Skip to main content

#34 Daily Writing Journal - Facing the truth about editing, Writing & Editing Courses, my urban lit African American romance - Leyton and Angelica,

Stressed: Facing the truth about editing

Photo by Nathan Cowley from Pexels


I finally accepted my editing was going nowhere. I was slow and I could not see the end of it. I just didn't know how to approach it - I had no structure. Sure, I've completed the first Act but I still wasn't sure how to measure. I was at the end of my titter. At the end. Stressed, overeating and frustrated. I just couldn't get it together so I decided needed to take action. I also wanted to complete the book by a certain time  so I could publish and make good an implicit promise to my readers.

Desperation: The search for a writing and editing course

Photo by Nick Demou from Pexels

In desperation, I went looking for a course. I had done an editing course before -  Online Edit and Pitch your novel - from Curtis Brown Creative but to be honest I found the editing part to be an money grab. It's worth doing for the Pitching part but the Editing part you can get in any good book. So it was bloody useless, and worse thing, Yes, it's fair cheaper than their select courses - even a lot cheaper since I took it because they have removed some 'services' but only worth it for the pitching.

So I looked at other courses. The most expensive was Cornerstone's online editing course, great course but at £1,800 about £2,376 I wasn't sure. But another  caveat was that it was 18 weeks and it probably works on a workshopping model. I don't think I can do online-workshopping for that amount of time. I would still love to do it but not for this novel.

The second course was Self-Edit Your Novel course run by Jericho Writers. I've been eyeing this course up for years and it's also on my wish list. At £595/$755 it was within my price range. The timeline was about 6 weeks. Yes, it worked on a workshopping model too, but it's only 6 weeks, and third of the time and price of Cornerstone. However I was too late by a week (planning is good) and next enrolment was in March.

Then I found The Novelry which gave a flat set of PDFs for £95 which seemed good value. However the course outline was in a moving image and there was mention of an offer of 12 personal tutored sessions the price of that wasn't highlighted. Saying that, I'm eyeing up the retreats so I may go for the Bridgeport one later on in the year depending on my shedule. However lack of pricing of the personal support made me pass.

Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel. I've been eyeing up this course for years. Years. I first found it about five - six years ago when I wanted to edit my first novel attempt. I read a few reviews they were all favourable but I parked that idea. Then when I wanted to do the course with my second novel, I think the course was on hold. I'm not sure if she was ill or redeveloping it. Then I tried again but it was a limited number each session. Finally this time, I just decided to take the hit.  No workshopping though the site is there. I've also got a couple of her ebooks in the depths of my kindle, so with Holly, I  trust her brand and I know what I'm getting.  I'm paying in $77 instalments. It's a five mouth course so a lot longer than Cornerstone but I don't need to workshop. It's cheaper and with Holly Lisle, I kinda of know what I'm paying for, so I will get something out of it. I've watched this course for years and it had increased by about $100 or so. Her course is targeted at Sci-fi and fantasy writer but writing is writing.

I'll keep you updated.

My urban lit African American romance - Leyton and Angelica - potential finish and publication date.


I'm looking at a publication date of July or August. See? Holly's course is already working. And I plan to work an hour a day.

Yay! Let's hope it goes well.



-----------------------------------------------------------
 Check out Bigga Day's books on

Smashwords.com
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bigga
Apple iBooks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bigga-day/id595585425?mt=11
Barnes and Nobles
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/bigga-day
Kobo
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Search?query=Bigga%20Day&fcsearchfield=Author
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Up Date on Happenings: Newly Single & 17% pay raise.

Hey Everyone, So update since my last entry. Well I had a brief fling with Mr Sexy Guy and decided he wasn't the one for me. He was cool but I learned the difference between lust, chemistry and personality. It just didn't tango for me. I'm still grossly overweight, well, fat. I don't think there is anything wrong with being called fat. I am fat. I need to lose weight but that means getting organised and stop eating delicious food. Then again my knees are hurting me and joints feel the ache. I also haven't been to the gym in three months despite paying for it. But when I do, I normally go for the sauna, hot tub and   steam room session. I've thought of cancelling the exorbitant membership but in the climate apart from bills it's the one thing that is just for me...that when I use it. Work is fine, managed to get a 17% pay raise. A big thanks to my boss who also pushed for it. It's good to work for people who support you in that matter. I think tha
Post a Comment
Read more

HAPPY NEW YEAR - LET THE GOALS ROLL

Hello all. Happy New Year! So last year was awesome for me because I managed to achieve one goal. The biggest goal which was to get a new job. And that came with financial reward as well. Yay! It was hard, challenging, horrible. I hate change but I had to get out of the rut I was in. Dudes, I was desperate to move. So I dug deep, did my interview practice, attended a number of interviews and hit one. Yay. Now longer gaming. I didn't need the escapism with my new positive work environment. I also abandoned the iPhone family and went Android. To cut a long story short, I got bought an iPhone 8 but it was faulty - however Apple weren't transparent about their return policy - ALWAYS ASK ABOUT RETURN POLICY. Nor did they believe the phone was faulty. It was. Anyway I was so disgusted the arrogance of the 'apple people', I decided instead of getting a replacement to spend my money elsewhere. I'm still part of the Apple family. But the Apple Store sales assist
1 comment
Read more

Goals - one thing at a time - weekly or less frequent blog. Yoga was HARD! Still on track with eating plan,

Despites all my good words, I am slipping back into old bad habits and overloading myself with things to do. Distractions. Everything is important. So I've decided to get tough with myself and focus on my major goal. The one that will be most beneficial to me and a causality of that will be writing this blog daily or near daily. So I'm going to be focusing on my major goal and push myself to focus and I think all the other activities, and I mean a lot are diluting from the process. This means getting rid of non-value adding activities. Oh dear, I sound rather corporate. My week so far. If Pilate nearly killed me, then in Yoga was the firing line. OMG! What is it with these gym classes being so dynamic! When I mean dynamic I mean break-into-a-sweat dynamic. I'd never hadn't had such a difficult class - obviously I was the largest. Okay - let's go fat-shaming- don't you just love that word? I was the fattest by a long stretch. And the unfittest. My body was ou
Post a Comment
Read more