Taking a Break when Writing

It's later than I usually stay up on a week day, and especially a Monday at that. But I just had to share my small victory for tonight. 

I took a break from writing yesterday (Sunday). After realizing on Saturday evening that there were some flaws with the magic system in Clara and Claire I spent a lot of time thinking. So much time that I didn't feel very accomplished on Saturday night. What should have been a 6-8 hour period of free writing time was maybe 2-3 at best because of my concerns. I spent most of my time scribbling ideas and questions into my notebook. And I have to admit it made me feel defeated in a way. A book where everyone in it has magic can't exactly make it if it has an issue with how the people use magic. 

So come Sunday night I took a break. I didn't even look back into my journal. I spent the night relaxing and catching up on sleep to start another week.

And then tonight I decided to jump back into the action. It's been a long day, but I decided I had nothing to lose. And honestly when I know I've skipped a night of writing I feel guilty and want to write again. So I did. And I did it all without my notebook full of questions and ideas about the magic system. Instead I went to Pinterest for inspiration. A lot of my inspiration comes from there --the images help me piece together my own ideas in my head. And once I fueled up on inspiration I dove back into writing again. I finished the chapter that I couldn't finish Saturday night and reached 30k words in total for the rewrite. And 30k out of 82k I can't complain about --keep in mind these numbers are approximate; the first draft was 82,719 but it's easy to just round it to 82k.

So even though right now it's almost midnight and I'm still awake, I just had to share while I'm in the moment. Now that I'm done writing for the moment I wanted to share this because I've seen a lot of writers admitting their defeats lately. And to some this might seem like a small victory, but writing is made up of a bunch of small victories. Being able to jump back into writing tonight like nothing changed reconfirmed yet again that this novel means so much to me. And that this story is important; my characters are dying to tell it and aren't afraid to fill my head with their voices. Each time I get further in the rewrite I'm that much more excited to share this book once it releases. 

I think these breaks in writing are important. They're not something I always enjoy, but afterwards it allows me to return to my writing with a open mind. It stops me from being overwhelmed and clouded with too many ideas or questions. It helps me stop analyzing my work so much that it takes the fun out of it. Tonight I just wrote with inspiration and changed up the scene and feeling of the chapter along with it.

Since it's late, I'm going to post my writing progress on social media and head to bed. In the meantime, let me know how you take breaks when you're writing. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

Lindsey Richardson

May: New goals

I love new months, and I'm so excited that May is here! I started rewriting Clara and Claire at the end of April, and my goals for this month are important to finishing that process. This month is all about finishing rewriting. As I've mentioned before, I'm going on vacation at the start of June. So I would love to go away, knowing that my book is in the hands of beta readers! In order to ensure that happens I made myself a schedule in hopes of staying on track.

As I write this post I am 21k into rewriting the book. I have mentioned changes happening in the book, and they are very noticeable ones. During the break I took after editing I really worked out plot holes and the world building for the story. I added in a new chapter, and tonight for instance I changed the beginning scene of chapter seven (which is now chapter eight because of the new one I added in). The great part about rewriting is I can tell the book has changed immensely for the better, and this is the version I can be proud of. This is the version I want to share with my beta readers. This is something I can really work with if after this still more needs to be changed. 

Like I mentioned at the beginning of starting this book, I never want to rush myself through this process. I've rushed in the past, and it's only lead to pain and nightmares. So this time around I'm not going to be too harsh on myself if say by the start of June I'm near done but not complete. I know this is a long process, but I also feel like I'm making great progress with how far I've come already. I am really optimistic and hopeful this can be done in May. Especially since I'm not changing every single thing in the book. Adding in a new scene or altering something here and there is nothing in comparison of if I had to change the whole book from beginning to start. I just want to make sure now with rewriting that Clara's voice stays consistent the whole way through. Now that I am more familiar with her, her narration has also improved. But hey, that's just my opinion. I guess we'll really know once it's left up to the beta readers to decide.

