Insecure Writer's Support Group: Coming down from the NaNoWriMo High

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       I participated in NaNoWriMo last month and was writing book 3 in my Wind Dancer series. I managed to win on day 11. One of the good things about having written the first book in a series is that you’ve already established the rules of your world and the subsequent installments can just get on with the story. I think this is what helped me write so much so quickly…until it all fell apart at approximately day 17.

       I’m a plotter and I thought I had it all worked out before I started writing but it turns out the story completely ran away with me and much of it will have to be scrapped. Which would be fine except that I am one of those writers who hates editing. I could write another 50,000 word story no problems but any kind of editing makes me want to curl up into a ball in the corner. But it has to be done and I don’t want this book to take another four years to write like the last one did.  I have so many loose ends to tie up and my biggest fear is ending it all without a satisfactory resolution.So this month and the next, despite it being the festive season, I will be doing the thing I hate most and kind of loving the process anyway. If you participated in NaNoWrimo what are your plans for your novel? How is everyone else's writing going?

 

A Call to Edit

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged about something that isn't Insecure Writer's Support Group. I want to apologize for my absence and ask that you all be patient with me for a little longer. You see aside from being generally lazy, I've spent the last few months doing Camp NaNoWriMo and also working on the final self edits for my first novel.
        That's what I'm here to talk to you about today. You see I need your help. I'm fast approaching the end of any edits I can do for myself and soon I'm going to have to hand my WIP to a professional. The question is which professional. There are so many editing, cover making and formatting services out there that it gives me a headache just thinking about it. I've trawled through hundreds of web pages trying to get a handle on services vs pricing but nothing seems comparable. Some editors don't even offer the same kinds of edits.
        I'm more than happy to pay for quality but without having used a service before I'm not sure what "quality" actually entails. That's where you guys come in. I know many of you have published before, some of you many times over. Are there any services that you could recommend to me? Bearing in mind that I've written a young adult dystopian novel set in Australia. I'm not even sure at this point whether I would prefer to use an Australian or an international editor so any suggestions you might have would be great. Thanks in advance.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Editing Nightmares

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is going to be a short one because I am stuck in editing hell right now. Oh how I despise editing. If I didn't want to publish so badly I'd throw in the towel. Editing is the fuel that stokes the insecurity fire. Because there is no magic formula which tells you that a book is perfect and your editing is done. At some point I will have to just trust that I've done the best I can. 

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed" - Ernst Hemingway. You said it brother.