Kaycee Chronicles

Ahh, the art of rewriting. I’m not so much a fan of it, but when it has to be done, it has to be done. It’s been mentioned more than once to me, that my hero ( in the first three chapters) is an asshole.

Well, of course that has to be changed. He’s an Alpha, not a jerk. So after work today I wrote out a new outline for my first three chapters in which I’ve rearranged the scenes and their content around. I’ve changed up the dialogue and the reactions.

I want Sam to be considered as a caring Alpha, he’ll do what he needs to, to complete his job, but he won’t stoop down to the level of harassment, which is what he was originally doing and which was not my intention.

The good news: I think the first chapters will be much stronger for it and I’m actually excited about making my story better which outweighs my dislike of rewriting and editing.

The bad news: It’s a little time consuming because instead of being able to move forward on my edits tonight like I wanted, I have spent all day taking care of the rewrite.

The good news: Once it’s done, I don’t think I’ll have to do another rewrite, rather just revisions and editing.

The bad news: I feel pressed for time even more now because although I still have a month until the Golden Heart deadline, but time flies and I’ve already been at this a week and haven’t gotten past chapter three revisions. 

Stay tuned as I keep you posted on my Golden Heart Journey!

Until next time,

Kaycee

Well,
I’ve done just about all I can for the night. I’m officially exhausted and off to bed, but wanted to let you all know that Day 2 of my Golden Heart Journey was another success. I read 3 lectures from Margie Lawson’s ECE course, fixed the -ing’s out of chapter two. 
and chatted with my various CP’s about ways to better pursue my revision Hell so that I may enter my MS into the Golden Heart as the very best it can be. So another productive day. Who knows? Maybe I’m getting good at this time management thing. God knows I’ll forever struggle with organization, but Project: Get Organized is well under way for both my home and work life and I’m going to try my hardest to get Project: Stay Organized to be a success.
It’s hard though, I won’t lie. My brains so flighty and spontaneous half the time that I always forget what I’m doing. If I can stay organized and keep my time managed well, then I shouldn’t have a problem meeting the Golden Heart deadline.
I shouldn’t and I hope.

Okay, so Sunday night I entered myself into the Golden Heart. I was super excited and nervous, but I though what the hell? I was already a finalist in the Maggie’s why not go for something even bigger?

Then I received a critique of my chapter one. Now mind you, this chapter one was different than the finalist chapter one because I’d changed some things around. Everything I thought I knew or didn’t know was thrown out the window and I was cast face first into a pile of mud as I struggled to figure out the truth behind one of the so-called “writing rules”

All day yesterday I drove myself crazy over the simple part of a word. -ING. Ugh. What do I do, I thought, because now I have half the people critiquing my work saying to use -ing to help vary my sentence structure and the other half telling me not to.

Not Fun!

Thanks to my WONDEFUL writing groups, I was able to get to the bottom of the “rule” and figure out that it’s okay to use -ing words in your story, just be careful how you use them and use them sparingly because you don’t want too much repetition. I think the “everything in moderation” rule comes into play with just about every writing rule I’ve come across.

So I grabbed out the copy of my old version of the story, used a friends critique and tightened that chapter 1 back to where it should be at least for now. Thank God for that!

I don’t think I would survive if I didn’t have all these wonderful fellow writers supporting me!

So that was Day 1 of my Golden Heart Journey. I’ll now be subsequently fixing chapter 2-5 to fix the whole -ing issue and then will be polishing the entire manuscript until the end of November when I have to submit my entry. Wish me luck!

Until Next Time,

Kaycee

Alright everyone,

Starting tomorrow I will be conducting a series on once to twice weekly blog posts concerning my entry into the Golden Heart and my subsequent journey from there. I’ll talk about any crisis’ I might have, any joyous moments, and I hope to start a guest blog list of former Golden Heart Entrants, Finalists, and Winners, so stay tuned because I’m sure there will be tons to enjoy. 

Until Next Time,

Kaycee

I’m so excited to say that the launch of the new KayceeKacer.com is now official and I LOVE it. I couldn’t be happier and want to thank Jaxadora Design for implementing this wonderful and easy to use site for me! Now I feel like I have something professional for editors and agents and all of my other writing contacts to look at and it makes me feel more like a professional writer. 

In other news, in case you haven’t checked the news and updates section of my site- To Catch a Thief received Honorable Mention in the 2009 Maggie Award of Excellence for Unpublished Authors. Also, I’ve, as of today, entered my manuscript into the Golden Heart (the equivalent of the RITA for unpublished authors) so I’m scrambling to get my entire manuscript edited and ready to go for the December 2 deadline. Wish me luck! I’m off to go edit my novel

Until next time,

Kaycee