A. Daaé

Now that I've survived the hellscape that is grad school during a pandemic, I'm ready to start working on my new book again! I've already reached the 2nd act, which is always the hardest part to write. Now that the major characters have been introduced and our plot has kicked off, my writing has less direction and less forward momentum. The middle is always the part I have to rewrite the most. I have a midpoint that I'm driving towards, but I just have to let myself play around until I get there. I need to let my writing take me where it wants to go, and then keep the stuff I like and delete the junk later. It'll be an adventure for sure.

I wrote the end.

Does it need editing? Hell yeah. But it's there. It exists. It's done.

I am writing THE chapter, the big ol' 29. It all ends here (and then continues in chapter 30 and the epilogue but you know what I mean).

But this book JUST

WON'T

DIE ALREADY

I am having the hardest time pushing through this. If this is where the cookie crumbles, mine is a mushy mess.

I don't know exactly how this final showdown is going to go, but I have a feeling it's going to work.

TBC

[Edit Day 2]

Okay, so I finally have a working draft of chapter 29. Yay! I realized I needed to add another chapter to make this climax work, so it took me a little while to figure everything out. Chapter 30 is next, and it'll be a little tricky with all the action I have to include. But luckily I wrote a bit by hand last night so I can start by transcribing that to get myself going.

I was really scared of chapter 25, but I can feel it coming together. I'm hoping I don't mess this up because I like what's happening currently.

[Edit] Crappy conclusion is crappy but I did it! And I think it's pretty great. I'll have to brush up the conclusion of course, but I think all of my chapter endings could use some work so I'm not too worried about that right now.

The real exciting part is that this concludes my editing of the currently existing chapters! Now I just have to write the ending...

Scratch that, now I just have to decide how the ending happens...

Okay, okay, I know what I want to happen. I just haven't plotted out the last few chapters yet. I needed to clean up the beginning before I could write a satisfying ending.

Okay, I'm at chapter 16. Yay! This was the point in writing the first draft where I finally figured out what the book was really all about. So, I don't think the chapters after this point will need the same extensive rewrites the previous chapters have. So the editing should be faster from here on out.

Once I get through chapter 16 that is. Because hoo boy, chapter 16 is a beast. It's currently 7,670 words. I might just split it into two chapters, but I have to read it first because truth be told, I don't even know what happens in this chapter.

I'm diving in with my shovel and pick-ax. Wish me luck!

[ETA] Okay, it's been two seconds, I've scrolled through the first section and it's gonna get chopped to bits. Half the crap in there isn't relevant anymore. I can condense this first part so much. This chapter is the midpoint so it's gonna be long, but this will really help shorten it.

[EDIT 2] Okay, I got section one down to 1200 words. I can probably get it down to an even 1k, but I want to move onto the second section for now, which is already 1200 words. Let's go!

[Final edit] Aaaand it's official. They are two separate chapters now. Yeah, that just wasn't going to work.

Chapter 12 is a 5000 word mess and I am not equipped to deal with it. I didn't like this chapter before, and now, with all the changes I've made to previous chapters, I really don't like it. I'm not even sure what I want this chapter to be. I know it has to be something character-driven. Develops a stronger bond between the leads?

Ahhhhhh. I hope I can do this right.

[EDIT] Okay, it's 3000 words now. I can't really say it has a better sense of direction, but I've cut away all the fat. It's like the skeleton of a chapter and I don't have all the bones in the right place yet. Crossing my fingers I can turn this into something.

I pushed my way through the crappiest first draft of chapter 9. But I did it. It's there, and no one can say I didn't try. It's way too long (like over 5000 words long) but that okay because let's be real- half those words are crap and need to go away anyway.

Editing this is one is gonna be fun.

The end of the year is upon us and my room, much like my life, is a mess.

This year alone I read more than 50 books. And I would say at least half of them I own in physical copy. And for the past few months, I haven't been able to add any of these shiny new books to my shelves because there's just not enough room. Yikes.

I have been buying books regularly since I was about 12. That's half my lifetime spent hoarding these dang things. Some of them got to go! Byeeee.

Here they are:

1. The second and third books of the 100 Cupboards series. I actually have all three of these honking books in hardcover. They are huge and I don't even remember what they're about. But I am sentimental so I'm keeping the first one for posterity. The other two can eat it.

