Autumn Closing In

I'm beginning to feel Autumn closing in.

The winds of change foretell the fall of leaves, the damp, lazy days and shifting time. Daylight and darkness argue amongst themselves for stage time. Sliding in beneath the heated days of Summer, Autumn whispers on the breeze- to tell of times when the ground will be blanketed by the russet and gold and flame quilt of sleep.

Sleep, sweet Mother Earth, for you have blistered too long in the Sun's smoldering gaze. Take your rest, as we do and enjoy the harvest. Ruby apples and amber pumpkins grace the orchards and fields, glistening in the early morning dew.

Jack Frost will lay his icy fingers to the land before too long. He shall shroud the world in sparkling frozen crystals, spirals and transparent star bursts on the windowpanes, etching out his artwork upon the last remaining leaves and dressing the blades of grass in their Cinderella gowns that shimmer and welcome the approach of Winter, for it is the time of the Autumn Ball.

The sky, powder blue, shall brighten most days, but will also be cast in steely gray from time to time, as the rains pit-pat out a rhythm of solitude and calm. Go indoors and huddle, stay warm and dry! Leaves scatter on the winds as they whip round to haunt and dance their final waltz. Surround yourselves with the comforts of hearth and home, while the chilled breath of Autumn stirs the leaves upon the ground~ rustling, hurrying, swirling them into Winter's cold embrace.

An ethereal sense of quiet washes over me as days change with the passing weeks. No longer will the sun's warm caress wake me. Instead I will be greeted by the cold fingertips of the morning light, a distant pale beam that neither warms nor shines as brightly as before.

We turn inward to wax poetic about days gone by and reminisce of youthful times and activities. How quickly time does fly as the knowledge that another year is journeying toward its end. Time tells the tales of days of old, and I am wrapped in the melancholy, to ponder on the past, to savor old beloved memories and reminded of the changes in my life thus far.

Autumn is upon us~ I feel it closing in...

That's Just Ugly

I got through the first round of revisions on my four book series...not too shabby, but these are, after all my most recent endeavors and therefore written quite a bit differently than the ones prior. I decided to move on to a different story than those so I can come back and go through them again later.

So I went through my historical paranormal romance...a bit tougher, but I made it through with only a few minor abrasions. (mind you this was the 3rd novel I completed so the writing wasn't as tight as the four book series, which I finished this year) I mean sure, I had tension in my shoulders from staring at the pages for hours with little breaks in between, but it wasn't too hard to alter it and fix this and that....So I moved on again-

This one I'm doing now? It's a train wreck- more tension in my shoulders and neck, headaches and eye strain. I feel like this story has chewed me up and spit me out.

Yesterday I went through about 30 pages, then backtracked to the beginning again and only got through 13 pages before I shut it down for the evening. I had a busting headache when I went to bed. This was the 2nd book I finished, my first NaNovel, and my writing was/is CRAP. The sentence structure, the tense, the grammar...when I started going through it again I realized just how much my writing has changed in the past two years that I've been hard at work on these.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday evening as well as today, scrutinizing over the same sentence until I had it written in a way that made sense and fit the tense. I've reworked so many sentences it's not even a laughing matter.

I've been told by so many authors that writing's the easy part, its the revisions that are hard and I can absolutely agree. As I go through these revisions, I see the striking changes in my form, my voice, the manner with which I handle getting the thoughts out into written word.

I'm actually dreading the moment I go back and start working on the revisions of my very first novel. Mind you, I have revised it before. I had written it in 1st person to begin with, so I went back and changed that. Changing POV is pretty difficult in and of itself, because you can't just change I, me, my, mine, we to he, she, it, them, etc. You also have to take into account your verbs and tense yet again to make sure the sentences flow.

Let it be known I'm not discouraged...just exhausted. I want to make sure these are all polished to the best of my ability before I start sending them in for submissions. Of course, it's amazing just how much a writer's vision and style changes as they go along. I have 8 completed, and the first four, in my opinion are not nearly as good as the last four. I don't mean the stories. I love the stories.

It's my writing that's changed and in a way, perhaps I have changed a bit as well. I know I've grown a lot with each story and that makes a huge difference in how I perceive myself as a writer. That's a really good thing.

I'm not disappointed in my previous misconceptions about "how" I write. In fact, I'm even more determined to improve them, polish them, wrap them in pretty paper and a bow. They'll shine eventually and it will be well worth the painstaking revisions and hours of stress and devotion to them.

I'm getting a late start at this, but I think I'm catching on quick. Now won't that be pretty?

8th Finished, Revisions and Busyness

So much has been going on since I last posted and I had almost forgotten to update.

I finished #8 on the 1st of August...in just 2 weeks and 3 days time. After that we had to start getting the kids prepared for school. Orientation and Open House, papers to fill out and even us parents got a crash course in the way things are done at the school.

The first day was August 6th, so we've made it through the first week and a half of school and so far so good, the kids are doing good. My daughter started kindergarten, so it was bittersweet to put her on the bus that first day. She had always been home with me all day, so it was a change for the both of us...a milestone. I cried the first day, but I've done good every day since.

She had a rough ride home on the bus the first day because it was extremely hot and she almost got sick, but the weather has cooled off some since then, so she's had good days since then. She's loving school, but coming home and letting all her pent up behavior and talkativeness out on us until bedtime. LOL It's still great to see her so excited about it and enjoying herself, though she comes home clingy and missing me.

My stepson is doing pretty well in the 4th grade, in a different school, but he's enjoying it, too and comes home happy and chatty as well. Hard to hear them both jabbering away though, talking over each other to tell me about all the cool and exciting things they've done.

The time sure has flown by since my stepson was starting kindergarten and my girl was just a little infant. Where does it all go?

In the meantime, I've been concentrating on revisions on my novels. I've done a first run through the four book series, checking mostly for grammar and typos and such. Right now I'm working on one of my other ones. I've noticed major mistakes in this one as compared to the four book series I wrote this year.

I have a feeling I've grown some in my writing style and voice with the last four...the first four will be the boogers when it comes to editing, as I've already discovered. The one I'm working on right now is in a lot worse shape grammar and typo-wise. I'm digging in deep to fix sentences and punctuation and sentences that just don't really make a lot of sense now that I read through them again.

Tightening them up and making headway into polishing it. Revisions are a real pain- in the back. When I'm writing a novel, I don't suffer nearly as much- but doing these revisions, scrolling and changing this and that builds tension in my shoulders and elbows. Not sure what the difference is there, but I'm thinking it's because when I'm writing, my fingers are simply flying over the keys...now I've slowed down and reading and my fingers aren't doing the work...my brain is, and therefore, in a way, the rest of my body...LOL

But, I'm working through it...working on it mostly during the day while I have silence in the house while hubby's at work and the kids are at school and resting in the evenings after supper.

I can feel myself moving closer and closer to completed, polished novels and the impeding task of writing query letters, synopsis and sticking my foot in the waters.

Best wishes for a wonderful weekend. I'm off to work on revisions. Have a great one~