The Third Level of Editing Hell and finally writing! #ROW80 & #WIPpetWednesday

December 10, 2014
Written by adrianjsmith

ROW80! I’m making much more progress than I thought I would, which is really good.

1. Write 1667 words a day.

I’m still writing on this co-written thing, and we’re over 30k words now. Definitely between the two of us, adding about 2k words a day to it. I know I wrote 2k of that yesterday. I also wrote 2k on Grace through Redemption, a piece I’m writing by myself. That felt really good. I need to do that more often.

2. keep up with all blog posts ROW80, WIPpet, Open When and add in 1 extra post a week

Doing this so far! Had Sundays ROW80 post and today’s ROW80/WIPpet post. I wrote and scheduled a post for Friday, so that leaves Open When…which I should just suck up and write when I’m at work today.

3. Edit at least one chapter a week on something.

This is where most progress has been made. I don’t know if you know this, but I currently have 5 writerly type projects in the works right now, 3 of those in edits. I didn’t mention them all on Sunday because I was waiting for one back from editor/publisher and haven’t even thought about looking at the other one.

Well I had thought about looking at the other one until I checked my email this morning and had a copy-edit that’s 50k words long waiting for me. So … not happening now. Here’s a list of what I have going for editing and how much I did.

Spellbound – S.K. Hart – 5 chapters (7 to go)
Ella’s Love – Jasmine Lee – 10 chapters (13 to go)
The Delivery – Mara White – 50k words to go <==the one in my email this morning
Memoir in the Making – 26 chapters (0 to go) These were final edits I got back this week
Fallen from Grace – 0 chapters (16 to go) this is the one I need to look at
Unbound – finished first round edits by me, so 20 chapters since last Wed. Onto second round with beta, did 9 chapters with 19 to go
PTB – 1 chapter (0 to go) this is a website I beta read for
Love Mess Short – R. Orman – 2500 words to go, quick beta read

whew…I think that’s it, but I’m sure I forgot something.

4. crochet one round of border a week

I managed not a whole border so far this week, but I did manage to get half of one! Still have the rest of the week to finish this border! FINALLY progress on crocheting.

 

WIPpet Wednesday! Since I actually wrote this week on my own stuff (which feels excellent by the way), I get to share more with you from Grace through Redemption. I’ve officially finished the first chapter of the book. Thank God, because that chapter was hard to write. Now onto chapter 2! (The Grace books have 15 chapters plus a prologue, so that means I’ve made decent progress.)

Here’s the excerpt for today. From Chapter One: Of Thieves and Visionaries. I give you ten paragraphs for the day of the month. Remember, this is a completely rough draft; I haven’t looked at it since I wrote it.

She noticed him right off the bat. His pants were down to his knees and his shirt was three times too big. The baseball cap on his had was flat-billed and backward on his head. Grace’s stomach clenched as she watched, waiting for him to make his stupid move. She recognized him easily, had dealt with him before.

“Whatever happens,” Grace said, “stay in the car.”

“What?”

“Stay in the car. I don’t want to have you bleeding out on the ground.”

Jules turned to look at her. Grace felt her gaze, but she didn’t break her eye contact on the skinny kid with over-sized clothes. She tapped her toes against the bottom of her boot as she waited, patiently, for him to slip up. He was going to. The feeling in her gut told her Cole Opinuey was going to make one big mistake in about two seconds flat.

Pressing her foot on the brake, Grace put her car in gear and held her car still. Jules was looking around, trying to figure out whatever it was Grace was so focused on. Jules gasped, and Grace knew she’d seen Cole. He was across the street and stepped onto the sidewalk. Cole nodded his head to a passerby, and Grace’s stomach clenched. This was it.

They smacked hands, and she saw the flip of money and drugs. Stepping on her gas, she sped through the parking lot, checking for other pedestrians briefly before she pulled up on the side of the curb. Her lights were on, and Grace got out of the car when Cole tried to run.

She got out, shoving her door open as slush splashed up into her boots. Grace ignored it and took another step through the puddle, running after Cole as fast as she could. “Stop!” she yelled. “Hands up!”

He made it halfway down the block, when she sprung and tackled him to the ground. Cole stopped struggling two seconds into her knee being shoved into his back to hold him down. He put his hands out by his head and laid down on the cold cement.