2. 13 Little Blue Envelopes - TBD
I don't read YA contemporary anymore and it turns out I'm not as big of a fan of Maureen Johnson as I thought I was. I found her works too late in my teen years. Which I think is a good sign I should chuck it. But it's just such an iconic book from high school. I remember seeing it prominently in every library and that makes me wanna hang on to it.
EDIT: It's going. I have too many other YA contemporary books that I have more of an attachment to to justify keeping this one. Byeee

3. Amelia's War - I think I was reading this book during the senior assembly at the start of my last year of high school. And I was already way to old for it then. It was a cheap library cast-off I'd picked up (and really liked). But I have no need for it anymore. It was already on it's way out when it came into my possession 6 years ago.

4. Come Juneteenth - Another library cast off that I picked up because I liked Amelia's War. An interesting story, one that I remember more clearly than the previous, but still. No need to keep it.

5. Afterschool Charisma - A weird American (possibly?) manga that I picked up while visiting my brother at college. Idk why I bought this over all the other manga available.

6. Etiquette & Espionage - I bought this book during my steampunk phase (which I would prefer to pretend never happened thank you very much). Another book I held onto because I never finished. (But for some reason thought I really liked??) I remember reading the beginning of this book at my doctor's office and then never picking it up again. Man, buying books was hard before I really refined my tastes. (Haha cut forward to 10 years from now when I'll inevitably be tossing all my books from this year).

7. Ever After High Box Set - Idk why I even wanted these. I really liked the designs of the dolls and I love Shannon Hale so it seemed like a good idea at the time. But these are kids' books. Straight up kids' books. And I don't mind the occasional kids' book here and there, but I have no reason for these. Hopefully, Powell's will take 'em.

8. This Savage Song - Why do I do this thing where I'll decide something is my favorite before I've even read it. I spent a year thinking V.E. Schwab was my fave author, bought three of her books, never read one, liked one well enough, and hated the third? Also, this book is about high-schoolers and I just can't read those anymore. I don't need this. I thought I already got rid of it. Why is it still here?

9. With that in mind, let's talk about Alice Hoffman. My senior year of college I finally learned what magical realism was and I dove headlong into Hoffman's works (once again convinced she was my favorite author.) And...here I am two years later with an untouched copy of The Dovekeepers. It's just not gonna get read. I can see that now. Also I don't need to keep Illumination Night. As opposed to most the other books on this list, these books are just too old for me. (Once again, I think this all started because I picked up a used (?) copy of The River King while visiting my brother at college. I still love the River King and the Red Garden though. So those are staying.)

10. How to be Popular - The inner cover of this book is colored in with hi-lighter and marked with my name. I remember the exact day after Christmas that I bought this book at B&N. Or maybe that was the time I accidentally bought Pants on Fire. I can't remember, but I have a lot of memories associated with this book. But I have no reason to keep it. The Mediator series will be my requisite Meg Cabot rep on my shelves.

11. The third and fourth books of the Gallagher Girls series - hoo boy this brings me back. I don't even own the first book of the series. And I never finished them all. I remember starting these books in 8th grade because a friend read them for a book report, and then I borrowed the book from the library when she was done with it. (That same year, like 3 different kids read the last Harry Potter book for their reports and all of them were required to give spoiler warnings. It was wild. In case you're wondering, I read a depressing book about child abuse and delusions for my report. I bought it at Walmart in the adult section while visiting my grandma. I've never been able to pick books suited for my age. (Also, I lent said book to a classmate and she kept it for weeks and gave it back with a coffee stain on the cover...))
Anyway, I do have the second book and I'm keeping it because it was my fave and I read it a million times. I somehow still vaguely remember the plot and kinda wanna re-read it for fun.

12. A Kiss in Time - I bought this because I liked Beastly. I kept it because I liked the cover (the old red black and white one.) Thank you, next.

13. Books 2, 3, & 4 of the Last Apprentice Series - AGAIN with me thinking something is my favorite before I've even finished it. For the longest time I just wanted to have a fave series so I would dive headfirst into anything I moderately enjoyed. I read Revenge of the Witch after a two year long dry spell and loved it. Probably because I was able to finish it in one night at college. During Spring Fest. When I could've been partying (why were you at the book store, girl? Please.) Anyway, I bought the next three books right away. Disliked the second, never finished the third (a Bing business card is still marking my page), and never touched the fourth. Have I learned my lesson yet?

13. Books 2 & 3 of the Maze Runner series - I read the first book with my mom one summer during college. We bought the sequels immediately (I think the third book had just come out) and read them on a car trip. When we'd finished The Death Cure not even two weeks later, I remember my mom saying, "I'm not really sure why we read those." I'll keep the first book, but the rest of the series was a flop for me.

