pages. I started to panic, of course, because all the novels I've ever read on my Nook have been looong. I've actually thought about NOT releasing it. Then I remembered who I'm writing for.
When I was a kid, you couldn't get me to read a damn thing. I hated it. It was a process I did not enjoy. I felt it was time consuming, boring, and I hated that the subject matter they were making me read because I thought it was boring.
And then there was R.L. Stine. The first book I ever bought, and only because one of my aunts took me and my cousin Claudia, who was an avid reader, to Waldens in the mall and said, "You may pick a book. Any one you'd like." I would have rather gone anywhere else than that bookstore. So, I reluctantly went to the young adult section at the back of the store and started looking at the back covers of these books and decided on one. It was called 99 Fear Street: The First Horror. And believe it or not, it changed the way I viewed reading. I was hooked, but I was totally screwed. It was a series. And so for the next few weeks, my mom spent calling bookstores in the area, which at the time, weren't very many, looking for the other two novels. She found them, I read them, and then I read more and more and more. I read ALL of the R.L. Stine books I could get my hands on. Then Christopher Pike and then, finally, I ventured out into the other novels on the Young Adult bookshelf.
I can truthfully say that if it hadn't been for R.L. Stine, I would have hated reading for a long time. They were short, to the point, stayed on plot, and didn't have a lot of fluff. These are all the things I love about a fast, easy to read novel. They averaged about 130-160 pages and were awesome food for my brain in Jr. High.
I'm writing for the kids that hate to read but WANT to love something. I'm writing for kids like me. And, really, that's the kind of writer I want to be. I want to be the kind of writer that writes books a Jr. High/ High School kid will like to read and can't wait to tell their friends about. Anyone can read it if they like, but I want to turn kids on to reading, too. I think that's what my little novel will do. At least I hope it will. :)
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
It's done.
Well, I finally did it. My first novel is in the process of being formatted and it should be on sale at 36 major online bookstores in the next two months. I can honestly say that the process itself has been a bittersweet learning experience. Here's why.
First, I am super proud of my manuscript. Typed, it averages about 55,220 words and runs about 194 pages double-spaced which usually doubles in book page form. I know people who can't write a single paragraph without having a meltdown so the fact that I was able to accomplish should a task is almost miraculous (even to me). And I'm super proud that it's my story. I imagined it, I outlined it, I created it, wrote it, typed it, and finally, I'm going to see it in print and share it with the world. It makes me happy to think that I finally accomplished one of my greatest dreams at the age of 27.
Second, it is flawed. I understand that as a writer, a piece of writing is never really done. We can review and edit and revise the same piece of writing multiple times and still have a flawed work with typos here and there. I can honestly say that me and my editor went through this work at least 20-30 times in the last few months and felt that it was the cleanest copy we could produce. For the last few days, I have been going through the piece again because I will be writing book two in a few days and have found that even though we revised and edited the piece several times over, there are still minor mistakes that me and my editor overlooked. And as much as I am a perfectionist, I know that I'm just going to have to let it go and learn from it. The typos do not detract from the story in anyway but as an English teacher, I see them and I instantly want to take out my red pen and make the page bleed with correction marks. I am my own worst critic. I only hope that my audience will be more forgiving than I am to myself.
All in all, I have learned that I must be more careful with my errors and that no matter how hard I try and be perfect at my craft, there is always room for improvement. I will try harder on my next project to make it a much cleaner piece. I will try and make it a piece that my audience will enjoy and that they will want to keep reading regardless of its imperfections. I figure that 10 found mistakes out of 55,000 plus words is o.k. Not great, but not bad. I will push myself to be better for those who are interested in what will happen to Tristan, Madi, Tannen, and Sam.
Please don't lose faith in me, my friends and readers. I am working to better myself so that I can turn out the best story possible. Until next time. Happy reading. :)
CG
First, I am super proud of my manuscript. Typed, it averages about 55,220 words and runs about 194 pages double-spaced which usually doubles in book page form. I know people who can't write a single paragraph without having a meltdown so the fact that I was able to accomplish should a task is almost miraculous (even to me). And I'm super proud that it's my story. I imagined it, I outlined it, I created it, wrote it, typed it, and finally, I'm going to see it in print and share it with the world. It makes me happy to think that I finally accomplished one of my greatest dreams at the age of 27.
Second, it is flawed. I understand that as a writer, a piece of writing is never really done. We can review and edit and revise the same piece of writing multiple times and still have a flawed work with typos here and there. I can honestly say that me and my editor went through this work at least 20-30 times in the last few months and felt that it was the cleanest copy we could produce. For the last few days, I have been going through the piece again because I will be writing book two in a few days and have found that even though we revised and edited the piece several times over, there are still minor mistakes that me and my editor overlooked. And as much as I am a perfectionist, I know that I'm just going to have to let it go and learn from it. The typos do not detract from the story in anyway but as an English teacher, I see them and I instantly want to take out my red pen and make the page bleed with correction marks. I am my own worst critic. I only hope that my audience will be more forgiving than I am to myself.
All in all, I have learned that I must be more careful with my errors and that no matter how hard I try and be perfect at my craft, there is always room for improvement. I will try harder on my next project to make it a much cleaner piece. I will try and make it a piece that my audience will enjoy and that they will want to keep reading regardless of its imperfections. I figure that 10 found mistakes out of 55,000 plus words is o.k. Not great, but not bad. I will push myself to be better for those who are interested in what will happen to Tristan, Madi, Tannen, and Sam.
Please don't lose faith in me, my friends and readers. I am working to better myself so that I can turn out the best story possible. Until next time. Happy reading. :)
CG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)