“Cole Opinuey,” Grace said. “I thought you were still in prison.”

If you would like to join in WIPpet Wednesday, feel free! Create a blog post with an excerpt of your work in progress that somehow correlates to the date and link it up to the rest of them here. Then go around and check out the other blogs and leave a comment because we’re all comment whores. Got it? Good. =P

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26 Comments

  1. Amy

    Did this happen at the transit station? Only kidding, LOL!

    I’m intrigued by this. This guy strikes me as more than just your average dealer. Guess I’ll find out soon enough!

    • Adrian

      It did! Werent expecting that were you? Lol

      • Amy

        I’m *dying*

  2. Denise D. Young

    This WIPpet has me wondering why this particular guy is so significant. I guess we’ll have to wait to find out!

    Sounds like you’re managing to balance a lot of projects at once, both individual and collaborative. Congrats!

    • Adrian

      He’s not all that significant. Where he is located is what makes him significant

  3. Tammy J Rizzo

    Adrian, it sure looks like you’re cranking along on those goals of yours! 😀 I need to look back through your blog to find out what this crocheted border is you keep talking about. I once croceheted a border/hem on two pairs of cut-off shorts, so they’d be long enough, but something tells me you’re not simply frilling up your jeans. 😀

    • Adrian

      Haha I don’r think I’ve explained it on the blog. Its a blanket for my friend for Christmas that i started 3 years ago! Finally going to finish it. Ill post a pic after Christmas but she has no idea what it looks like.

      • Tammy J Rizzo

        Oh, cool! I’m eager to see your after-Christmas pics of it, then. 😀

  4. Kate Sparkes

    Holy, you’ve been busy. And this post title is the best. 🙂

    • Adrian

      Yeah…always busy. Not a lot of writing time =(

  5. Alana Terry

    “I thought you were still in prison.” Great first words. Along the lines of Dr. Livingston, I presume. 🙂 Good job!

    • Adrian

      haha yeah! I think she was surprised it was so soon after release that he was being an idiot again

  6. Celine Jeanjean

    That was a cool scene, I was really curious as to how he was going to screw up. Wondering what’s going to happen to him 🙂

    • Adrian

      Jail and back to prison =P thanks for stopping by!

  7. kathils

    Congrats on words of your own. 🙂 And man, what a list of projects. Zowie. I’m not sure how you keep up with it.

    I love the way you build up the tension in this scene until he messes up. And then you still leave it questionable for a few heartbeats as to whether or not she’ll nab him.

    • Adrian

      It’s easier to keep track when it’s editing. I’m horrible at writing multiple things at once. =P thanks!!

  8. ReGi McClain

    Another action-packed scene. 🙂 Good for Grace for getting a dealer off the streets. 🙂

    • Adrian

      Haha thanks! And yes good for her!

  9. Emily Witt

    Another great scene with the tension cranking up before that great snarky last line.

    Awesome work on the goals front as well! I’m hoping I’ll get myself back into ROW80 next year.

    • Adrian

      Grace is full of snark =P im enjoying ROW80. This is only my second round but i find it helps me spread things out a bit

  10. shanjeniah

    Without ROW80, I would not be finishing the eighth and ninth WIP drafts, with stories, poems, and over a thousand blog posts….

    Editing….that’s mostly still an undiscovered country for me, but I’m getting there…very very slowly….

    I really like Grace. and her intuition and instinct are spot-on!

    • Adrian

      Yeah…editing is a beast. Thanks for stopping by!!

      • shanjeniah

        I’m learning a I go, but I keep stopping to write stuff! =D

        And I got to EVERYBODY this week!!!!!! =D

        • Adrian

          Nice!! I have to specifically plan editing time

          • shanjeniah

            January – March will be editing months, for me…then April-July will be focused on new writing/developing last year’s A-Z stories, and The IDIC Romance.

            Then August and September are for more editing, and October is for writing poetry and plotting for NaNo, and then November is madness, and December is wrap-up, and then we’re into 2016….

            Hey – you just helped me make the first steps toward my goal of making my 2015 writing plan! Thanks! =)

          • Adrian

            Haha!! I try to write a novel andvthen edit it. Its when i get edits back from my publisher that things get backed up

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