14. Paisley Hanover Acts Out - Another book I have fond memories of. This book has just narrowly avoided other book purges but it won't escape this time. It was nice knowing ya.

15. Secret Life of Bees - I don't remember where I got this book but I think I got it for free. I read it right after moving into Bing and was underwhelmed. Someone else will enjoy it.

16. Shade of Grey - I asked for this book for Christmas one year because I thought the cover looked cool and the premise sounded unique. (Also I thought it was funny that it had such a similar title to that other Shades book...) I remember a sequel being promised for this book, but I still don't think it's come out. Next.

17. Firefight & Calamity - Calamity has been looming over me since the day it was published. I'm getting rid of this book just so it will stop haunting me. And if I'm never going to finish the series, I might as well give away the second book too. I love Steelheart. It was one of the books that got me reading again after my dry spell. But I think that tricked me into thinking I liked this series more than I do. (I'm not generally a series person as it is. I'm content to keep just the first one and remember it as one of my faves.)

18. The Treachery of Beautiful Things - There were 2 books from 2012 that sat on my shelves for years before being read. This was one of them. The other was tossed out in the last book purge. This one survived just because I love fae so much, but I have Cruel Prince now. And Darkest Part of the Forest. And An Enchantment of Ravens. I don't need this taking up space on my shelves.

19. Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy) - Apparently that other book didn't get tossed in a previous purge because here it is! Not getting by this time. I don't care how pretty that cover is, no ma'am.

20. Winter Town - another book I bought just for the cover. The only reason I've kept it so long is because it was the book I was reading the day I moved into my apartment senior year. I finished it that night after unpacking. No idea what happens in the book. I think I tried to get rid of it once before but Powells wouldn't take it. So off to the Goodwill you go, little friend.

21. Geektastic (Stories from the Nerd Herd) - I got this book when I was into that whole nerdfighter thing. Another phase we can all go ahead and pretend never happened. K, thanks, bye!

And that's the last of them! At least for my fiction books. Hopefully, I can find good homes for all of these. I've cleared up a whole shelf and then some, and everything is looking a lot more organized (no more books on top of each other in random order). I still have to make sure it's all more or less alphabetical. But that's that.

The final tally: 31!

What a cathartic exercise.

Merry Christmas!

Well I done did it. I finished the new draft of chapter five. Is it good? No. But I did it.

I think of all the first chapters I've rewritten this one will need the most TLC. But it's there. And it's serviceable. And after a read through or two, I can move on.

okay

OKay.

So it's been like three weeks and chapter four is still a thorn in my side. I think I was having trouble because I was trying to juggle too much content. Originally, I wanted to combine chapters 4 and 5 since there's so little content in 5, but ehhhhh

That ain't gonna work.

Which is for the best. Chapter 4 has a different beginning now which is more fleshed out. Delly's introduction (which used to be tacked on the end of chapter 3) is now a lot better. So I'm saving Artemis' introduction for chapter five (yes I will keep changing between numerals and words fight me). The only thing is I can't figure out how to frame Artemis' introduction / what setting to place it in. So I have to do a little more brainstorming. I know what I want to follow immediately after his introduction, but maybe that has to be altered a little bit to fit this new structure.

As per usual, chapter four will have to be printed out and edited by hand. But holy crap it's at that stage! For reference, when I edit, I get a chapter to the rough place I want it to be in (i.e. all the character interactions, plot developments, revelations, etc. are all locked in) and then I print it out and go ham with a red pen (okay actually the pen is usually blue or black but you get the point. Metaphorical red pen). And then after the hard copy edit, it's all just wordsmithing and stuff! So I am excited! Just trying to get every chapter to that hard copy edit stage.

Luckily, I'll get a little break at chapter 6 (at least in terms of creating new material whole cloth.) The story straightens out a bit there (save for one scene with Iri that I have to add. But I need to check my old notebook to figure out exactly where that goes.) And the chapters that are already written will need some major polishing, but no joke, once I push through this last bit, I'm almost done with the hard stuff. (hahahahahahaha future me is probably laughing her ass off right now. Look at this naive binch.)

But hey, my second act is solid! I just gotta make it there...

Oh yeah, and then finish the ending. But pfft. The ending's not that important, right? (I'm crossing my fingers the ending will be easier to write once I have ironed out the first two acts. I have a lot of the third act written, there are just a few missing puzzle pieces that I'll have to fill in. But we'll blow up that bridge when we get there.)