Thursday, March 29, 2012

Update Thursday #52


Welcome to Update Thursday, my own personal meme of sorts where I post an update of the goings on at my blog, with reading, with writing, and beyond. Feel free to borrow the idea from me for your own bookish musings.

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Reading...

Books I finished this week:
It's Always Something by Gilda Radner (TBR Pile Challenge)

Books I'm reading now (and some still):
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Classics Challenge)
Survival by A.M. Hargrove (E-Book Challenge)

234 of 1026 E.E. Cummings poems finished (10 this week)

Writing...

I sat down a couple times to write/revise this week. Tried to write in order, just kept getting bored. So I got started on an important scene near the end. While I was trying to write in order, I was thinking about where I was going on this second draft, then thought of a different way to go about it and had this horrible feeling... I DON'T WANT TO START OVER AGAIN. But, part of me thinks it might be a good idea. I have these flashback scenes, and trying to put them in discreetly and not abruptly has been hard. So, by next week. I may have started over. But, it won't be too bad, since most of this second draft has been coming along nicely. It'll be a lot of quick copy/paste action. It's just those flashback scenes that need work. And they're kind of necessary to show what happened the first time around and compare it to the present, you know? Otherwise, I wouldn't bother with them and just reference the past. Plus, I had switched around a feature of the MC's best friend after the fact and had forgotten to incorporate it in the second draft. I should just print out my whole first draft so I can flip through it rather than scroll down the page on my laptop.

Otherwise...

We've got the rental house for our vacation! Oh happy day! It's so exciting. I need this vacation. It's going to be AWESOME!

I've been working on some posts for the blog, dealing with some struggles I'm facing currently. I'll try to post one soon. I'd like to get some input from you guys.

Whoa! That's right #52, one whole years worth of weekly updates on Thursday. WOOT!


Until next time...

~Jessica

PS: Don't forget to enter my BLOGOVERSARY GIVEAWAY if you haven't already! It's ending SATURDAY night. Love you all! <3

6 comments:

  1. I have a MS I'm working on that I thought might benefit from some flashbacks but, my oh my, it's hard not getting them to feel abrupt and out of place! Good luck.

    I rented a vacation house right on the beach two years ago and it was awesome! Where's your vacation house? I hope you have fun.

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    1. I am totally seeing the trouble with flashbacks now! I hope I can figure it out soon. Thanks!

      It's in the middle of North Carolina on a lake near some friends we know. It should be fun! :)

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  2. I can't stand the thought of having to start over. I really resist it so badly. which is a bit idiotic because I want so badly for something to be perfect yet really don't want to improve it any! It's always hard to integrate flashbacks without pulling the reader away from the story. So far I haven't mastered it yet. Hope you're having better luck. Great news about the rental house!

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    1. I know, it annoys me to think I have to. I'd rather keep going with the rest of it, then go back again, but it's irritating me too much the odd placing I've done. I hope I can at least make it sound less forced. And thanks! :)

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  3. That's the problem with writing, you change your mind and things end up going in a completely different direction. I follow several of my favorite authors blogs and many of them have nearly started completely over on many of their novels, so don't feel like its just you, even professionals do it. It might help to take a step away from that particular story for a week or two and just let creative juices take you where they please and regain some focus again.

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    1. I love following my favorite authors on their blogs, they have such great advice! It is good to know we're not alone in having to start over sometimes. I just can't imagine scrapping whole stories and starting over like some do. I am taking a step away for now, I'll probably print it out (once I buy some more ink, LOL) and put it into a binder so I can flip through it as I rewrite out some scenes. It should help to have it in front of me instead of flipping around to get to where I need to be. Sometimes retyping is better than my 'copy/paste and then rewrite a little bit' strategy. :P

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Thank you for commenting and happy reading!