% Completed: 100%

I’m done with Nine second draft. It took much longer than I expected, but I’m happy with it so far. I’m already bursting with more ideas and new twists to add to the story. I’m even thinking about rewriting the opening to make it not only more dramatic, but to put the heroine in a very difficult position of being blamed for something she didn’t do. I think it’s going to give more of emotional resonance early on. Nine’s a very challenging project for me because there are so many threads and I’m working with a lot of characters and multiple 3rd person POVs, and I want each of them to sound unique and really reflect the POV character’s personality and attitude. Besides, it’s the first project of mine to have elements of science fiction (futuristic setting) and there’s a lot to be fleshed out. And I’m much more aware of the overall themes and structure of the story. Quite an interesting development because I wasn’t this conscious of everything when working on The Last Slayer.

But the thing that makes it so challenging is that I’m trying to improve on all aspects of storytelling techniques I learned from writing The Last Slayer and add several new ones to my toolbox. That way Nine will be so much better than The Last Slayer.

BTW — I got the full request for Carnal Secrets from Harlequin Presents!!!! Yay! I was debating whether or not to follow-up on the partial because it’s been over four months, but I didn’t because I figured I’d wait some more. I’m reading it over one more time before mailing it to UK.

I got a rejection slip on May 2. I’m not upset. Not happy either, but not upset, mad, or god forbid, feel the need to binge on excessive sugar and fat.

I sent the baby out again to another editor. Here’s the thing. I can’t control rejection slips. They’re just a part of publishing game. But I can control how I react to them. And there are so many options. I can let the rejection slip control me, make me doubt my choices and writing. Or I can shrug it off and focus on writing well…writing better.

Because that’s all I can do. I can focus on things I can control or go insane thinking about things I can’t control. Not everyone’s going to love my writing. I can’t control that, period. I know people who can’t read Nora or King. Should that drive Nora and King crazy? Nope. They just do what they need to do.

Seriously once I learned not to let rejection slips control me or dictate my worth as a writer, I became more productive and happier. I hope more people can do it so that they can be happier and more relaxed.

So here I am. The year’s 25% over, and I feel like I don’t have anything to show for. I don’t even know why, but the full ms submission on March 1 doesn’t even seem to count. I want something new to submit.

So here’s the game plan.

April:

• Finish Nine 1st Draft.
• Outline Carnal Illusions.

May:

• Polish and tighten The Last Slayer.
• Revise Carnal Illusions Outline.
• Start Carnal Illusions 1st Draft.

June:

• Start revising Nine.
• Finish Carnal Illusions 1st Draft.
• Finalize The Last Slayer.
• Query agents.

Also I’m hoping to hear something back from Sil Desire re: full ms under consideration in June. So it’ll be nice to have a short category 1st draft finished.

I got the delivery confirmation post card from Sil Desire that they got my ms. They also indicated that it would take about three months to respond. I’m probably not going to bother them until the end of July if that.

*Keeping my fingers crossed*

pages: 216 / 216 (100%)

Yay! Finally I finished revising Carnal Secrets. I just mailed the full to Silhouette Desire and feel relieved and happy. The post office said I could use the regular airmail and pay about $14 or use the economy airmail (which takes about 2 weeks) and pay about $8. Since I’m a poor starving writer I chose the latter. I don’t think that one week will make any difference. And now that I said it, it probably will make a difference. Ha!

It’s amazing how when I was working on it, it felt like the project will never end. But now that it’s done, I feel a little sad but proud. I think that Carnal Secrets is the strongest short category story I’ve written so far, and I really like the characters and plot. I hope SD loves it as much as I do.

Special thanks to Chris for being my faithful beta-reader. Now I need to go work on my new projects.

pages: 195 / 195

Finally, the green draft is more or less done although I need to read it over once more and flesh out a couple of scenes toward the end. Feeling pretty good about this.

I just got the SASE from Silhouette Books. They want to see the complete manuscript!!!!! So as soon as I’m done with my revision, Carnal Secrets will have some place to go.

I’m planning to mail it by the end of January at the latest. Of course this means I’ll be working hard over Christmas. :working: :whip: :working: :whip: :working: :whip:

Second Draft: 193 / 193 (100%)

Since October 17 of this year, I finished the first draft of Carnal Secrets and did a big revision on it. I think the plot is fine, but a lot of things needed to be fine-tuned and cut and rewritten. I’ve been tinkering with about 14 pages per day during the revision phase, and I must say, I feel very tired but happy that I met my goal.

I’m handing this draft over to my trusty beta-reader later today.

Now I’m going to take a short break and turn my attention to The Last Slayer.

First Draft: 194 / 194 (100%)

Second Draft: 81 / 190 (43%)

I went through 85 pages of the first draft and cut four and kept the rest since Monday November 6. That’s about 17 pages of revision per day.

I know some writers believe in taking a week or two off between each draft, but I think that for me doing drafts back to back without any time off works the best. I was able to see all the repetitions (because my writing’s still fresh in my mind that I remember what I reused in the latter part of the draft), etc. Also I’m reading some of the lines out to make sure.

Believe it or not, I feel like I don’t have enough time to finish this. I’m hoping that I get done with this before MJ responds to my query letter. A girl can hope, right?

I have no idea why but for some reason listening to “Wonda Why They Call U B****” by 2Pac is making my revision juice flowing.

And you know I’m working on a sensual short category romance novel. OMG…

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