If everything goes according to plan --and believe me, I'm determined -- I will let interested beta readers know. I'll probably send out a definite invitation by the last week of May (or second to last). By then I should be able to tell if I'm going to make it to my deadline.

Thanks so much to everyone for being so patient while I work on this book. If you've already finished the Magicians series, I'm sorry to keep you waiting for this next book. But believe me so much is going into it, and I'm really eager to finish it with the deadlines and goals I've set in place. As always I'll keep updating my social media with progress I make as I go.

But for now, I need to catch up on sleep.

Good night!

Lindsey Richardson.

Rewrite in progress!

Yesterday and today have been great days for rewriting. I'm already 9k through the book in terms of rewriting everything. To be clear not absolutely everything is being rewritten and changed. A lot of this is so I'm able to add in new material, strengthen scenes, build character relationships, and etc. Not everything needs changing, which is why I'm going through this a lot faster than when I actually wrote the first draft. I like being able to write up each chapter all over again because I know exactly what's going on now. It lets me become more familiar with the characters and the story. It's not like a couple months ago when I was wondering "wait... what chapter did that happen in?" And yesterday I added in two whole new chapters. So a lot of exciting and great changes are happening to the book as we speak.

As far as the rewriting process goes, I love it! I've been taking a lot of pictures of my progress and sharing them all over social media. I'm thinking at the end of this book once it releases I can make an album of where I started and ended with this journey. It'd be great to bring along to book signings. 

What's been getting me through these past couple days? Honestly after taking a break and then getting back into the work I love I feel fully prepared. I always keep my journal and first draft beside me at all times while I'm rewriting. I have a bunch of notes of what needs to be added, changed, and any questions I have. There's so much happening, but I love it. I'm using Ommwriter as my primary writing software. I type up everything on there while listening to their calming music, and then at the end of every day I copy it and paste it into my word document. 

Once again I'm using Wordly (the writing app I've talked about before) to track my progress. I just started using it today. I realized I wanted a way to track how long I'm writing and how much I get done. So I made a new writing project and called it "Clara and Claire Rewriting," and now I can see how close I am to reaching the 82k total at the end. 

Once I'm done with this rewriting process I'm thinking it's going to be time to call in the beta readers. You know who you are! And if you're interested there's still plenty of time to let me know. I go on vacation in June --so if May goes really smoothly maybe I'll finish rewriting that month and in June send it off to beta readers. That way I can come back from vacation and hear your thoughts!

In other news...

If you follow me on my other social media, the cat's out of the bag in terms of my most recent announcement. I've decided on October as my set deadline/goal of when I want to be done with Clara and Claire. And I mean done with everything. October gives me plenty of time to get everything finished and ready for publication. And it also means that by November I'll be able to start on my next big project (via NaNo). It's a secret right now --and I won't reveal it until the release of Clara and Claire --but I definitely want to be done before November. Last year I couldn't really participate in NaNoWriMo because of our honeymoon (and hey I'm not complaining). But this year I really want to be joining in with my fellow writers so we can go through the madness together. 

It's been a crazy Wednesday, and this is my last task before heading to bed. I've updated some of the pages on the blog that I noticed hadn't been updated recently (my bad entirely). And I'll be coming back again later on this week to update you with more. 

