Linda Nelson

It’s Sunday already?

I feel like I missed the weekend somehow. If this keeps up I just might miss Christmas too.

Not!

I like Christmas. It has always been one of my favorite holidays and not because I get presents. I’m the giver. I have always loved to find a way, somehow, to surprise my family members with the gifts that I find for them.

I’m also the one who tends to the Christmas stockings, decorates the tree, and dismantles the tree when the holiday is over.

This year we went out and cut our own tree down, a first for me. We did get a really nice tree, one of the nicest trees I have ever had. It is almost 7 feet tall and is wide and full at the bottom. And, we bought it local.

I’ll show you our tree later on this week when I dig out the camera. I tried taking a photo with my cellphone but it doesn’t do the tree justice. So, you’ll all have to wait…

We had our first measurable snowfall yesterday into this morning. I think we had an inch of snow before it turned to freezing rain.

Today it warmed up and all the snow is gone. We will be seeing 50’s for the rest of the week.

NaNo Update:

No, of course I did not make my word count goal for NaNo. I didn’t really try this year. But I did finish the first draft of Road Salt and I am happy with the way the ending came out. It is a little dark and dreary, not like a romance is supposed to be but this is not really a romance even if it does have some romance elements built in to it. This is a story about drug addiction and the downward spiral associated with it.

So far I do not feel it is an entertaining read either. I have a lot of detail that needs to be hashed out during the edit process.

Which leads me to the next topic…

ROW80 Update:

I did make some progress this week. I began the first edit of Road Salt. Two, almost three chapters are done with 1k words added to the wip.

I think I am writing slower due to the more serious nature of the story. I want to get it right and make sure the story line is as credible as possible.

Drug addiction is a serious matter unto its self.

I did something else this week too and I will let you know how it goes. I signed up for an online workshop for YA authors. The topic is about criminal behavior in teens. Hopefully this two week workshop gives me some great tips on completing Road Salt. I have never taken an online course before.

Check the linky for other ROWers and cheer them on too with their works in progress —à
ROW80 Linky List

Oh, and for those of you who are curious about Road Salt you can take a free view of the first draft. It can be found here on Smashwords.com –à
Road Salt – first draft in eBook format of your choice. No I have not uploaded the edits yet. I may do this after the first or second edit. I’m not sure yet.

But if you want to comment on the story you can send them to my email address: lnelson_547@comcast.net

I would love any critic help I can get for this serious YA story, it would be most appreciated. I used to use autonomy but there was too much spam on the site with everyone saying read mine, no read mine and so on. I mean I don’t mind critiquing on someone else’s wip but when they begin begging you to read and star their work and then threaten you if you don’t change something in your own to their liking I have to draw the line.

Isn’t critiquing about giving someone suggestions on how to do it better?

I had one person do that to me too. He said if I didn’t change the way I wrote a certain line right away he was going to give me a one star review. I don’t think that is what critiquing is all about. You don’t threaten a person. That’s not how you make friends. Needless to say I refused to change the sentence to his wording and he did give me the one star. It was all uncalled for.

So I don’t visit Authonomy anymore. Bullying does not work for me.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.

I know I did. This was the first year in a long time that my son has been home for the holiday. It was so good to have him here.

Main Aisle, Macy's 1st Floor, Black Friday — Main Aisle, Macy’s 1st Floor, Black Friday (Photo credit: LarimdaME)

On Thanksgiving night we went out and did the unthinkable and went Black Friday Shopping. What an insane idea that was. I didn’t know that there could be that many people living in the area to fill a store up the way it was that night. I mean everyone was parked everywhere, on the grass, in the road, and up on the highway. Then there wasn’t one single shopping cart to be found in Walmart. People were sitting on them waiting for 10 o’clock to come around so they could turn in their tickets to get their TVs they were waiting for.

I only managed to find three out of nineteen items I had on my list. I should have printed out a map of the store before going. Then I would have known where everything was going to be. Maybe next year, even though Mike said there won’t be a next year. I guess he didn’t have a good time being my personal shopping cart. But he was a good trooper none the less.

ROW80 Update:

This year I did not officially take part in NaNo WriMo. I was too busy struggling to get the first draft done for Road Salt.

So, I am happy to announce folks, the first draft is done. I made it to the end of the story. I even formatted the file for Smashwords and I think it passed the vetting process on its first time around. Now I have to begin the edit process. Hopefully I can have the first edit done by Christmas.

I did not make my end goal for word count on the first draft. One of the problems I have when I write is that I tend to write very tight, almost too tight. When I go back through the story I am sure I will be able to make my end goal after answering the same questions for each chapter.

Who
What
Where
When
How
Why

If I can answer all the above I am sure that there won’t be too many gaps in the story. This is what I did when I did the last edit on Friends of Choice. Just by answering those questions I was able to add another 14k words to the manuscript.

If anyone is interested in being a beta reader for me and giving me some constructive criticism on Road Salt you can view the first draft on Smashwords for free… https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/258513

The more ideas I can get on this story the better. I do know that I need to delve deeper into my characters for this story. That will be what my main focus will be on while I do the first edit.

It really isn’t supposed to be an entertaining read, but if I could make it entertaining that would be all the better.

Stop by to support other Round of Words in 80 Days participants found here on the Linky List of other ROWers