Earlier last week I finished my pre first draft of my first WIP, which you can read about here. So anyways, I took half a days break before it called me back, needing me to fix all the extremely awkward parts. So I returned, eager to clean up the decidedly trashed bits. I've finished the first two chapters, a few times merging scenes that themselves took too long, tightening up dialogue or description, and general maintenance.

The hard part for me is seeing how, well, bad my writing was when I started longhanding. Because I couldn't go back and tweak each and every sentence as a better version came to me, it forced me to keep moving forward. It's also making me realize that the first draft of any novel can be VERY ugly. I'm trying not to mind it, knowing it was just the bones of the story and soldiering my way through it. But to be honest, it stings a bit, seeing these choppy, unsavory sentences even as I work to make them a little less painful.

The first day was especially difficult, partly because I was mixing the original beginning with the next major scene in order to maintain the flow, but mainly it was the sentence structure that stuck out to me. I kept doing double takes at the words written in my journal, surprised to see that I wasn't as beautifully natural a writer as I thought. Well, not when I'm trying to catch up with a Muse that's two scenes ahead, anyways. It took me that night and half the following morning to reconcile myself with the idea that, yes, the first draft will ALWAYS, invariably, suck. Yes, there will be some awesome passages, and I may tear up at the gorgeousness of a scene as I write it.

But every time I go back to type out my WIP, I HAVE to brace myself against the possible disasters I may encounter when I transcribe, revise, edit. Its the only way to make it all better. Not perfect, but better. And that gives me hope. I hack away at the words with determination and zeal, rearranging them or tossing them as I see fit until my writers voice is truly present and my characters fully formed.

So, I think of the immense sense of accomplishment I will feel when I'm ready to start querying for a literary agent, the optimistic confidence in that I had done all I could without the guidance of one. Even if the manuscript doesn't catch the eye of an agent, I will know that I put in all this work to hone my craft, learn who I am as a writer, and grow as a person. It makes me proud of myself, determined to fulfill that feeling in the future, time and time again.

How do you get inspired to return to your own editing and revisions?

Andrea at MiG Writers made a very good point in yesterdays blog. However proud you are of a finished, polished novel you've written, refrain from reading it when you're working on a new first draft.

So, Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, is giving away two personalized/ autographed copies of Diana Peterfreund's RAMPANT. Carrie and Diana became critique partners during NaNoWriMo in 2005, and Carrie's been hoarding her copies. But no more!

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns…

The sparkly, innocent creatures of lore are a myth. Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. And they can only be killed by virgin descendants of Alexander the Great.

Fortunately, unicorns have been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed ather eccentric mother’s stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend in the woods – thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to prom – Astrid learns that unicorns are real and dangerous, and she has a family legacy to uphold. Her mother packs her off to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.

However, at the cloisters, all is not what is seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to – perhaps most dangerously of all – her growing attraction to a handsome art student… and a relationship that could jeopardize everything.

I have been looking forward to this book for ages! It has suck a great twist to the everyday notions of Unicorns. And such a unique work! I don't see a hint of sparkly vampires or raging werewolves, though those can be good. Even better, there's this awesomely hilarious video at http://www.killerunicorns.org/. And here it is for your viewing pleasure.

If you want to join in on the contest, its at Carrie Ryans blog.

If you've read my last post, you will know that I had a form of a crisis in my WIP. Nothing seemed to be working out, nothing wanted to be changed, and it all looked like a hot mess.

Today at approximately 10:47 am, I received a blow so devastating, I was still for many minutes. I was out in my garage, writing as usual. I had been working on some scenes I knew would in the end either be cut or shortened, but I let them go on, knowing my muse needed to get them out. It was only my pre-first draft in longhand, so I wasn't terribly worried.

I love receiving emails from Traveling To Teens about new contests. Their newest one is for Prophesy of the Sisters, a great looking book by Michelle Zink, an amazing writer I follow on Twitter.

PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS

“Have you been waiting long?”

I shake my head. “Waiting is made easy in a place like this. A place that reminds me of you while I wait.”

He tips his head, taking a finger and tracing my face from the loose curls at my temple, down the angular jut of my cheekbone, across the curve of my jaw.

“Everything reminds me of you…”

Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents’ deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.

Lia and Alice don’t know whom they can trust.

They just know they can’t trust each other.

O. M. G. I am so looking forward to this book! I myself am a twin, so it'll be interesting to see if the twin dynamic in the book is similar, or if its strong enough to last or what!

Because I write outside, and I'm in Texas, I normally come in around noon or so, as it is WAY to hot to keep going. I dilly dawdle around, checking email, Twitter, etc. I put on Spongebob or whatever I have recorded on the DVR. I love my DVR. And I wait. For what? The sun to go down and leave my garage, where I have set up my writing station. I got sunburned for going out again too early in the evening, and its all on the left side of my body from the way the sun slants in. If I read a book, its in a genre totally out of my usual zone, and I especially steer away from genres that my WIP would fall under.