Lindsey Richardson

Part 2: Rewriting

I took a longer than intended break after I finished editing Clara and Claire. And today I finally got back into working on my book again. Despite that long break, I did spend a lot of time thinking about plot holes and different aspects of the book I needed to work on. Now I'm finally working on it again, and I'm calling this second part of the process "rewriting" --though obviously I'm not rewriting everything. This is the time for me to rewriting scenes that weren't strong enough, add on to scenes that were missing something, and get rid of parts in the story that just don't belong. It's the time for me to add in character backstory and relationships that might not have developed in the way I wanted them to. As I told you before there's still a lot of work to get through before I'm done. Today I went through all of chapter one again, despite before thinking I was entirely happy with it. But turns out I wasn't, and today it became a better and stronger chapter.
This journey has taught me so much. I might not have an editor, but I'm relying on myself (for now --later on I'll hopefully have beta readers) to get through this. And I'm not putting myself on a strict deadline because I want to do this right. This story is so important to me, and I want it to be a masterpiece. I want that breakthrough I had in September of 2015 --where I realized this is the book I want to dedicate myself to--to be more than just a breakthrough. I want this to be more than just "another book." I want this one to be my breakthrough novel that can reach more people all around the world. It's a big goal, it's a scary one... and sometimes I think it's downright impossible. But I'm being honest with you because that's what I want. I set big goals for myself as an author because I want to impact people's lives. I want Clara's story to reach people's hearts and souls.
I remember how many times I rewrote and edited Cursed With Power. And I know since my very first book I've learned so much. But for this story to be bigger than just "another story" it does need a lot of my time. It needs a lot of focus and patience and determination. Today I realized I'm glad I took that break after editing because now I know the book better than when I finished writing the first draft. I know the characters, and I know how I want to improve it and make it stronger than that first draft. Right now I can't say just how big of a change the rewriting process will be. If I had to guess I'd say a huge change because there's some many things I've expanded on and altered all for the better of a stronger more solid story.

Today I wanted to take the time to tell you where I am with this book. Because in the end I want to bring you the very best piece of work I can. And I'm willing to dedicate however much time that takes. No excuses, no shortcuts --just hard work and determination. Some days I might fall, but the next day I'll get right back up and start again. Some days I might not do as much, but the next day I'll put in double the work.
This is an even harder journey because I know where I want to go with this novel. Now it's up to me to make it happen. And I hope you'll join me for the ride.
Lindsey Richardson

Editing: Complete

This evening I finally did what I said I was going to do: finished editing. It has been a long process, but now at least a huge part of the process is complete. I've been wanting to talk about what's next in terms of what I need to do with this book to release it. 

Step 1 was editing the entire first draft (what you see in the picture above). I always have to have a hardcopy of my book to edit before I can even touch the copy on my computer. So sadly none of the edits are included in the file yet. Maybe I choose a slow way of getting it done, but this is the process I've always gone through with all of my books. (And since I don't have an actual editor it's solely me working on this).

The next part of this process is applying edits, and more importantly rewriting and adding content. Answers to questions, backstories that were missed out on, relationships that didn't develop properly, world building, and making sure the magic system is solid. So while I'm done editing, it still feels like I have a lot left to do. And I do --the first draft has a lot that needs to be added to it. But it's all totally manageable. It's after rewriting and adding content that I believe I'll be calling out once again for beta readers --some of which have already contacted me. More about that will be announced on my social media, and I'll likely be posting a sign up form as well.

As for when Clara and Claire will be released, I again cannot say. I have no idea --I'm working with vague timelines here. Looking at the calendar presently, I want to see if I can have everything ready for beta readers by June or July. That doesn't leave me with a lot of time, but that's the goal I want to work towards. If June or July isn't plausible then I can always add on another month or two --no big deal. I rather take my time with it than worry about rushing and putting too strict of deadlines on the work ahead of me.

Now after rewriting and beta readers, I need to work on interior formatting. The part I probably dread the most if we're being honest here. Paperback and ebook formatting needs to be completed, and I have't bothered too much with it (like usual) because I just wanted to focus on the story for right now. (I'll regret that later on this year.) I'm thinking of hiring someone to design the interior of my book to look fancy --I already have someone in mind so it's just a matter of having it all ready and (obviously) having the money for it.

There's a lot to look forward to and work towards --beta readers I'm especially excited for. I haven't shared this book with anyone. I've shared quotes and ideas, but I haven't revealed a single page to anyone. I can't wait to finally receive feedback, but there's definitely a lot of work remaining until I reach that point.

