1. I have a comprehensive new interview up at Manic Readers!
2. I have author quotes for DARK NEST from REAL multi-published, award-winning authors!
Thanks, Colby, Isabo!
"Leanna Renee Hieber creates a fantastic new world full of endless possibilities in Dark Nest. Kristov is a hero to die for and Ariadne is a heroine that every reader can relate to. I can't wait to read more of this fascinating world." - award winning author Colby Hodge
"Fabulous read! Once I started I couldn't stop until the very satisfying end!" Isabo Kelly, award-winning author of Marshall's Guard
3. I have vertigo from revisions to my gothic victorian fantasy novel that I'm working my rear off to get published. Here's how I feel:
During massive restructuring of my narrative, shifting around whole chapters like rearranged puzzle pieces, I found that I sort of went into Matrix bullet-time. It was as if the text of my whole book was just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling down the pages of my mind like all those little green numbers... Am I alone here??
Authors? Tell me about your "Highway to the Revision Zone": Do you go to a zen place? Do you go into a tailspin? Anyone else have this matrix feeling? Or an Alice in Wonderland rabbit-hole and you're just ingesting things that say "Eat" and "Drink me" until your book is fabulous? I want to know. Tell me.
I am revising now, and I definitely get in a fugue state where it's only Editing or Not Editing.
ReplyDeleteVery tunnel vision-ish.
Good luck with yours.
Thanks, Megan, I tend to be most productive in that tunnel vision place, "fugue state" is a great way to describe it. Good luck in return!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm revising my work for plot and characterization it's sort of like making stew especially when I've hit some major snags. It's simmering on the back burner of my brain all the time and then *ding* Timer goes off, I've got the answer and I have to drop what I'm doing and go fix the book. If I'm lucky it happens when I'm cleaning. I'm more than happy to stop housework to write! lol
ReplyDeleteCindy, I love the "stew" metaphor, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm a revise-as-I-go writer, but when that first draft is done, I still have to start at the beginning and run all the way through. That's when I'll land upon problem spots and say "what the hell was I thinking?" So whatever it is must be fixed, then of course all the stuff it affects must be fixed, which then affects other stuff, rinse and repeat. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteSo just when I thought I had this last book polished to within an inch of its life, one of my requested fulls catches the attention of an agent, who offers me representation. This just happened on Thursday, so I'm still over the moon about it. But the point I'm getting to is that now she has some revisions for me. So the process begins all over again. But that's okay. Especially this time. Hee hee. 8^)
Karen, CONGRATULATIONS! What a wonderful way to launch back into this crazy process, isn't the next edit much easier to face with an agent on your side? That's what happened to me with my agent, now an editor, hopefully next time's the charm: contract. :) Thanks for sharing, Karen and keep me posted!
ReplyDeleteKaren, congrats on the agent offer!
ReplyDeleteMost of my published work is co-written. That makes revising and editing a process that happens as we send the file back and forth. So I rarely face the need to go back and do a whole book except as a double-check kind of thing.
Also, while we don't do strict outlines, we do spend a lot of time plotting. So that helps. And the time we spend plotting also helps us nail our characterization.
~Will
www.willbelegon.com
hmm, my revision zone. I revise as I write. Then when I'm ready to write the ending I go back and do it all over again to make sure I have the flow.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing Twist I had to revise my entire world since my editor forgot to mention I couldn't use vampires. And the vampires were my bad guys. Yes, an editor almost died horribly that day since I was halfway through the book. But it all came out better in the end, plus I got points for originality.
Will,
ReplyDeleteIt's really cool to have a co-writer perspective, it does help a lot to have more than one set of eyes, thanks for sharing.
Cindy,
Woah, I couldn't revise as I write. I actually don't think I would finish a book because I get too cyclical. I have to push myself forward. I admire that you 'do' as you go. LOL I didn't know that about TWIST, what a cool insight. I had an editor for Dark Nest who really pushed me towards more originality, and I value that so much. (I just started Twist, btw, and really enjoying it so far.)