In the meantime I'm eager to start adding in new material and rewriting weaker scenes. As always I'll be uploading my progress via social media and (trying) to post more on here too. I realize I've been slacking in my blogger game this month --I end up getting too busy especially since I work on my book primarily at night (and then have no energy or time to blog). But I promise there's much more to share in these coming months, and now with editing out of the way it's time to get back to what I love the most: writing.

Coffee and motivation is welcome!

Lindsey Richardson

How I found THE novel

Tonight as I finished edits I had a moment of realization. This realization wasn't anything new exactly, but it's been a feeling of relief I've been having for months now. When I finished Bloodline Inheritance I was afraid to jump into something entirely new. Even as I started writing (and then rewriting) the first chapter of Clara and Claire I had my doubts. So what changed? It's a weird thing to explain, especially to people who aren't writers, just how I ended up writing this story. But Clara's story was in my head for so long while I finished Bloodline Inheritance that I couldn't just give up on it when the going got tough.

There are so many potential ideas that never make it to the novel stage. For one reason or another the author decides the story just isn't strong enough, and it gets shelved. Years ago when Inkpop still existed I had endless amounts of novels that were never finished. Any idea I had I would just run with it until it died. Turns out that isn't such a great strategy. People will tell you a variety of ways you can find the next novel that you want to write. I remember doing those Google searches myself when I started out with Clara and Claire and had my doubts. But it turns out no one can really give you the answer you want. No one can tell you what the next book you should write is going to be because they don't know the ideas that have been flooding your head. They don't know what kind of creativity you're working with. They don't know you or your novels.

The novel you've been wanting to write is inside of you like a locked away memory. And the most truthful advice I could give you about finding it is to really look further into who you are as a writer and a person. Decide what kind of stories you want to tell, and you'll realize the novel you've been waiting for was locked inside your head all along. Sounds easy, doesn't it? (If only that were the case...)

From my own personal experience, I can say I've known for months now that Clara and Claire is the correct novel for me. And this editing process only strengthens that confidence. I always worried that nothing would be as close to my heart as the Magicians series --I mean those are the novels that started my career as an author. At the same time, though, Clara and Claire has its own special place in my heart. I find myself thinking about it at all hours of the day and night. When I'm not working on the book it haunts me to think I'm wasting precious time (even though I know I still have to manage with my daily lifestyle outside of writing).

If there's anything I wish I had done more with Cursed With Power, it's that I wish I had shared more of the journey to publication. I talked a lot about it, but I never really documented in the way that I am trying to do with my newest novel. This book I want to try to show every aspect of the process, so at the end of it everyone from my friends and family to readers to complete strangers can gain more insight into what I do. Sometimes it's hard to explain what we do as writers, but I'm hoping that by sharing pictures as I go through the motions it can shed more light into the work that we do. And even if it doesn't for everyone, I know it will have a huge significance for me to look back on once the book is published and be able to say "this is where I started, and this is where it is today."

My novel didn't come to me in a dream or through a writing prompt. I found my novel because I knew it would challenge me to step outside of my comfort zone. To get scared sometimes, to be uncertain, but most of all to have fun with something entirely new.

Lindsey Richardson

Writing a Fictional World

I've always wanted to write a novel with a fictional world. So many authors do it nowadays, and it gives you so much more room for creativity. There were fictional parts of worlds inside of the Magicians series, but when in came to Transylvania I tried to stick to realistic and accurate to history. When it came to Belsgar the magicians weren't there constantly, so we never really knew what it would have been like to live there.
Now with Clara and Claire I'm finally taking my jump into the fictional world building process. It's scary at times, and I'll admit it's the hardest part of this novel so far. Last night I dedicated hours to world building instead of any editing. At the end of the day I know the structure for Clara's world needs to be strong enough for the rest of the story to hold up. And I find myself reading blogs and advice tips about how to write about a fictional place. The hardest part is remembering that while you do need it to make sense, you're allowed to have fun with it.
What drew me to this new adventure in a fictional place? It just felt like the right way to tell Clara's story. I tried to place the novel in a modern day setting and it did not feel right. I played around with a lot of different ideas, but with Clara being a mage I decided this new magical system and magical beings can live in a world of their own.
Without giving away too much of the story, I'm working with a magical world that lives spread out amongst three islands. Islands are interesting too; I've never worked this closely with islands before. The whole idea of the the ocean separate three different islands always fascinates me because... well, I haven't done it before, so it leads to other questions of transportation and etc. While plucking my brains, I am having fun with world building. I can imagine the islands in my head, and it keeps my brain busy at night (and at work). Ideas are constantly coming to me, and at the end of this I know Clara's world will be something unique and different. She definitely isn't making it easy for me, but I would not want to have it any other way. Writing about a fictional world definitely is not an easy task, but they say to write what you're afraid of. And this is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone --but in a good way.
Once I'm finished with the novel I will feel more comfortable about giving advice on fictional worlds. For now I want to get ahold of Clara's world and make it stronger and more stable. When I'm finally finished and satisfied I'll be going more into detail in regards with my experience and any suggestions I can offer to other authors. All I can say for now is if you've ever considered writing it it's definitely worth the challenge.

As for other news, a new month has started! March is here, and it seems like somehow we flew through January and February. Usually I write an individual post about the beginning of the month, but I decided to incorporate it with this post. January was a huge month for me, since I finished writing Clara and Claire. February was the start of the editing process, but as I realized last month there is a lot of work to be done on my first draft. A lot of people ask me on a daily basis when the book will be done and ready to release. And at this point in the process I have no idea. All I know is I'm working hard without overworking myself (considering I also work full time outside of writing). I have so many ideas and ways to improve my first draft of this novel. It won't be easy work, but the best kind of work never is done in a day. Or even in a month for that matter, so I'm not angry at myself for not finishing edits in February. So this month I'll continue on with edits, and as always keep you updated with the process.
Lindsey Richardson

Clara and Claire Book Cover

I am beyond thrilled about the cover for Clara and Claire. I received the cover files on Thursday, but unfortunately I just did not have the time to write up the post about it. I love having the book cover done and ready ahead of time. It's one less stress factor I have to worry about in the preparation for publication. So it feels really good to know it's ready whenever the book is. It also gives me a lot to work with because now my book finally has a "face." It's no longer just a book that I wonder what it will look like once it's in print. Now I know how the cover looks, and if that isn't a motivation boost I don't know what is.
And in case you forgot who's designing the cover...

Alivia Anders, who designed the cover for Thicker Than Blood, has designed the cover for Clara and Claire. Out of all the covers from the Magicians series TTB is still my favorite, and now I have the cover of Clara and Claire --which might be my new favorite (I just can't decide yet because I love them both so much). So rest assured knowing that Alivia has done it again, and I can't wait for her and I to share the beauty come cover reveal day.

As for the cover reveal, I wanted to explain it again for anyone who hasn't been a part of past cover reveals. I don't officially share the cover for my books until I've decided on a release date. Once I know when I'm releasing the book I'll set up everything for the cover reveal. And as always I'll be asking for your help to share the cover around on social media. I will share more details about how you can participate and the official date for the cover reveal at a later time. 

The hardest part about this process is hiding the cover and keeping it to myself for the time being. And as hard as it is, I know the wait is worth it --and I definitely want to give everyone enough time so that they can participate in the events of the cover reveal. While I can't share with you what the cover looks like, I will admit I think it looks entirely different from all of my previous ones. 

I'm really excited for the cover reveal (whenever that will be), but in the meantime I have complete determination to finish edits. The sooner I finish and feel satisfied with the manuscript the sooner I can send it out to beta readers.

In the meantime hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Lindsey Richardson